20 Ghanaian fishermen debut in Irish Gaelic football

Twenty Ghanaian fishermen made their debut in Gaelic football on Saturday thanks to a training session with Co Down GAA club.

The 20 Ghanaian fishermen had the opportunity to play the game after receiving an invitation from Ruth Curran, club secretary of Ardglass GAC.

The Ghanaian citizens have been living and working in the Co Downtown for the past year and through an invitation, they had the chance to play the sport.

Ruth Curran explained how contact was made for the Ghanaians to partake in the game, "The boys arrived in Ardglass just over a year ago and have been fishing and living on their boats since then," she said.

"A local social worker contacted me and said that there are around 30 of them using the one shower and one washing machine.

"So we offered the use of our changing rooms where there are 16 showers that could be used, but that obviously is on hold due to Covid.

"Then we were involved in a Covid response in the local community, which organised food for them.

"Also 'I Assist NI', which is a befriending service for ethnic minorities, has come on board and we got together two weeks ago down at the harbour and the guys brought some African food, which was fantastic.

"Then on Saturday we had them at the club where there was more African food and music and the boys learnt some basic Gaelic football skills.

"They had a bit of a kick about and a training session, it was a fantastic afternoon and they all absolutely loved it.

"We hope that we can get them down again and the senior players are going to come down too.

"It was good craic and they all really seemed to enjoy it."

Gaelic football is an Irish game that is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch.

The objective of the sport is to score by kicking or punching the ball into the other team's goals (3 points) or between two upright posts above the goals and over a crossbar 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) above the ground (1 point).