Dublin man running to support young GAA players in Palestine

A Dublin man is running 5 kilometres every day in the month of January to help raise funds for GAA Palestine.

The first club of GAA Palestine, the Moataz Sassour club, was launched in the Am’ari refugee camp in the Ramallah area of the West Bank in August 2024. It now has 24 members, including 20 young people, a manager, coach and a project manager.

Luke Fitzgerald, a 41 year old father of three from Ballinteer, started his fundraising for GAA Palestine campaign on New Year’s Day 2025 and has already raised in excess of €1500 of his target of €5000.

You can donate to Luke’s fund here: https://whydonate.com/en/fundraising/5k-a-day-for-palestine-gaa and follow him on Twitter on the handle @lukefitz.

Luke credits a young Donegal man, Cathal Ó Gaillín, as his inspiration, after seeing Cathal raise £2275 for GAA Palestine through the month of December, in which he ran a total of 150km.

“Inspired by a similar feat completed by Cathal Ó Gaillín in December, I was keen to challenge myself and merge my passion for supporting Palestinian Solidarity, my enthusiasm for the GAA and my new-found love of running to do something decent to kickstart the new year and help raise crucial funds for an incredibly noble cause. Since learning about its origins and the people behind it, I’ve been blown away by the selflessness of the Palestine GAA initiative and I felt the only way to support it was to put on my running shoes and hit the road in full support of the team on the ground in the Occupied West Bank.”

Luke, a freelance digital marketing consultant and a marathon runner, is hugely passionate about human rights and sports, making the fundraising required to support GAA Palestine a most resonant cause to row in behind. He’s an active social member of his local GAA club in Dublin, Ballinteer St John’s.

“I’ve nothing but the utmost of respect and admiration for everything they do for the local area and beyond. Though my playing days are well behind me, I do all I can to support my two youngest daughters in enjoying their football and camogie on the pitch through fundraising and moral, fatherly love and support wherever needed!”

GAA Palestine was the brainchild of London-Irish man, Stephen Redmond, who visited the West Bank in January 2024 and put the idea of a GAA club to the community leaders, the Excellence Centre in Hebron and the Am’ari refugee camp in Ramallah. A team of volunteers in Palestine, Ireland and the UK are working hard to launch additional clubs very soon and they are planning a visit to Ireland for some of the young new Palestinian hurlers and their coaches this summer.