Kilmacud Crokes members offer hand of friendship to Uganda

HISTORY was made recently when the first ever GAA blitz played on the African Continent took place in Uganda.

In 2019 two Ugandan based sports teachers, Moses Amanyire and Robert Bakaza, came across hurling and Gaelic football on Tik Tok and were understandably fascinated by it.

They studied as many videos and clips as they could find and decided to teach the local boys and girls how to play.

They made hurls using mahogany wood and footballs and sliotars out of material/paper bound tightly together and started training.

The kids were hooked straight away and Moses and Robert realised that they could really do with some proper kit.

A feature on their appeal for kit appeared in a national newspaper and local woman Sinead Hamill, a coach with Kilmacud Crokes Ladies u15s, decided to do something about it.

She put an appeal out on Facebook initially looking for old/unused kit and in a ‘six degrees of separation’ moment discovered that an old work colleague of hers, Bernie Maloney, was doing the same.

Bernie is involved in the Rathdowney Brand Central Hub in county Laois and was organising space in the outlet for people to drop kit.

Bernie put Sinead in touch with John Walsh, a member of the Irish community out in Uganda and soon Sinead was having daily Whatsapp ‘meetings’ with both John and Moses Amanyire.

John explained that the playing of GAA was of vital importance as the kids they were dealing with were living in extreme poverty and gender based violence was a serious problem in Uganda.

The hope is that with the girls and boys learning and playing the sport together, they will learn to respect each other on the field and perhaps this will carry through to life off the pitch.

John explained that some children were walking up to 5km to get to a 2hr training session before walking home again.

All the kids that come to training get a meal which alleviates pressure on their families.

Sinead then organised an appeal to go out to all Kilmacud Crokes members asking them to drop/donate any old hurls, boots, helmets, sliotars, jerseys etc and co-ordinated the collection of same over a Friday and Saturday in January with the help of fellow club member Rachel Hynes.

The response from the Kilmacud Crokes members was absolutely outstanding according to Hamill.

“To see boys and girls, some as young as seven years old walking up to hand over their old hurls to help out kids less fortunate than them would bring a tear to your eye” Hamill told Southside People.

“Not only did people drop off used kit but several members went and bought brand new items to donate.”

Sinead and Rachel then filled up two cars to the brim with kit and drove down to Rathdowney to deliver the goods.

Bernie was in touch with the Ugandan embassy in Dublin to co-ordinate getting the shipment out there.

The All Uganda GAA blitz took place in the middle of March and was attended by eight time All Ireland winner Aidan Fogarty and Sinead Brennan from Kilkenny who led some skills sessions and workshops in the run up to the blitz.

Their trip out there was part of on-going fundraising efforts to raise €20,000 for a new pitch and clubhouse in the outskirts of Kampala.

If enough money is raised this would be the first full size GAA pitch on the African continent and would be the highest altitude pitch in the world.

It would be built on banks of Lake Victoria.

Reflecting on the photos sent to Sinead Hamill from Uganda, she says it was really amazing to see the boys and girls kitted out in Kilmacud Crokes mini all Ireland jerseys.

The look of determination on the faces of the Ugandan children before they marched out to play their games was no different from the Kilmacud children’s faces when they wore those same jerseys in the mini all Ireland competition in the club.

Sinead is saving hard and hopes to go to Uganda next March for the next St Patrick’s Day blitz.

She says her dream is to see a Ugandan team taking part in a blitz here in Ireland some day or maybe even playing an exhibition match at half time in Croke Park.