One of the most important clubs in the history of the GAA.
As we’ve seen throughout this series so far, the formation of GAA clubs with little or no Irish influence has become commonplace in recent years, particularly in continental Europe.
The trailblazers as far as that trend is concerned are Gaelic Football Bro-Leon in Brest in northern France, where the first GAA club in the entire world that wasn’t founded by Irish people was established in 1998.
That year, an association promoting Irish culture in the city of Brest decided to set up a team “for fun” and it is still going strong almost two decades later.
It hasn’t always been easy, according to Nathan, the club PRO, who told JOE that there was a few years when they would go three or four months without a training session, but there has been a revival of late and there are approximately 15 people turning up for training every week.
As well as participating in the French championship, Bro-Leon have taken part in their bread and butter, the Brittany Championship, every year since it was established with only three teams in 2004.
They made GAA history once again recently, meanwhile, by becoming the first team in France to establish an under-age team.
Bro-Leon haven’t been particularly successful on the pitch – they have only ever competed in one Brittany Championship final, which they lost – but friendship and camaraderie remain their main goals and they always endeavour to make every match enjoyable, even when results don’t go their way.
As well as telling us the fascinating story behind the formation of the club, Nathan gave us an insight into what it’s like today and some of the teammates he shares a dressing room with.
Focus on Gaelic Football Bro-Leon
Year established: 2000 (official).
Number of members: About 35, including the youth team.
Biggest rivals: Kerne FG (Quimper). Even though we play in the same team during the Brittany championship, they are both our neighbours and our “enemies”.
But the rivalry can be considered as a friendship as we all prefer drinking beer instead of fighting.
Biggest representation from a club/county in Ireland: The club doesn’t have any permanent Irish member. Most years we have some Erasmus students who join us (one girl from Tipperary this year), all of whom come from NUI Galway.
Most famous ever member/Most dedicated club person: Tangi AO is our most famous member. He has been playing for the team since it was created and he’s also our most dedicated club member.
As a sports teacher, he developed youth GAA in Brittany and the sport became recognised by the regional rectorship thanks to him.
He spends hours and hours setting up many projects, especially with regards to the youth aspect of the club. A few weeks ago, he was also named head coach of the Brittany football team which will take part in the World Games in Dublin.
Player who makes the longest commute to training:
One of our players lives one hour away from our training ground. He can’t be there every week but he makes the effort when he can. Otherwise, we have three or four regular attendees that live about 30 minutes away from our ground.
Loudest in the dressing room: Brieuc, our President. He’s always making jokes (I heard that somebody laughed… once) and reminding us that years ago in a tournament in Guérande he scored a lot of goals and points.
Number of romances that started in the GAA club (feel free to name names): One of our members has a boyfriend playing for our rivals Kerne.
They share the same bed but not the same club. Life is hard sometimes.
Most annoying person in the club Facebook/e-mail group: I would say all of the people who do not answer the messages. As I’m organising the communication on the internet, I get really pissed off when nobody (or just two of us) answers my messages.
Rant over!
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