Including a must-read tale about Jerry ‘two pints’ and Tom Selleck on a Berlin golf course. Yes, THE Tom Selleck.
The Around the World Clubs series on JOE started in Berlin and nearly a year and more than 30 clubs later, we’re back in the German capital once again.
Setanta Berlin Gaelic Club was founded in 2014, and while they provide the full range of Gaelic sports to members, the club has primarily focused on hurling.
The club considers itself to be a Berlin Club promoting all things Irish, and as well as sport activities, it runs regular Irish traditional music and singing sessions and provides a network for Irish people finding their feet in the city.
Not only that, but the club has developed an innovative and ground breaking youth development programme, including a schools programme resulting in Germany’s first schools hurling tournament in 2016, attracting 150 players.
Setanta Berlin has also established strong links with local hockey clubs, introducing hurling as a regular training and competitive activity.
Membership amongst the Irish and non-Irish community in Berlin has continued to grow and the club has welcomed a number of GAA clubs from Ireland to Berlin for hurling and to enjoy all the city has to offer.
It’s an exciting time to be involved with such a progressive club and Treasurer Colin Manning was happy to tell us a little more about it when we got in touch with him recently.
Make sure to keep reading until the story about Tom Selleck at the very end; it’s an absolute cracker.
Focus on Setanta Berlin Gaelic Club
Club: Setanta Berlin Gaelic Club e.V.
Year established: 2014
Number of members: 80
Biggest rivals: German bureaucracy
Biggest representation from a club/county in Ireland: Kilkenny/Dublin
Most famous ever member: Róisín Ní Mhathúna, German Rose at the 2015 Rose of Tralee.
Most memorable moment in the club’s history: Having 60+ members from Kevin’s Hurling & Camogie Club (Dublin), including experienced coaches and referees, visit us for the 2016 Berlin Easter Hurling Festival.
Clip via Cú Chulainn
For a club established in 1902, with their breadth of experience in hurling and community games development, to tell us that they’re amazed by our efforts really brought home to many of the organisers the value of our efforts and gave us renewed focus for the future.
Most eye-catching scoreline in the club’s history: Berlin International Schule 3-1 – 1-2 Nelson Mandela Schule. The final of the inaugural Berlin Schools Hurling Tournament and the culmination of a year of youth hurling development by Setanta Berlin in the city.
Over 150 players from local Berlin schools made up 11 teams to compete for what is now an annual Berlin schools sports fixture.
Player who makes the longest commute to training: Berlin has excellent public transport, so members usually commute across the city easily (no excuses are accepted!). The longest single commute has to be Hugh Kavanagh (Limerick), who rushed to catch a flight from Canada and was straight off the plane and onto the pitch in Berlin not long after with minutes to spare.
Most dedicated club person: We couldn’t select a single individual considering the degree of support we’ve received from the Berlin Irish community; the dedication really has been staggering.
Worthy mentions would include Donegal’s Eóin Allan, our very own fitness guru and champion juggler, Sean Smith (Dublin), who leads our weekly schools programme and hurley repairs; and Dáithí Reynolds (Dublin) for keeping the kids focused every Sunday.
Player who could have made it big if love/career/drink didn’t get in the way: They’d argue that all three of those factors played a positive role in their lives, although both Nigel Kinnarney (Offaly) and Hugh Kavanagh (Limerick) could have lined out for their respective counties.
Sadly they’re both afflicted with beautiful wives, bright intellects and easy access to pubs.
Biggest character: It’s easily young Faolán (Cork), all of five years old, going on 65!
Our first encounter with him was when he entered the park where we run our kids’ training, he sprints off from his parents and marches straight up to a bunch of us (who must look like giants from his perspective), and announces, “I’m Faolán, I’m Irish” then grabs a hurl and heads off again.
They make them fearless in Cork!
Loudest in the dressing room: Martin Bailey, the Wexford wonder, who terrifies his own team mates as much as the opposition from right corner-forward. Once he gets his first goal, he quietens down a bit, but until then everybody, including the team coach, opponents, and referee are in for a mouthful of sunny south east banter.
Number of romances that started in the GAA club (feel free to name names): The majority of us are either married or in long-term relationships and it’s a common theme in the club that members have met a German partner and moved here for that reason.
And you need to be romantically skilled to wrangle going to all the club events (and late evenings) while keeping your partner from changing the locks!
Duck to water award – Best new player who had never played GAA before: Club Secretary Marc Schleunitz, a native Berliner, caught the Hurling fever back in Spring 2015 and has been balancing his club administration duties with our year-round training.
His enthusiasm has been invaluable in recruiting German students and it always helps that he’s popular with the female demographic.
Most annoying person in the club WhatsApp group: Chris Stainsby, by unanimous decision. Like a sweary modern day bridge-troll, the Englishman lies in wait for any newly-joined person or an innocently misplaced comment before launching into a full-scale “engage-mouth-absent-brain” torrent of verbal diarrhoea.
It’s customary to now warn new members prior to adding them to the WhatsApp group. Great goalkeeper though.
Best story involving a club member that’s fit for print: We’ll avoid recent stories for legal reasons *ahem*, but Jerry “Two Pints” is a dark horse.
One of his legendary tales, dating back to the early 1980s in cold-war Berlin, involved a young Jerry sneaking onto a US controlled golf course during the early hours to source worms for a fishing trip the next day… accompanied by ‘Magnum P.I.’ himself, Tom Selleck. As you do.
During their nocturnal worm harvesting, nearby patrolling military police came too close for comfort, just as the automated sprinklers erupted with ice cold water and jolted the famed ‘tasche into a noisy racket.
As the MPs rushed to investigate with weapons drawn, our Jerry sped off over security fences to relative safety, leaving a bemused and wormless Tom to his fate.
He was a good sport, however, as they eventually managed to get on that fishing trip!
For more information on Setanta Gaelic Club, check them out on Twitter, Facebook and on their website.
If you’re a member of a GAA club abroad and would like to be featured on the site, feel free to send a mail to [email protected] or find us on Facebook or Twitter.
