“Alan Keogh loves posting updates on Facebook about his toes.”
Singapore Gaelic Lions will celebrate their 20th birthday next year and it should be one hell of a party considering that they are one of the biggest GAA clubs in Asia with over 300 members.
Those 300 members include people from Asia, North America and parts of Europe outside Ireland and there are plenty of Irish ex-pats hanging around to show the newcomers a thing or two about our native games.
The season before last, the Lions managed to win the men’s and women’s A finals at the prestigious Asian Gaelic Games and according to some of the stories told by clubman Petesy O’Brien below, pretty much every trip on the road is one that won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
Petesy was able to fill us in on the history of the club and some of the personalities within the dressing room at the moment, including one who shouldn’t be let near a go-kart if he ever returns to Jakarta.
Focus on Singapore Gaelic Lions
Year established: 1997
Number of members: 300+
Biggest rivals: Orang Eire, Attica (renowned Singapore nightspot) Bouncers.
Most famous ever member: We have a few.
There’s Uncle Ken Savage, a corner-back for the Kerry team during the lean years in the Kingdom.
Cormac O’Muircheartaigh is a renowned sports doctor on this side of the world but he is really only famous because his auld boy is a national treasure.
Gary Hanniffy has a bag of hurling medals from his career with Offaly and Birr. He has even taken to the big ball game since joining the club but only manages a few games a year due to concussion protocols.
Most memorable moment in the club’s history: 2014, winning the men’s and ladies’ A finals at the Asian Gaelic Games.
Gareth O’Brien winning an All-star in 2015 after about 16 years playing with the club.
Most eye-catching scoreline in the club’s history: In the men’s A final in 2014 v Seoul we won on a scoreline of 2-13 – 1-4. They came back this year playing 9-a-side football like Donegal.
The Cavan lads also dodged an eye-catching bar tab in Jakarta last year.
Maria Flynn, meanwhile, has an eye-catching Tinder match ratio.
Player who makes the longest commute to training: It’s a small country but Mike Barry and Oisin Minagh commute from Orchard Towers every Saturday night to training.
Getting a taxi home with Eoin Henry also feels like the same trip from Singapore to Dublin Airport.
Bláthnaid McNamara regularly commutes from Dublin to play in the Asian Gaelic Games!
Most dedicated club person: Derek Cahill is tour manager and the only reason that we manage to get anywhere.
Paul Carpenter trains 60 girls every Sunday, which is a penance in itself. Gary Hanniffy, Padraig Mulligan, Gillian O’Connell, James Brook Partridge, Clare Keon, Laotse Sacker, Lee Fitz and Peter Kelleher are all very active club members.
Most annoying person on the club WhatsApp group: Tiffany Leng and Kim Morrissey, for the simple reason that they are always on holidays and not afraid to let people know about it.
Alan Keogh loves posting updates on Facebook about his toes.
Rachel Maunsell is cat for taking sneaky snapchats. Just when you thought Sunday morning’s fear couldn’t get any worse, you see the story from the night before.
Player who could have made it big if love/career/drink didn’t get in the way: Paul Dillon would have made it big if he hadn’t been sent off so many times during his long career.
Orla Doherty is away home now to rescue Longford football from the depths of despair that is the midlands.
Biggest character: Niall Walsh is the least economical footballer we have. He drinks a couple of hundred gallons per year but he only runs for a few hundred metres before the clutch goes. He also has a couple of stories not fit for print.
Ladies’ keeper Kymbo Tomkin knows her way round a Boat Race too, while Mel Cassidy is a disaster to be near on a party bus; get ready to be humped.
Loudest in the dressing room: On the men’s side of things, our Donegal players (the two Liams) should be muzzled, while Petesy O’Brien just never shuts up.
All of the women should be supplied with a mute button whenever there is skittle vodka involved.
Number of romances that started in the GAA club: Áine Gannon and James McDonald became more than just housemates earlier this year after a cold 23 degree night on the equator.
There have been a lot of very brief romances with a certain Clontarf lad being a master of taking down Irish girls.
There are a lot of couples in the club, but the single girls here reckon the men are as soft as butter.
Duck to water award for the best new player who had never played GAA before: Ming Murphy is the ladies’ keeper (when she is not off flying F16 fighter jets). She’s a great shot-stopper but she will end your night out handily with her trusty vodka jelly recipe.
Adam Wade is our resident Bogan Aussie and has taken up the game with ease, winning a junior trophy this year despite only turning up the week before. His sideline commentary is also top notch.
*** New Category *** Person who is most likely to have last night’s antics posted by JOE.ie: Jimmy Moore Ph.D. earned his doctorate studying late nights in Bangkok. Here he is in all his glory.
Best story involving a club member that’s fit for print: Dáithí Murphy drove a go-kart during a lads’ trip to Jakarta and managed to barrel roll it six times before contracting dengue fever the same night.
At the South East Asian Games in 2014, Mike Barry of Miltown Malbay got onto a moped with a local lady, got felt up by the same local, robbed and then shouldered a 70-year old Vietnamese woman off a bike at 6am (that’s the fit for print version).
Once a Lion, always a Lion.
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.
