On Home Ground: Her.ie Tries GAA As Gaeilge With Na Gaeil Óga

In our brand new series, our resident sports fanatic Mary takes on some of Ireland’s top female athletes to see if she has what it takes to compete with the best.

From chatting about their rigorous training programmes to taking us on to the pitch and right into the middle of the action, some of Ireland’s biggest names show Her.ie how it’s done.

Last week, we went head-to-head with Leinster squash star Niamh Maher while this week we tried our hand at gaelic football... as Gaeilge. 

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Mary says: Anyone who knows me will know my love for GAA, but when I was invited along to play football as Gaeilge, I had some nervous palpitations as reminders of the Leaving Cert came barrelling back. Heading out to the Phoenix Park on a warm Sunday evening, the cailíní at Na Gaeil Óga were welcoming from the start. Armed with my basics ‘Sea’ and ‘anseo’, I was amazed at how much Irish came flooding back to me, and I was well able to understand the team talk – even if I wasn’t able to contribute. The girls were encouraging and friendly to say the least, and it was refreshing to see so many at training, embracing Irish and having an absolute ball while they did so. Would I recommend it? In a heartbeat. And you don’t need to be fluent at all. Believe me, it’s well worth it. https://youtu.be/V_Pplo8Nan0 Special thanks to Máire de Staic for all of her help.