Finding the Irish in Fort McMurray
By RONAN DEANE
Aerial view of Fort McMurray
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Fort McMurray, which sounds amazingly like Courtmacsherry, is the type of place where you would never expect to find an Irish community. But just under the gritty surface of a surprisingly buzzing Alberta town, is a load of Paddies that I think have been hiding from me. And I have been looking….
Jenn and I got here in August and spent most of the winter trying to sort out all our own issues. Settling into our jobs, selling up out of Calgary, buying in Fort McMurray (I could write a novel about that), staying in apartments and moving several times. Once we settled down, the next priority had to be met....controlling the gut.
I found the local rugby team, an indoor soccer league and a floor hockey league and next thing I knew, I was running around most nights of the week trying to get fit. No fun. Through the rugby I met a few guys that had played Gaelic Football, albeit a long time ago. There were no Irish players, but lots of Brits, i.e. Scottish and Welsh. That was close enough.
The soccer had Paddies. There was a Dub who organized the whole thing, a couple of other Dubs, and then three young fellas turned up and started talking Jackeen beside me. Dubs have always loved their soccer.
Now the Irish bar in town here is not where you find the Irish. They are to be found at the Blackhorse bar whenever there is a Celtic match being played on Setanta. Again, of course, there were the Dubs, but there were also Northerners....so now we’re talking.
St. Patrick’s Day was going to be the day to find some more. And I did. There was a St. Patrick’s Society, and they were all there. I had heard the names of famous Fort McMurray Irish and here they all were. The Coynes, the Reddys, the O’Connors, the Hurleys, the Mellons, the Hanlons.
There were Irish dancers, and trad singers, and now, though they mightn’t have known it then, there was a Gaelic football promoter. That’s what I do and that’s what I’ve been doing.
Fort McMurray, with the support of the Gaelic footballers in Calgary and Edmonton, will field Gaelic football teams this summer. Because it has never been pushed before, there is nothing to say this will work out, but today as you read this, a football event has been organized in Fort McMurray.
On May 29, Gaelic football is back in the Great White North. Edmonton and Calgary’s ladies and gents Gaelic football teams (though they can scarcely believe it) have been invited to Fort McMurray to play the Fort McMurray ladies’ and men’s teams.
Right now some 30 people have expressed an interest in playing or trying out for the game. It augurs well for the future. If you’re coming to Fort McMurray and you’re interested in giving Gaelic football and the craic that surrounds it a shot, then contact me at ronandeane@hotmail.com, or just come out every Wednesday night, starting May 5 at 7 PM at the rugby field on Mac Island.
The Fort McMurray Knights rugby team is going to help make this an event to be remembered. The plan is for two men’s games and two ladies’ games on May 29 from 1 PM until 5 PM. There will be barbeques and beer tents and there should be plenty of fun to be had both on and off the field.
By summer we’re hoping that it’s going to be a whole lot easier to find the Irish in Fort McMurray. Remember, they’ll be at MacDonald Island, 7 PM every Wednesday and on May 29 from midday on.
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