The West Lays Down the Challenge: 'Big Brother Must Come West'
By RONAN DEANE
VANCOUVER - The ladies of the Western Division of the Canadian County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association were invited to the Powerscreen 7s Tournament in Toronto in September, to play against ladies from the East. This would be last chance to stake their claim on a spot in the Canadian team that is Ireland bound in less than a month's time.
They played well, and seven of the 10 short-listed Western Ladies were selected for the first, if you don’t mind me saying, truly “national” team to represent Canada at what is being dubbed the “World Cup of Gaelic Football.” The teams to watch out for are the Australians, Americans, and perhaps even the Irish home side, but Canada will certainly be up there when it comes to who will be in possession of that particular World Cup later in October.
This has been a quiet revolution, with the West, slowly but surely letting the East know that they exist. For so long, the Western Canadian teams have tried to latch onto the “Holy Grail” of North American GAA involvement, through allegiances with the teams of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. And for so long, as well, the Western Canadian teams have had the glow of past glories in Chicago and San Francisco blind them and take their minds away from a wonderful possibility.
The wonderful possibility of a greater, pan-Canadian Association, eh! The process has been welcomed on both sides of the nation, but lest we lose focus, there is a need to remind everyone of the goals and of the each person’s duty to see that these goals are met. Only a few more things, in this writer’s opinion, need to happen.
Many of the steps that needed to be taken have been taken, for example:
- Formal affiliation of the Western clubs to the Canadian County Board.
- Canadian County Board support of the Western Clubs.
- Organization of a Western Divisional Championship (between the men’s and ladies’ teams of Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver).
- Western sides visiting and competing at eastern tournaments (Edmonton [men and ladies] to Montreal, 2004 and Alberta men to Toronto, 2005).
- Western Canadian Gaelic footballers in the Canadian National sides
- Expansion of the Games in Alberta (Fort McMurray)
All are great achievements, that only three years ago seemed a world away. Now, they are in place, they don’t look like such difficult things to have accomplished. And so we must drive on, with a number of other steps that have yet to be taken, namely:
- Eastern sides visiting and competing at western tournaments.\
- Further expansion of the games in Alberta and British Columbia (especially in the Greater Vancouver area).
- A truly All-Canadian Championship.
Item one on the above list, for this commentator, is of paramount importance. There can be no act more symbolic of the union of east and west Gaelic fraternities. The Big Brother, the east, visiting its Little Brother, in the west, and acknowledging the west, in actions and not words. Almost saying, “Yes, I know you’re there, and I’m here to show you that I want you to succeed!”
Of course, these are only stepping stones. Funny thing is, once these goals are accomplished, all that will be left to do is to create more goals. Expand the games further, take them to the schools, and make them the national sport ahead of hockey. All very do-able, all that’s required is some drive. But first, Big Brother must come west.
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