Smash Victory for Vancouver at 2010 NA Hurling Championships
IN CHICAGO, an ecstatic, Sean Twomey, Captain of the Vancouver Harps Hurling Team holding aloft the coveted North American Junior A Hurling Championship Cup. He had just been presented with it by Galway’s Joe McDonagh (in the tweed jacket). |
PICTURED IN CHICAGO, The Vancouver Harps Hurling Team, first Canadian North American Junior A Hurling Champions. Well done lads! |
LOYAL SUPPORTERS of the Vancouver Harps Hurling Team pictured with the Junior A Hurling Cup and enjoying the team’s triumph in Chicago. |
CHICAGO – Vancouver’s Junior A hurlers seized the crown at this year’s 2010 North American GAA Hurling Championships in Chicago when they defeated San Francisco’s Naomh Padraig 3-14 to 2-13 on September 5.
Victory was all the sweeter as this was the first time in a generation since the Harps Gaelic football team took part in the final in 1985. Some 41 players and supporters from Vancouver travelled to join the excitement. The Vancouver team was the only Canadian one participating in the finals.
The first Senior Hurling Championship by Canadian teams were the Montreal Shamrocks in 1961, followed by the Toronto Garryowen in 1965, 1970 and 1974, and St. Mike’s in 1975 and 1978.
The Vancouver Harps hurling team is the first Junior Championship by a Canadian team.
Chicago last hosted the games back in 2007 and the weekend was a feast of Gaelic football, hurling and camogie. The event attracted over 6,000 people to Gaelic Park along with five additional fields at the GAA complex over the Labour Day weekend.
It was the biggest gathering yet in terms of participation with 78 teams from 22 cities across the United States and Canada playing some 90 games at the championships.
Players and supporters witnessed past president of the GAA and now chairman of the overseas units, Joe McDonagh (Galway), present Vancouver’s finest with the 2010 Championship Trophy.
Everyone is invited to join the team and club and welcome the Vancouver champions home on September 18 at the Croatian Cultural Centre when the Irish Sporting and Social Club will host its 35th anniversary banquet. For tickets and more information, e-mail: info@isscvancouver.com, or call (778) 995-6673.
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