{"id":152586,"date":"2025-11-21T21:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/152586\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T21:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:24:09","slug":"the-dam-united-netherlands-powerhouse-seek-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/152586\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dam United – Netherland’s powerhouse seek history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ice baths have become common place in the routine of a GAA player before and after a big match, but 30-odd Amsterdam hurlers might be taking it to the extreme as they get set to leap into the Herengracht Canal ahead of the biggest ever game for the club \u2013 a Leinster Special Club Junior final against Longford Slashers on Saturday.<\/p>\n

On 17 March, 2003, as Gary Hanniffy was lifting the Tommy Moore Cup as Birr defeated Dunloy in the All-Ireland final, seeds were being sown 750km east as the Amsterdam GAA club was formed on a chilly St Patrick’s Day in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

History was made at Croke Park that day as Birr became the first four-time All-Ireland winners, moving clear of Cork\u2019s Blackrock and Galway\u2019s Athenry, and 22 years later it\u2019s Amsterdam who have made a bit of history by becoming the first mainland European team to reach a Leinster final.<\/p>\n

The special club tournament \u2013 essentially a Junior B grade \u2013 was first run in 2007 and won by Offaly\u2019s Kullrin, before their amalgamation with Killeigh to form Clodiagh Gaels, and the prize on offer, by coincidence, was a trip to the Netherlands with a match scheduled against a European selection in the Hague.<\/p>\n

It ran until 2015 before being placed on hiatus until its return this year – and this weekend, a crowd of club members will gather in Mulligan\u2019s Irish Bar in the Dutch city to watch the final while for the second time in a number of weeks, the panel will make the trip to Ireland.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the side travelled to Ashbourne and faced Meath IHC finalists Rathmolyon.<\/p>\n

Five points down at the break, and four behind with just 10 minutes left, the four-in-a-row European champions fought back down the stretch and fittingly it was Galway\u2019s Grahame McDermott who moved them ahead for only the second time in the contest with a penalty in the 63rd minute with their player-manager, Limerick\u2019s Dara O\u2019Farrell, putting the seal on a famous 1-13 to 1-11 win.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re off to Glennon Brothers Pearse Park for the final against Robbie Stakelum\u2019s Slashers, who won their county\u2019s senior title this year<\/a> with a win over Wolfe Tone’s and defeated Wicklow\u2019s Aughrim in the other Leinster semi-final.<\/p>\n

With history already made, the hope is they can add some more, but whatever the outcome, it\u2019s going to be a day to remember for club chairperson Eimear Lafferty.<\/p>\n

\"amsterdam
\nThe Amsterdam men’s and ladies’ football teams after their Benelux double in Eindhoven this year<\/p>\n

A member of the famed Gormley clan in Tyrone \u2013 her aunt Eilish is one of the best ladies players in Ulster history – Lafferty was always likely to find her way to the GAA club when landing in ‘Mokum\u2019 four years ago. It only took hours in the end, the player heading to training on the very same evening she arrived.<\/p>\n

She still plays with them, helps with the management too and, of course, chairs a committee that is completely player-led.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re a long-established club, but we seem to be growing year-on-year,” said Lafferty.<\/p>\n

“For a number of years, the ladies’ team was an amalgamation of teams from the Benelux region (the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) but we\u2019re lucky enough now to have the numbers for our own team.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re quite lucky with our facilities, it\u2019s outside the city but with the bike culture, we can all cycle there \u2013 it’s about a 45-minute cycle each way for me.<\/p>\n

“The biggest challenge for us is that we are an entirely player-run club. A lot of the European clubs don\u2019t have that older generation to turn to who did a lot of that managing in terms of the logistics of the club.<\/p>\n

“It is difficult to separate those roles when you\u2019re still a player, but we\u2019ve worked really hard on it.<\/p>\n

“In the last couple of years we have established a camogie team and they won their first tournament this year, we\u2019re building our youth team \u2013 we hosted C\u00fal Camps last year and the European F\u00e9ile this year \u2013 and we\u2019ve also set up a handball team this year; I suppose you could call us a fully-fledged GAA club for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"Amsterdam
\nChairperson Eimear Lafferty (L) with county delegate Grace McLoughlin, secretary Julie Mackey and Sarah Kellegher during the club’s annual St Patrick’s Day 5km fundraiser to mark the club’s anniversary<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s certainly given myself and the committee members a deeper appreciation of all the work our Irish clubs carry out to keep us playing and invested in the sport we grew up with – particularly my home club, Aodh Ruadh, now Thomas Clarke\u2019s, which was founded by inspirational and dedicated women of the GAA that had to push and campaign to have their voices heard, and to become a successful club.”<\/p>\n

Two trips to Ireland in a fortnight is what the club wanted, but it brings with it a serious financial burden.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the dip in the canal comes in with a Go Fund Me campaign promising a series of forfeits for each milestone met, with players set to shave heads, perform a song in the middle of Dam Square and \u2013 for a target long since reached \u2013 jump as a group into water in their full club kit. The city is set for a temperature high of 6 degrees this week, according to forecasts, so it\u2019s cash well earned.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019ll cost about \u20ac500, \u20ac600 to send each player over to Ireland and we have a panel of 30,” Lafferty continued.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re lucky the lads are happy to do all these challenges. There\u2019s maybe a few girlfriends unhappy with all these shaved heads and shaved moustaches, but we\u2019re very good at pulling together as a club.<\/p>\n

“You can take being player-run as a negative as there is that extra pressure, but it does mean that everyone who is involved is really dedicated and wants to see the club flourish and thrive.”<\/p>\n

It’s an all-Irish squad travelling to Longford, although the club has – and continues to – attract players from both the Netherlands and a number of nations. ‘Big’ Thom Verweijen has played a key role in midfield at times for the hurler while the club’s female teams in particular attract players from various nations.<\/p>\n

It adds another layer of pride for all involved with the club. That pride will be on display at Pearse Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ice baths have become common place in the routine of a GAA player before and after a big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-152586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}