On Sunday week, they\u2019ll welcome Roscommon to Gaelic Park for the Connacht football quarter-final, New York\u2019s guaranteed date in the championship since 1999. They\u2019ll also play a preliminary quarter-final of the Tailteann Cup in June, but beyond that, the rotation and cost of the travelling Connacht opposition is up for review.<\/p>\n
New York won\u2019t have played any competitive matches since last year\u2019s Tailteann Cup defeat to Offaly, and McGinley has other things to worry about. Not just the significant drop-off in the number of Irish players coming to New York, and with that New York\u2019s ability to stay competitive, but also the \u201ctrickiness\u201d around US work visas and travel due to the increased Ice activity since Trump\u2019s second term as US president began early last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows the visa situation, and the old pathway of players coming out from Ireland, I\u2019ve seen a significant drop off in that compared to when I came out originally,\u201d says McGinley. \u201cSo New York, for their long term, have to source players here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say the majority of younger people in Ireland, if they\u2019re looking to travel or work in a different country, Australia seems to be the bigger draw. And not just this particular [presidential] term, over the last couple of terms, there has been a tightening up on visas, getting visas, the eligibility of them. And particularly the longer-term ones. A lot of lads we see coming out now [are] on a J visa, that typically lasts a year, maybe 18 months. So you\u2019re getting that player for a year.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GKIQMX2PCJAYXNF75FS2C56MII.jpg\")
New York manager Ronan McGinley. Photograph: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n
\u201cThe longer-term visa, the three-year one, is a tougher ask. It\u2019s more of a lottery. It so just so happens this is the time of year the three-year lottery is selected, that\u2019s in the background. Football is a great outlet and everything else, but it\u2019s small potatoes to life choices they have coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGinley is also aware of the increasing challenges on the playing front. New York held their own against Galway last year for about 40 minutes, before losing 3-28 to 0-20; they then lost to Offaly 2-25 to 1-12.<\/p>\n
Over a year on from the introduction of the new playing rules, New York are still miles off the learning of other counties, and McGinley \u2013 a brother of Enda McGinley, Tyrone\u2019s three-time All-Ireland winner \u2013 is expecting no favours from Roscommon on Sunday week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not coming out for a weekend away, they have Mayo two weeks after us, they\u2019ll be fully focused on putting us to the sword fairly early. Any team who has played across the four divisions at home, plus the preseason competitions, has had 10 games already. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have that experience. We haven\u2019t even had any challenge games. It\u2019s very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/74ZOAUHGXJBQBILZI7UUZEKS4Y.jpg\")
New York\u2019s Donal Hunt is tackled by Paul Conroy of Galway. Photograph: Emily Harney\/Inpho <\/p>\n
McGinley is working off a squad of 40 players, only 23 of which were involved last year. He also understands the commitment (McGinley captained New York in 2012, playing through to 2017), but New York are also turning to more \u201chome-grown\u201d players, coming up through their junior championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more they want to get involved in the football, more so than us recruiting anybody to come out. That\u2019s maybe a thing of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York did pull off one upset in 2023, beating Leitrim on penalties, their only championship victory in 23 attempts. The cost to the travelling teams each year is estimated at \u20ac250,000, aided by a \u20ac50,000 grant from the Connacht Council, and McGinley knows that\u2019s only going to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor New York to be competitive long-term, we need more games. And that\u2019s a thorny issue with rising costs across the board, particularly with county preparations at home.<\/p>\n
![\"Galway’s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/47GTFWVKFRH7FJKRUKBVP7VCCM.jpg\")
Galway\u2019s Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Maoilchiar\u00e1in with fans after the match. Photograph: Emily Harney\/Inpho <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s pride in what we do, but one good year doesn\u2019t make up for three or four bad years. The reality is, if the Connacht fixture doesn\u2019t go ahead, it\u2019s very difficult to see how New York would maintain a presence in the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
If in the past some New York footballers may also have been unwilling to travel back to Ireland for fear of being unable to get back into the US, McGinley is confident none of his current squad would even take that chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say there has been a fairly significant transition away from the undocumented player, that may have been representing New York in years gone by.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be certain 100 per cent of the players, that we have here, have status. It\u2019s just whether they\u2019re in the process of renewing a visa, extending a visa, or getting another one. And that\u2019s where the trickiness comes in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more technicalities than anything. It\u2019s not a case that we have players who are here, and have no intention of being able to go home. That\u2019s changed a lot over the last 10 years or so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springtime in New York, and what should be the annual football showcase for Ronan McGinley and The Exiles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110979,61,60,4320,169564,112],"class_list":["post-379404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-football-championship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-gaa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379404","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=379404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}