![\"AlexBrockandMelissaMcKayofKievGaels\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/00250a3a-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAlex Brock and Melissa McKay of Kyiv Gaels<\/p>\n
The founder of a GAA club in Kyiv in Ukraine has described how the worsening situation with Russian attacks on the capital city is impacting on life there and on the recently formed club.<\/p>\n
Kyiv Gaels was formed in 2024 by Dublin man and humanitarian worker Alex Brock.<\/p>\n
Members of the club travelled to Italy this weekend and competed in their very first European competition in Verona.<\/p>\n
The team competed in the Central East GAA Regional Finals which were held during this year’s Tocat\u00ed festival in Verona of which Ireland was guest of honour.<\/p>\n
Mr Brock said that the club was set up for two reasons.<\/p>\n
The first, for it to be a focal point for the Irish Community in Kyiv but also to create a space for the thousands of Ukrainians who are currently involved with clubs throughout Ireland.<\/p>\n
“There are thousands of Ukrainians involved in GAA with schools and clubs throughout Ireland. We wanted to create a space for them when the war is over and they return home, we will welcome them back and they will have a place to continue to play our games,” he said.<\/p>\n
\nAlex Brock and Melissa McKay of Kyiv Gaels<\/p>\n
Regarding the current situation with the escalation of Russian attacks on Kyiv, Mr Brock said it is having an impact on life and on the club.<\/p>\n
“The current situation is the worst we have seen in the Capital Kyiv since the war started. There is a lack of air defences which means a lot more of the attacks are landing in Kiev and there is a lot more destruction.<\/p>\n
“We play at our grounds every Monday night, and we check the alarms before playing to see if there are any incoming missiles and to make sure we have a shelter nearby”.<\/p>\n
On how the situation has changed recently, he said that night-time incoming missile alarms were the norm previously, “but this has changed now to alarms nearly 24\/7”, Mr Brock said.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s very worrying for our friends and colleagues working there. A lot of our members have received notice that they are being relocated to the Western part of Ukraine for safety reasons. There is a heightened level of risk not only to humanitarian workers but it’s also being felt more acutely by Ukrainians themselves in Kyiv”, he said.<\/p>\n
Despite the threats and uncertainty he said that he is confident that the Kyiv Gaels club will continue and be a focal point for Irish workers in the future as well as for returning Ukrainian refugees who want to continue to play Gaelic games at home when the war ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The founder of a GAA club in Kyiv in Ukraine has described how the worsening situation with Russian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-631011","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\/631011","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=631011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}