Development of the first-ever camogie club in Palestine has been made possible thanks to the efforts of St Joseph’s GAA men’s and ladies’ clubs in Miltown Malbay, who have helped purchase over forty sets of kit for the young girls.
South Bethlehem Camogie Club has recently received significant backing from the Miltown community to help GAA Palestine’s develop the first-ever camogie club and girls’ sports team in the local villages.
Formed to promote the sport in the region, the South Bethlehem Camogie Club, also known as the Sulaiman Zawahrah GAC, is located in the West Bank, Palestine and is actively supported and twinned with Irish Gaelic games organisations, including St Joseph’s Club.
GAA Palestine was established two years ago, and the organisation is a 32-county effort working to teach the sport to local youth and build lasting relationships with Irish clubs.
Participating in Gaelic games gives the local children something to do and distracts them from their daily lives and struggle. And sports in general serve as a way to relieve the stress they experience amid closures and settler attacks.
Indeed, Clare clubs have been involved from the get go. It kicked off when Ballyea social worker Claire Liddy first travelled over to the West Bank, taking some hurleys and sliotars for the children.
There has been significant support from other football clubs in the county like Corofin, Kilmaley, Eire Óg and Clarecastle, and many hurling clubs have supported the initiative by providing hurleys, sliotars and training gear.
St Joseph’s GAA club members Gordon Kelly and Siobhan Reidy have supported GAA Palestine since the beginning. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Gordon said the clubs would like to thank all their members who supported the purchase of over forty sets of kit for the young girls in South Bethlehem Camogie Club.
“Recently they have been expanding the number of clubs that they have outside the West Bank, so they are up to five clubs now,” said Gordon.
“And the first female team has started now.
“We have seen videos of them training without proper kit, so a few of us in the club decided it would be a good idea if we were to purchase and supply training gear out to them – the kit includes jerseys, shorts, socks and under armour.
“We got a big response across the whole club with nearly 50 donations of kits, and generous support from the Armada Hotel, and from members of Miltown GAA and the LGFA in Miltown.”
“GAA Palestine have a container in Carlow that is pretty much filled to the brim at this stage, so that will be going out to Jordan, and some of the administrators within the GAA Palestine are working with the authorities out there to get it cleared by customs.
“Now Israel controls everything in and out of the West Bank as well, so that becomes a massive challenge…so it’s always a concern but the best we can do, is do what we think is right.”
Hurling-wise, they now have a trained-up local person who makes the hurls locally, and longer term, they are looking at both football and hurling. In fact, the Palestinians refer to hurling as “the freeman’s sport”, because they see soccer as a colonial game.
“It’s probably how they see us. They have a very strong affinity with Ireland, and they see soccer as a colonial sport, the way we would have 40, 50 or 60 years ago,” said Gordon.
“We have strong structures over here to support them. We are hoping to work with the GAA to try and get better support from the GAA and get it recognised through the GAA.
“Of course it does comes with massive challenges, particularly with the situation out in the West Bank at the moment with the escalating violence against the locals from the occupiers, army and government.”
Sharon Dolan D’Arcy covers West Clare news. After completing a masters in journalism at University of Galway, Sharon worked as a court reporter at the Sligo Weekender. She was also editor of the Athenry News and Views.