The Ring Gaeltacht in Co Waterford took a few days to settleback into its usual state of quiet and tranquillity after a hectic festival of football, camaraderie and cultural exuberance. More than 4,000 visitors came to take part in an annual football competition, Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta 2013, with GAA clubs from Irish language-speaking Gaeltacht areas from around Ireland gathering to compete at this national tournament in June.
We were ready to rock once the playing fields were marked, the grass was cut, the marquee was erected, the bunting was hung and the musicians were tuned up. When the cars and minibuses started to arrive for the June holiday weekend, it was a case of let the games begin. Twenty-four matches were played, including a women’s stream. The Gaeltacht never looked so beautiful. Our neighbouring parish of Old Parish, or in Irish – An Sean Phobal, came on board to support the event and teams travelled throughout the weekend between the two playing fields of Páirc Uí Shíothcháin in Ring and Páirc Colmáin in Old Parish.
Cavalcades of cars and buses travelled between the two parishes, like wedding parties, arriving at the gates of the playing pitch as if for a religious service such was the level of concentration and focus, the sounds of marching boots on gravel echoing across the fields. The whole area rang to the sound of guttural entreaties, roared objections and ecstatic cries.
This inter-Gaeltacht GAA competition has been running in Ireland since 1969. It began in Gaoth Dobhair: the men of that northerly Gaeltacht in Donegal ran away with the competition that inaugural year and this year again, they won the cup. The last time we in the Déise in west Waterford won the final was in 2008 and the last time we hosted such an event was in 1999, so the pressure was on and the local GAA club of An Rinn, as it is as Gaeilge, were hell bent on hosting a memorable tournament.
Liam Ó Lonáin from Ring, a Waterford inter-county footballer, launched the event some weeks back, with the help of two fellow inter-county footballers from Ring, Tadhg Ó hUallacháin and Jamie de Barún. He stressed the importance of the competition to the Gaeltacht community: “It’s important not only in terms of the huge boost it gives to the local economy of the host club each year, but because it is an annual festival that gives a sense of pride and place and increases the morale of Gaeltacht people throughout the country”.
“The Comórtas Peile is a celebration of Gaeltacht culture – be it sport, language, music or dance. It showcases our heritage and culture and we should be proud of it. It is a wonderful opportunity for a small Gaeltacht such as ourselves to host such a festival.”
The Ring GAA club was established way back in 1890, but its best year to date was in 2008 when players scooped a number of highly sought-after wins including the county final in the Intermediate Hurling Championship and the Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta 2008, both for the first time. Support this year was understandably strong in the parish. Most of the matches were broadcast on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, and the semi-finals on Sunday, as well as the finals on Bank Holiday Monday, were broadcast live on TG4 and online throughout the world. The views as filmed from the sky-lift by local cameraman Fionn Mac Giolla Chuda were magnificent. Liam Ó Néill, president of the GAA, who attended, said he had never seen a match played in a place as beautiful.
The noise of cheering children and shouting adults using Irish in all its multiplicity of sounds and dialects, echoed across Dungarvan Bay for the duration of the comórtas. My own mother and father provided B&B to a couple of players from Donegal when the championship was held here back in 1984. I remember how strange the dialect of those visitors in our house sounded to me at the time. All I could make out was the constant occurrence of the words “fataí” (potatoes) and “piontaí” (pints). This year again there were footballers from clubs in Belfast, Donegal, Kerry, Mayo, Cork, Meath and Galway and the Aran Islands. The men of na Gaeltachtaí lifted our hearts and the women of na Gaeltachtaí were viragoes who played with passion. Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta 2014 will be played in Moycullen in Co Galway. Let ye be ready. Na Gaeltachtaí abú!