Young Gaelic all-stars

An exciting series of events for budding players

There have been some exciting times for the Gaelic Football project in North Lanarkshire recently.

A short two-hour blitz tournament for kids at local primary schools attracted 40 youngsters along to the Townhead Gaelic Football Park in Coatbridge.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s best also played at the same venue in an inter-county AllBritish competition quarter-final tie against Lancashire.

Coatbridge boys made up three-quarters of the squad that lost narrowly to the tournament’s eventual winners.

All of these local boys began to play Gaelic Football in P6 and have progressed to Under-16s level.

Possibly the best achievement, recently, on the part of Coatbridge Davitts was the selection of 11 local youngsters to represent Scotland at the annual Feile/World Cup for Under-14s. This year’s competition was held in Kerry, south-west Ireland.

The players attend St Andrew’s, Coatbridge High and St Ambrose High but also began their Gaelic Football careers when at primary school. Greenhill, Langloan, St Stephen’s, St Augustine’s and St Mary’s primaries are the proud schools where these pupils started out.

Making up the two squads were: Boys – Aidan Barlow, Luke Campbell and Jacob Kennedy; Girls – Ellie Hughes, Nadine Lindsay, Madison Gilmour, Katie Higgins, Eve B Murrie, Eva Johnstone, Rhiannian Gibb and Mellissa Kerr.

National service Coatbridge boys made up three-quarters of the Scotland squad which played Lancashire in the intercounty All British competition

Proud players The Coatbridge Davitts members who were called up for the World Cup

Fun time These primary school kids enjoyed a two-hour Gaelic Football tournament taster