Cheers to our biggest year ever!
2023 was an enormous year for the Cologne Celtics; as our club once again grew in membership, we competed in more tournaments than ever, launched our youth section and had many more incredible achievements. Here is an article written by our club chairperson, Laura Kennedy, that highlights some of these accomplishments.
This is the third in our series of „Year Reviews“ you can read about 2021 and 2022 here. Enjoy the article! Bain sult as.
It takes a lot of combined effort for a club to be able to function and compete.
Our committee is constantly planning, networking, communicating, and working, with each other, with other clubs, with our sponsors and partners, and with our members. Our coaches put in a huge amount of time to help us improve as a team and individually. Our sponsors and partners provide us with the resources to train and take part in tournaments. Our members contribute to the amazing and welcoming atmosphere at the club, volunteering their time and skills at events and helping each other with real community spirit. Our players train throughout the year and travel around Germany and Europe to tournaments at their own expense and make the club proud, win or lose. Our youngest players, and their parents who bring them to training, are allowing us to share the joy and passion of Gaelic Games with a new generation and ensure the longevity of our club.
The club is getting bigger every year. Our membership has continued to increase, with 17% more members than in 2022. Not that many years ago, there were only 20-something people registered. Who knows where we will be in a few years!
Thankfully, we have moved on from the park in Nippes and onto the far superior facilities in Bocklemünd. Finally, we have a suitable home for our club!
With more suitable training grounds and greater numbers, the momentum and will to compete has gone into overdrive. This year we have attended more tournaments than ever before and have hosted more events. Cologne has never before been such a strong presence in European and German Gaelic games.
We kicked off the season by sending Tobias and Damo to represent Cologne in Gaelic Football in Maastricht in March at the first Benelux Football Round. We were represented with quality if not quantity, and the small number of Cologne players was certainly not a sign of things to come for the rest of the year.
We were delighted to host Eindhoven and Monagea (Limerick) on St. Patrick’s weekend for a friendly hurling tournament, the inaugural Francie O’Connor Cup. We were able to field two teams with the help of our friends from Düsseldorf. Eindhoven went away with the cup and with a promise to give us the chance to win it back next year. It was a fantastic weekend, and we were delighted to strengthen our link with Frank’s home club.
We returned to Maastricht a couple of weeks later with 20 hurlers and camógs for the opening act of the European hurling season, with cars of players leaving from Cologne, Bonn and Düsseldorf (and Tobias travelling on the bus from Aachen). It was a great start to the year, with the girls getting to the camogie final and the lads also reaching the hurling shield final.
Later that month, we headed to Darmstadt for the German Hurling and Camogie Cup. The lads succumbed to Munich in extra time in the semi-final and eventually finished in fourth place, and the ladies also finished in third place in the battle for the prestigious Sebastian Rießbeck Cup.
Ammi, Sarah Butler and Laura M. attended the second Benelux Football Round in Dendermonde, Belgium and were the first of the Kölsche Mädels to attend a football competition in 2023. They had a great day teaming up with Nijmegen and did us proud.
May was a quieter month than April. Only a small contingent of three hurlers and one camóg made it to Brussels for the second European round. Julia had a successful day playing with den Haag, and Chris, Fred and Damo teamed up with the Copenhagen lads for a great day’s hurling.
One week later, Fred and Damo, now joined by Santi, lined out again. This time in Eindhoven for Gaelic Football. It was another great day for the club.
We were back with a vengeance with bigger numbers for the third European Hurling and Camogie Round. We had a long journey to Dresden on the Friday, and the matches the next day were no easier. It was a tough day for the hurlers, who were playing in a higher division. The girls also had a tough time that day, as, with an additional player from Dresden, we had a full team but without any subs. With a changing panel of borrowed players from other teams, to let us have a sub or two, it was difficult to find a rhythm, and we didn’t have much success on the pitch, but we enjoyed the sunny weather and meeting other teams.
The final Benelux football round took place in Wanroij. We were able to send good numbers with eight male footballers, two female footballers, and one referee (Ciarán) travelling from Cologne and taking to the field. The lads joined with our neighbours, Düsseldorf, while Ammi and Sarah Butler played with Düsseldorf and Hamburg. Unfortunately, we struggled with injuries, and Pádraic tore his cruciate ligament in the first match, and spent the rest of the day watching from the sideline. The ladies won the shield on the day and Nijmegen were great hosts. We had to say goodbye to many of our Erasmus members after this tournament as the semester had come to an end.
June also saw the broadcast of “Cluiche as Baile”, the outstanding TG4 documentary by the Desmond Brothers. Cologne was heavily featured in the documentary, which brought a little bit of prestige and glamour to the club.
The summer break was not spent idle. Cologne was very proud to have three hurlers (Jan, Malte and Fabian), two camógs (Kea and Katharina), and a male and female footballer (Santi and Ammi) representing us on the German Team at the GAA World Games in Derry. Laura and Lea attended as bainisteoirí for the camogie team, and we also had two players on Benelux teams in the international categories (Cillian, football, and Ciarán, hurling). It was a great week which we spent mingling with players from all over the world. The Germans had a good bit of success, with the German Red Hurling team winning the Plate and both the camogie team and the men’s football team reaching the Shield final.
August saw us officially launch our Youth Team. Cologne Celtics Family Day was a massive success. The youngest members of the club, who had been training with Ger for a number of weeks, had their chance to play in front of the huge number of attendees who had come to the event. There was Irish Dancing, courtesy of the Greenwood School of Irish Dancing in Bonn, live music from The O’Sullivan Brothers and Gabhair Rua, games and activities, and fun all around.
In September, we travelled to den Haag for another day of hurling and camogie. The girls, who joined forces with den Haag, made it as far as the final, where they lost against Belgium. The lads, who counted three Darmstadters and a Düsseldorfer amongst their ranks, had an excellent day and brought home the Shield. There were great celebrations that night, and we spent the following day on the beach, accompanied by the silverware the lads had won, of course, as Jack was not letting it out of his sight.
The first of three Developmental Football Tournaments was held in Leuven in September. Niall C., Anto and Michael made the trip, and we had a fantastic day playing with Maastricht against Leuven and Nijmegen.
The end of September also saw the arrival of some new Erasmus players. After some initial confusion, we realised we were in touch with two individuals David Ryans, both studying in Bonn. Both lads joined us for the final European Hurling and Camogie round in Maastricht. It was a mixed day for the teams, with the girls being overcome in the Shield Final and the lads bowing out before any finals. Once again, we were able to come up with big numbers, and our new and developing players got plenty of time on the pitch.
For October and November, our focus was firmly on football. Ammi travelled to the Hague to compete in the Pan-European Football Championship, where she played with the Hamburg team; she had a very successful day, winning every match until eventually succumbing to Brittany in the final.
We hosted Leuven and Nijmegen in another developmental football tournament. There were more than enough lads to field a full team, so some volunteered to line out with the other teams. The lads did well and won every game they played. Katharina, Niamh and Laura K., and some other players borrowed from Nijmegen, took part in the ladies’ competition. As we have traditionally had more success and larger numbers with hurling and camogie than football, it was rewarding to see so much potential for football.
One week later, we headed to Hamburg for the German Football Cup. Five of our lads teamed up with Düsseldorf to form Rheinland Gaels, and two girls, Ammi and Katharina, played with an amalgamated team with Hamburg, Setanta, and Augsburg. The ladies’ team were successful against Berlin GAA. Frankfurt took home the men’s trophy. As Niall C. had played in goal for both Rheinland Gaels and the Frankfurt team, he was also part of the winning team, so three of our players were awarded medals for winning the German Cup. As Katharina was part of the 2021 German Camogie Cup winning team, she is the first one in the club to win a German Cup medal for both camogie/hurling and football.
The final tournament of the year was another football developmental round, this time in Nijmegen. Santi, Arun, Cillian, Michael, Tobi, and Hendrik made the journey across the border to team up with the Hague for a very wet day playing football. We were delighted to compete in so many football tournaments and do so well this year. We have high hopes for next year to become a more established force in the European Gaelic Football Scene.
Hosting both a hurling and football tournament, as well as the Family Day, launching the Youth Team, and competing in all European Hurling/Camogie rounds, all Benelux Football Rounds and Developmental football tournaments, the Pan European Football Championship, and the German Cups for both codes have kept us very occupied this year. We have never before competed in so many tournaments, and shows us how far we have come in recent times.
I hope that this is still only the beginning and that we will go from strength to strength, gaining momentum with continued and increasing success in tournaments across Europe and beyond and bringing Gaelic Games to the region of Cologne.
Thank you, Laura, for recapping our 2023. We are already looking forward to 2024 and everything that it will bring!
2023 was also our most successful year in terms of views on this website, with over 12,000 views from 6,000 visitors. Thank you for visiting us and reading about our events and adventures. We will have many more stories to tell and tournaments to report on in the new year.
The Cologne Celtics GAA Club is a highly active sports and social club based in Cologne. We are a mix of Germans, Irish and internationals who have created our sporting community within the Domstadt. If you would like to get involved with us and want to take up something new in 2024, why not contact us directly to hear more about what we offer. You can find out about club membership here on the website if you are interested in becoming a Celt.
2023 was a blast! We cannot wait for the adventures in store for us in 2024.
Kölle abú!
Cologne Celtics 