The Roasterie Cup Gaelic Football Tournament 2010

Some short video clips from the 2010 Roasterie Cup Gaelic Football Tournament down at Swope Park. The Tournament was on June 26th at The Kansas City Wizards practice facility. A big THANK YOU to them for letting us use the field and to all our sponsors for making it such a brilliant day. (The KC Wizards, The Roasterie, The Celtic Ranch, Boulevard Brewing Company, The Celtic Ranch and Mike's Tavern.)

It was over a 100F on the field again this year and took a toll on all players, but everyone from The Twin Cities, NW Arkansas, Little Rock and Kansas City A and B team put on a great show and made it a really competitive day.

If you have any great photos or video footage from the tournament please share them with us through our Facebook page or a link in the comment section on here.

Bloomsday at The IMCC

It was SRO at The IMCC for this year's Bloomsday celebration. Organized by Tom and Nancy Shawver, the annual reading of Joyce's Ulysses brought people from all over the Kansas City community together.

Boulevard provided the beer, The Roasterie the coffee and board members and volunteers brought the food. It really made The IMCC come alive and showed what a great space it is for bringing the Irish community together.

In addition to the reading,  Eddie Delahunt warmed up the crowd with a great set of Irish songs and was joined by the girls from the Driscoll school of dancing. They created an atmosphere that made you feel you were 5,000 miles away in Dublin and not in the basement of Union Station.

 Big Tom Shawver and Eddie Delahunt get on the level with each other

 Steve from The KCGAC talking to the Rugby King of Kansas City

I hope he was asking him to send us more young, fit players!

Coffee Morning at The Roasterie Cafe

With our tournament only a week away, June 26th, The KCGAC green-machine spent the morning at The Roasterie Cafe in Brookside to spread the word.

A big thanks to Scott, Angie, Kurtis, Ryan, Chelsea and Paige for getting up early and showing your support for The KCGAC. 

It was a nice and relaxing morning enjoying tasty beverages and pastries hanging out chatting to people. I was surprised that several people we met were already aware of Gaelic Football and were excited to hear that we have a local club. So hopefully we'll get a good crowd down at Swope Park next Saturday.

The Roasterie will be on site at the tournament providing iced coffees with their silver bullet air-stream. And if the heat is anything like last year, we'll all need a little something to cool down.

Boulevard Pub Quiz at The IMCC

Last Saturday we had another fun night down at The IMCC in Union Station thanks to our sponsors Boulevard Brewing Company and Raglan Road Irish Pub.

Competition was close, but last month's winners The 3 Bs were back, minus a B, but still managed to take home top honors. Brian Sulley is officially a nerd.

Tom and Nancy Shawver from Bloomsday Books were in attendance. Tom is on the IMCC board and it was great to see him and fellow board member Chris Tschihart representing.

For another great night out at The IMCC you should attend their Bloom's Day celebration on June 16th, it is organized by Tom and Nancy Shawver and is a great Kansas City tradition.

Next month's quiz will be on July 10th, hope to see you there.

Rumble in the Rock 2010

Another Memorial Weekend in Little Rock for the KCGAC and a near identical finish to last year: 2 and 2.

We beat NW Arkansas twice and lost, not by much mind you, to LR and St. Louis.

The lads had a great time traveling down there, some had more fun than others, no names mentioned.

Next year we need to start a push early for the trip to LR to get as much of The KCGAC as possible down there and show them what we are made off.

We can get revenge in, oh say, 23 days!

KCGAC at Community America Ballpark

Not quite Croke Park, but the Kansas City Wizards let us take to the field after their game against Columbus Crew at Community America Ballpark. This is the biggest venue the KCGAC has played in to date and it was an amazing experience. 

The speed of the ball on a professional surface like that is something you can't understand until you've played on it yourself. That's no excuse for my lack of fitness, but Chr*#t it was hard going in that early summer heat. Made me feel all 32 of my years.

We all had a great day out there on Sunday at C.A.B. and a lot of the lads got there early to watch The Wizards in action. A big THANK YOU to Betsy Pollard and Chris Wyche for helping to make the day possible. And if they'll have us back, maybe we can turn this into an annual event and get all the Irish community out.

Jerron Taylor, James Taylor and Brad Gaughan...Brad in mid-air still not as tall a Big Taylor

The KCGAC easy to spot in the crowd

Craig and Jeanne Rohner, two of our greatest fans. They've watched us play in Little Rock, our home tournament, pub league, Ran the Wellie Race with us, shoveled snow at the Twin Cities game and here they are supporting us at The Wizards and they took most of these photos and videos. The KCGAC hearts U!

Big Ross on the ball

Ross Vs Teasdale...who gonna win

 Brad, Jake and Carl go for the ball

KCGAC Volunteers at The Wizards - May 15th

The KCGAC got up early on Saturday morning and headed out to Community America Ballpark to help with The Wizards inaugural Soccer Day 5k to benefit Autism Speaks and The Kansas City Soccer Foundation.

At 6:30 am the sky looked like it was going to open up and spoil the fun, but mother nature held off and the run started with just a drizzle of rain.

Breakfast of Champions - Their mascot Dynamo nibbles on a young runner

Everyone was having a good time getting ready for the run

Wizards player Jimmy Conrad crosses the line with his daughter and help from Dynamo

High-Fives all round for a race well run

KCGAC player Jake Yardich is also The Wizards videographer

After the run it was time to go home and take a nap, 'cause we were back at Community America Ballpark later that night for the game against Chicago Fire. This time we were not so lucky with the rain and the heavens opened up, making for a very soggy night.

The Wizards played great and held Chicago to a 2-2 game even with the rain lashing down and we had a great night of volunteering. A big Thank You to Brad, Leslie, Vince and George for representing The KCGAC in the community.

Our relationship with The Wizards is like having a big brother, a big brother that is a professional soccer club with his own stadium: a great relationship. We'll be at The Wizards again next week and after the game the KCGAC are going to take to the field to play a demo-game. We hope the rain stays away and we hope to see you there.

KCGAC at The Celtic Ranch

Beer 'n Sports: who doesn't love that combination?

The KCGAC board headed up to Weston early and had our monthly meeting upstairs in The Celtic Ranch. We sipped on a few O'Malley's Weston Brewing Company beers while we debated the in's and out's of the club.

Then around 3 o'clock we invited people to come up and share a beer with us and talk about Gaelic Football and Hurling.

We had people from Hawaii there who had never heard of Gaelic games before, but were so impressed that they took our information and are going to see if there are any Gaelic clubs back on the big island.

People from all over the Kansas City metro area and Lawrence came up and we got two new "Honorary" members, the sisters Meghan and Erin, we tried to get their Dad to sign up, but he was having none of it!

Later we walked around the store wearing our club jerseys, listening to an acoustic session of Flanagan's Right Hook and absorbing the great atmosphere of The Celtic Ranch. Some of the lads stayed the night in Weston, and I think I'll do the same next time. 

Thank you Terry and John, you and the gang at The Celtic Ranch are the best.

Mike, Pete and Anto wearing their KCGAC gear

Sully and Scott chillaxing Ranch style

Anthony and Devin showing what not to do with a hurley stick

Curtis explains why looking good on the field is as important as being good!

Erin and Meghan will be out to practice next week or maybe to just cheer us on

Showing ball skills

Fearsome KCGAC players

After a hard day doing PR work, its time to sit down and drink

The Unsung Hero of Gaelic Games

Our Referee most days: Mr. Chad Griffin

When the ball goes wide, when you get a hard challenge and don't get a free, when you miss kick the ball, when you give a bad hand pass, when you run out of energy and gasp for breath: You blame the Ref.

That's right, the guy who is out there of his own goodness officiating YOUR game, so YOU can have fun and play Gaelic games and all you want to do is tell this fella where to stick it. So, today all us hot headed players are going to cool it and show respect for the man that makes tournaments happen and keeps friendly games friendly. All hail the Ref.

Here's some refs in the spotlight:

Pub Quiz - Summer Series

 Picture borrowed from thepubquizcompany.com

If you've spent any time in Ireland or the British Isles, they you will have become acquainted with the institution known as: The Pub Quiz.

They are weekly trivia nights held and organized by local pubs throughout the British Isles. Growing up in Ireland I used to attend one every week in the Pier Bar with the Anderson's. They would become heated debates, with dictionaries and encyclopedia knowledge being spouted and the odd cheat slipping off to the bathroom to google an answer on their phones. Not long ago I got a call on my cellphone from Ireland looking for the answer to such a question. No shame.

The biggest cheats, excuse me, Winners, would get a round of drinks on the house and the quiz master would shame them into donating their winnings to a local charity. It's a great tradition and side of Irish culture that not a lot of people know about. So, to save you the trip to Ireland, The KCGAC and The ICCM are going to jointly hold a series of Pub Quizzes over the summer months, staring May 1st.

Admission is going to be $20 per person and tables will be limited to 6 persons. Boulevard Brewing Company are kindly sponsoring tasty beer for the event and you will be allowed to take in your own food. Proceeds from the events will go to both The KCGAC and The ICCM.

This is a great opportunity to get some friends, family or co-workers together and show the world that you should have been accepted to Mensa all those years ago. And get that office know-it-all who thinks he's never wrong to put his money where his arse is. Categories will include:

History
Geography
Science
Math
Literature
Sports&Leisure
This Week's News
Pop Culture and Celebrity Gossip
Kansas City

Time: 7pm-9pm
Date: May 1st, Saturday
Location: The Irish Cultural Center and Museum at Union Station
Cost: $20 per person

Haskell Game - A great night in Lawrence, KS

The second annual KCGAC Vs Haskell University Gaelic Football challenge match was a huge success for all involved. Both sides fielded strong teams and showed great skill and athleticism. 

We want to say a big THANK YOU to their teacher Hugh from Mayo and all the students for hosting the KCGAC.

After my injury in practice I was relegated to the sidelines on camera duty. So here's a sample of the shots I took, I've got a bunch more I will post to the website and facebook page.

It's not often that Carl gets out-paced, but this guy gave our team hell, we need to draft him

A physical game...

T'is but a scratch

Taylor takes to the air

 We're all looking forward to next year's game and hope to see some of the Haskell players at our practice, they'd make a great addition to our team.