Ireland’s Favorite Sport Hasn’t Traveled Well

Americans seem to have a warm place in their hearts for most of Ireland’s passions -- Guinness beer, the music of U2 and Van Morrison and its long line of famous authors and poets. But they have never warmed to Ireland’s most treasured sport -- Gaelic football, a hybrid of soccer, rugby and Australian rules football.

In Ireland, most little boys kick a laminated-leather Gaelic ball long before they boot a soccer ball or swing a golf club. And every Sunday, Gaelic football games between rival counties draw thousands of fans. But in this country, the game is known only in cities with large Irish-American populations, such as New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco.

The game appeared to be on the rise in Southern California in the early 1990s when eight men’s and two women’s teams competed in the North American division of the Gaelic Athletic Assn. But in the late 1990s, the powerful Irish economy, dubbed the Celtic Tiger, began to roar. Young, athletic Irish men suddenly returned to their homeland in droves, gutting the Gaelic football clubs’ rosters and causing nearly half of them to fold.

So if Gaelic football is going to survive in Southern California, the sport must start hooking Americans. That’s where American Scott McBrayer comes in.

McBrayer, 40, was reared on baseball, basketball and football. So to him, Gaelic football meant nothing. But a few months after being introduced to it by friends of friends, he was sold.

He started as a goalkeeper 10 years ago for San Diego Clan Na Gael. As his skills improved, McBrayer worked his way into a starting midfielder spot, where most of the action and contact takes place.

After a recent Sunday game against the Orange County Wild Geese, McBrayer walked off the well-worn field at Brothers of St. Patrick in Midway City with a nice little souvenir -- a large gash above his right eye. His white jersey covered in dried blood, he didn’t seem bothered that he’d need stitches to close the wound.

“A guy just came up and punched me,” he said. “But I let it go by, because I’m here to play. I don’t want to fight.”

McBrayer has played soccer and rugby but prefers Gaelic football. “It’s more physical than soccer and faster-paced than rugby,” he said. “The action never stops.”

The game is played on a pitch -- or field -- typically 160 to 180 yards long and 80 to 100 yards wide, with a ball that’s smaller and heavier than a soccer ball. There are 13 players on a side -- 15 in the traditional version played in Ireland -- who try to move the ball downfield and score either a point or a goal (three points). A point is scored by kicking or punching the ball (using an underhand volleyball serve) between goal posts. A goal is scored by kicking or punching a loose ball into the net, which is set beneath the goal posts.

Play isn’t as physical as rugby because there is no tackling, but soccer players might have a tough time adjusting to the shoulder-to-shoulder body checks, the constant grabbing and stripping of the ball and the violent collisions.

As the game between Clan Na Gael and the Wild Geese played out in Midway City -- an unincorporated area in northwest Orange County -- a handful of young boys kicked a soccer ball on the sideline and wondered what these 26 men were doing.

“It seems like a stupid game,” one boy said. “I’d rather play soccer. This game looks dangerous.”

In the neighboring backyards, people with bewildered looks on their faces poked their heads over fences as grown men bounced balls off their feet, wildly threw their shoulders into each other and kicked balls through narrow goal posts.

Gaelic football was played between villages as far back as 1527. The game became a way for the Gaelic people to maintain their language and culture during their battles with the English. Some rules have been added and others discarded as the game has evolved, but aficionados insist one standard has stood the test of time: No players have ever been paid.

It’s estimated that 250,000 Irish men and women play Gaelic football, making it far more popular in Ireland than soccer or golf. On the third Sunday of September, the Irish drop everything to watch the All-Ireland final at Croke Park in Dublin, which annually draws a crowd of 80,000.

In Southern California, however, there are just four men’s teams left, and none in Los Angeles, which once fielded four teams. Orange County still has a men’s and women’s team, the Wild Geese and Orange County Roisin, although the Roisin are on the verge of collapsing.

A few San Diego teams have recruited U.S. players. Two-thirds of Na Fianna, a 5-year-old women’s team, are Americans. Setanta, a 3-year-old men’s club, has 32 players on its roster, nearly a third of them American.

“We’re living in America. If you don’t recruit Americans, you won’t field a team,” said Dublin native Conor Smith, one of Setanta’s founders. “You’ll just be relying on how many Irish people you meet year to year, and that isn’t many.”

Dermot Kehily of Setanta thinks Americans would love the game if they would give it a chance.

“It’s the ultimate test for an athlete: Quick movements, strength, speed and agility. [Michael] Jordan would have been fantastic at our sport.”