Irish Brawl Game : Gaelic Football, a Hybrid of Soccer, Has Small but Fierce Following in Southland

Thirteen men huddle on a grassy field about 200 yards from the bustling westbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway. Moments later, they scatter across the field in frenzied pursuit of a hard, round ball.

The player who is fortunate--or perhaps it should be unfortunate--enough to reach the ball first, kicks it downfield before being swarmed by the opposing team. If he dawdles in getting rid of the ball, the delay can prove painful.

Gaelic football is part soccer, part Central Park mugging. While tackling a player is not allowed, just about anything else is when going for the ball.

“There’s a lot of bodily contact,” said Martin O’Doherty, the most experienced player on the Young Ireland’s, one of two Valley-area Gaelic football teams.

But unlike American football, no protective helmets and padding are used.

The teams are 15 to a side and, as in soccer, scores are recorded by kicking the ball between two uprights, which in this case are 16 feet high. A team is awarded three points for a shot that flies under an 8-foot-high crossbar, past the goalie and into a net. A shot over the crossbar and between uprights 21 feet apart is worth one point.

A player moves a ball downfield--on a greensward 100 yards wide by 160 yards long--by kicking it or punching it with a clenched fist. If an opposing player gets in the way of the ball, he might be kicked or punched instead. Throwing the ball is not allowed.

Gaelic football has been played in Ireland since the 16th Century. It evolved from the games of “rough and tumble” and caid (pronounced cad), which in Gaelic means a ball made of twisted straw.

The Gaelic Athletic Assn. of Ireland became the governing body for the sport when it was founded in 1884. The sport is now played in every Irish county and attracts crowds of more than 90,000 to its national championship matches in Dublin.

O’Doherty, 36, of Newbury Park, played for County Cork, which won the Irish national championship in 1973, before immigrating to the United States in 1979.

In the San Fernando Valley, O’Doherty found the competitive level to be far below what he was used to in his native land.

“Comparing a local player to one in Ireland would be like comparing softball to professional baseball,” O’Doherty said. “The best player here wouldn’t make it on a low-level club team in Ireland. Plus, this is a very weak division compared to New York and the teams in the East.”

Gaelic football is more popular on the East Coast and in the larger Irish communities around Boston. Excluding Ireland, the sport has its largest following in New York City.

There are only four teams in the Southern California Gaelic Football League: two in the Valley, one in Orange County and one in San Diego. The Valley-based teams play from April to July at Valley College and the Hjelte Sports Center in Van Nuys.

The sport, however, has been played in Southern California for more than 40 years, according to O’Doherty.

“The game is on an upswing now because of the immigration,” O’Doherty said. “It has really been up and down in this area. In the ‘60s, when the emigration from Ireland was limited, the game started to go down around here.”

Mark Cunningham, 24, of El Monte is a typical player on the Young Ireland’s. Cunningham’s first mission after coming to the United States from London eight months ago was to find a Gaelic football league.

“I had played for club teams back home,” said Cunningham, a native of Galway, Ireland. “Football or hurling is played in all the schools in Ireland. I wanted to find a team to play for out here.”

Despite the large number of Irish emigres in the Valley, the sport has yet to take hold here. The game in which 13 men took part instead of the full complement of 30 illustrates the point.

“We don’t promote it well enough and people don’t have the time to devote to it out here that they do back home,” O’Doherty said.

O’Doherty stresses, however, that the sport is not just reserved for Irishmen.

“We would love to have Americans involved,” O’Doherty said. “What we find about American kids is that they have a very good feeling for the ball, which probably comes from playing basketball or baseball.

“American kids are great with their hands but usually weak with their feet.”

O’Doherty’s team missed an opportunity to advance to next month’s Western Division Championships, losing to the Orange County-based Wild Geese, 16-11, Sunday. The Young Ireland’s still can qualify, however, if they defeat a San Diego-based team July 10.

Gaelic football teams from throughout the United States will converge in San Francisco on Labor Day weekend for the North American championships.