Donegal Expats launch GAA club in Dubai bringing Irish sporting spirit to the UAE

A group of Donegal people are set to take to the GAA field in the coming weeks after forming a Donegal Dubai GAA club. 

It’ll be the first club in Dubai to take the county’s name, with a committee of six Donegal men recently coming together to get the newly formed club off the ground. 

Led by Chairman Liam Doherty from Kilcar, who has spent the last seven years in the UAE, the idea for the club was for there to be a team that the large number of Donegal people in Dubai could identify with. 

The full committee consists of Liam Doherty (Kilcar), Sean Meehan (Donegal Town), Eamon Carr (Fanad), Christopher Sweeney (Gweedore), Conor Gibbons (Letterkenny), and Brandon Goodwin, (Bundoran). 

In terms of forming the club, Donegal man and committee member Sean Meehan takes up the story. 

“This time last year Liam Doherty from Kilcar and Conor Gibbons from Letterkenny got talking one night out about the large number of Donegal people in Dubai,” Meehan told Donegal Live. 

“It kind of started out like a joke that with the amount of Donegal people out here that we could nearly form our own Donegal GAA team and replicate the likes of Donegal New York, Donegal Boston, and Donegal Philadelphia. 

“From that moment, I think word just got around to Donegal people, and eventually this year we decided that it was now or never in terms of getting this club off the ground. We knew this was the best time to start it.” 

With a men’s and ladies’ team now formed in the club, who will play nine-a-side matches, Donegal Dubai are set to begin in the Junior C competition when the season kicks off in October. 

“Nearly every month from October onwards there’s a league competition which is continuous,” Meehan said. “So, if you win a tournament, you get 10 points, if you come second, you get eight points, third is six points, and so on.  

“Then, at the end of the year, at the last tournament, whoever comes closest to the final and wins the most tournaments wins the league. 

“There are levels from Senior, down to Junior C and Socials, so because we’re a new club, we have to enter at the lowest level at Junior C, but we have a very strong panel and we do see ourselves hopefully getting promotion after promotion.” 

With only six clubs based in the UAE, it gave the Donegal Dubai committee even more of a reason to form this club, with a great opportunity to fly across the GCC to play different teams, while also giving other Irish people from outside Donegal the chance to play for the club, with Meehan adding that they now have members from Cork, Kerry, and Dublin involved. 

“Within the last few days, we’ve got a ladies’ panel together too and actually have enough now for two panels,” he admitted. “We have over 33 ladies signed up to the club and we have over 65 men signed up too. 

“It’s a UAE tournament, so we have to fly to places like Qatar and Bahrain for these competitions which is great.  

“In terms of the membership and the fee, we have a yearly fee which is quite low and we have some fantastic sponsors coming along to help us out.  

“We will also look to approach people back home and we will hopefully look to the County Board, Croke Park, and the GPA all for assistance. Anywhere we feel we can get assistance for support and sponsorship we will try and reach out to them.”