A group of Donegal people are founding the first club in the county’s name in Dubai.
Donegal Dubai are set to play their first games against their competitors in the United Arab Emirates in the upcoming season, with many of the Donegal diaspora in Dubai set to take part.
Following in the footsteps of clubs such as Tír Connell Gaels in London, co-founder Liam Doherty from Kilcar wanted to create a similar team that Donegal expats could identify with after spending 7 years in the UAE himself.
“I had played for a couple of clubs over there, and most of those clubs were neutral so they set up a name like Dubai Celts or Gaels. I never felt that I was putting on a jersey I was proud to put on.”
“I knew a lot of Donegal lads – we’re very clannish in how we move – and I saw the likes of Tír Connell Gaels, Donegal Boston, Donegal Philadelphia who my brother played with – I just saw these clubs where there was a community built up around it.”
“That’s where myself and Conor Gibbons from St Eunans sat down for lunch one day to count how many Donegal men we both knew (in Dubai). We came up with 30 names that day – I said that was the makings of a good club.”
From there they built the club’s committee, finding people from all corners of the county to come in and set up Donegal Dubai.
The full committee consists of Liam Doherty (Kilcar), Christopher Sweeney (Gweedore), Conor Gibbons (Letterkenny), Sean Meehan (Donegal Town), Brandon Goodwin, (Bundoran) & Eamon Carr (Fanad).
“We just started to reach out to boys that we knew, friends of friends, lads from Abu Dhabi, and the interest was high.”
“Everyone said that if there was a club here, why would they put on a jersey for a neutral club or a different county’s club?”
From lunchtime discussions and Whatsapp groups, Donegal Dubai now have between 45 and 50 men’s players signed up and ready for the team’s first season.
“Over here it’s 9-a-side and 12 on a panel, so we comfortably have two junior teams to put in the competition this year, but it would be nice to maybe add another junior team to that or a social team as well.”
With only 6 clubs based in the UAE, those clubs field numerous teams in the same competitions – another reason why Liam and the committee thought establishing the Donegal Dubai side made sense.
“Some of the biggest clubs will have maybe seven senior teams within that club, and that’s the point we were trying to make – there should be more clubs and not just teams within clubs.”
“The lads that we were speaking with were all spread amongst five clubs – so bringing them all in, the numbers are already high.”
Even though Donegal Dubai are being made to start out at junior level – it should just be a matter of seasons before they are battling at the top of the senior ranks in Dubai with the level of talent they’ve acquired.
“Our first 12 is very strong, we have the likes of Christopher Sweeney from Gweedore who has obviously got senior medals, we’ve got Conor Gibbons, and Aidy O’Gara from Annagry… we should walk those first couple of seasons hopefully.”
The future of the club already looks strong even though they haven’t yet played an official match, with plenty of interest in setting up a ladies’ team, as well as a juvenile team potentially as early as next year.
“The long-term goal for us as a club includes hopefully next year having a couple of ladies’ teams, as there are already a couple of Donegal ladies’ gaels playing over in Dubai already – and we’d look at a juvenile team for next year under the club as well.”
It seems that the level of interest in Donegal Dubai raised just through word-of-mouth and social media proves once again that no matter where you are in the world, you can soon find a clan of Donegal people.
