‘Jesus, there’s some altitude here’: Introducing Mexico City’s first GAA club

In the Ajusco mountains high above Mexico City, players from the city’s first and only Gaelic football club gather early for a casual Saturday game. On the pitch, Irish and Mexican players from Los San Patricios club call out in a mixture of Spanish – “corre!” (run!); “acá güey!” (here dude!) – and Hiberno-English – “Jesus, there is some altitude here.”

“Soloing the ball” is a Gaelic football term that has proven more difficult to translate, with Mexican players opting for “una pequena dominada” (a little domination). But once Saturday’s games are over, the players will retire for a few post-match “chelas” (beers), a tradition easily shared by the club’s multiple nationalities.

Los San Patricios is named after a battalion composed mostly of Irish immigrants who switched sides and fought for Mexico in its war against the US following the annexation of Texas in 1845. The battalion fought under a makeshift green flag featuring the Mexican coat of arms, a golden harp surrounded by shamrocks and the motto “Erin Go Bragh” on one side, with St Patrick adorned on the other.

Today, Los San Patricios has a small but growing membership of Gaelic football players and supporters in Mexico City. On the sidelines and wearing a babygrow with a San Patricios’ emblem is the club’s youngest supporter, three-month old Klara Itzul, who snoozes as her parents, Danny O’Doherty and Melanie Held, alternate between pitch and pram duty. The annual fee for Mexico’s only GAA club is around €90 – “this is smaller than it might be for a club at home, as we try to keep it low so there is no barrier to entry to play depending on socioeconomic background,” says Clare-native Johnny Vaughan, one of the club’s coaches.

Rather than relying on membership fees, the club runs raffles and fundraising events such as pub quizzes throughout the year and has received grants from the US Gaelic Athletic Association and the GAA Global Games Development Fund, which is jointly funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the GAA in Ireland. Also, with an Aztec print design Los San Patricio’s club’s green jersey is “very sought after”, says Vaughan, an environmental engineer who has lived in Mexico for five years. “I do think Paul Mescal’s GAA shorts have done a lot for the sport,” adds one female player standing on the sidelines.

In Mexico, where women’s sports often struggle with limited support and resources, the GAA’s parish-honed organisation has drawn in Mexican players, who now make up the majority of the women’s team.

Tania Colchado played soccer, Mexico’s most popular sport, and basketball, before joining Los San Patricios two years ago. Now serving as the women’s team captain, Colchado has played in overseas GAA tournaments in Heuston, Austin and Indianapolis. She’s excited that Los San Patricios will be hosting its first international tournament at the end of September in the Copa Azteca, when six teams will travel to Mexico from the US – “everyone can see that in Mexico we can play this sport too,” she says. David O’Reagan is a captain for the men’s team but helping out in goals for the women’s match. A maths teacher originally from Douglas, Co Cork, O’Reagan has called Mexico home for the last six years – “I love it here,” he says.

Los San Patricios GAA Club in Mexico. Photograph: Hannah McCarthy

Having arrived in Mexico only five weeks earlier, Tom Armstrong is one of the club’s newest members. An accountant with Kerry Group, one of the largest Irish companies operating in Mexico, Armstrong previously worked for the Irish food conglomerate in Spain, where he played Gaelic football for the Madrid Harps.

Tola ní Shúilleabhain, a yoga and language teacher based in Mexico City, and her sister Caoimhe took part in the San Patricios tour in Texas earlier in the year, where the club faced the Celtic Cowboys in Austin. The Texan fixtures were “amazing”, says Carlos Andres Hidalgo, who began playing Gaelic football 1½ years ago. “The tournament was so well-organised,” he says. “Everyone takes it so seriously.”

Another Mexican player, Christian Sanchez, first took up Gaelic football four years ago in San Antonio in Texas (where the local GAA club also goes by the nickname the San Patricios), before returning to Mexico and joining the capital’s own fledgling GAA club.

Also playing on the men’s team is Sebastian Ortega, a Mexican student from Toluca who spends his weekdays playing rugby but reserves his weekends for Gaelic football. Ortega “is one of the best men’s Mexican players that we have”, says Vaughan, but he has never travelled for any of the US matches.

Sebastian Ortega of Los San Patricios. Photograph. Hannah McCarthy

Mexicans have easier access to US tourist visas than other Latin American countries, but they are still required to pay nearly $200 (€172) for a visa and complete an interview at a US embassy or consulate. With wait times for visa appointments now up to a year, this creates difficulty for Mexican players travelling to GAA fixtures in the US.

“Some of the Irish players that have Cuban or Iranian stamps on their passports have also declined to travel with us,” says Vaughan.

“In saying all of that, we have never had any issues when we have travelled and we mostly travel to Texas. Mostly, [US] immigration have been curious about the sport and thought it was cool that Mexicans and Irish were playing together against US teams.”

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