South Africa GAAThe international expansion of Gaelic Games is being driven in large part by renewed emigration since 2007 but not in all cases.
This week the South African Gaels are in Ireland for a week long tour sponsored by ESB International.  The team is made up of players from townships around Johannesburg. It is one of three teams supported by the South African Gaelic Sports Association that comprises groups in that city as well as Pretoria and Durban.
There are 200 players in the overall group, mostly South African born but with a number of expatriate workers as well.

Join us for a night of sport and business networking on Wednesday, March 26th at Croke Park and help raise money for UNICEF as part of a global initiative.

ESB International is sponsoring the tour, the first of a kind for the group and they will be playing matches in Dublin and Belfast.
“We are delighted to support the South African Gaels team on their first visit to the home of gaelic football,” said Ollie Brogan, managing director of ESB International and pictured above alongside nephew Bernard Brogan, last year’s Footballer of the Year Michael Daragh McAuley and the visiting stars of the South Africa Gaels.
“As a company we have strong ties with South Africa operating in the region since the early 1990’s, with a head office in Johannesburg. Gaelic sport holds an important place in the community among the young and old here in Ireland and we are looking forward to creating a similar legacy in South Africa”.
An important element in the growth of gaelic football in the region is that it combines skills of the two sports that previously divided South Africa, rugby and soccer, but itself has no political legacy in the country and has the potential to fulfil a vital role in the country’s social development.
And just in case you need reminding of how important sport has been in the development of a socially inclusive South Africa, these words of Nelson Mandela will never grow old…