Boston GAA Scene – The Season So Far

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Boston GAA – The Season So Far

For the past 150 years the Irish and the city Boston have been synonymous with each other. Without getting into the history and ‘nitty gritty’ of it all, if you’ve ever been to Boston you’ll understand. Forget the cliched similarities to Dublin, and the pop culture references, it’s in the suburbs of Greater Boston where the Irish community has cemented itself and is currently thriving. The fact that Boston North-East GAA boast 42 different teams between Gaelic Football, Hurling, Ladies Football and Camogie tells a story of it’s own.

The Boston Irish Cultural Centre is based in Canton and all GAA games are played there, all the live GAA games from home are broadcasted, and between this Friday the 7th and Sunday 9th of June the Boston Irish Festival will commence. As you can imagine, it feels like home, except with an added extra of scorching summer sun. Traditionally, the J1 student has landed over for the summer to play for the various sides in Boston GAA, and as the 2013 season kicked off two weeks ago the majority of them will be landing in Logan International over the next few weeks.

In 2012 Shannon Blues won the Boston North-East Championship with the likes of Cathal Cregg, the Roscommon Senior Captain, and Armagh’s Caolan Rafferty leading the way to a tight victory after extra-time. They defeated Donegal in the final that day, who had the likes of Kevin Cassidy and Louth duo Brian White and Brian Donnelly on their side. The Blues went on to represent Boston North East in Philadelphia where they lost the North American County Board Senior Championship Final played by a goal to the Ulster Club San Francisco.

The Season So Far

June 2nd – Second Round

Christopher’s 3-10 2-11 Wolfe Tones

In a very entertaining affair, Christopher’s struck late to deny the Tones their first victory of the season.

Danny Egan top-scored with 1-07 for the Wolfe Tones, however Tipperary star Michael Quinlivan and the dangerous Christopher Brady finished with 0-05 and 2-01. Indeed the two combined in the dying moments as Brady goaled to complete the Christopher’s comeback. They sit on 3 points following their draw with Donegal in the first round, while the ‘Tones’ have suffered their second successive defeat.

Aidan McAnespie’s 2-12 2-05 Donegal

Runners-up in 2012, Donegal have yet to win so far this summer. The McAnespie’s dominated this clash from start to finish, leading 2-05 to 1-01 at the interval.

Aidan Lynch finished with 1-05 for the winner’s while Niall McConnell, who scored 0-06 in the drawn game with Christopher’s in the first round, finished with a goal.

May 26th – First Round

Shannon Blues 3-11 1-08 Wolfe Tones

The 2013 season kicked off ten days ago on May 26th. With 8 sides in the senior Championship, holders Shannon Blues got their Championship defense underway against the Wolfe Tones, who had Meath’s Joe Sheridan registered for a brief stage last year.

Former Kerry u21 star Kieran Hurley returned to the Shannon Blues forward line for another summer, scoring 2-04 as the Blues eased to victory.

Donegal 1-09 1-09 Christopher’s

It was Donegal Boston’s 25th anniversary last year; unfortunately their star-studded side finished runners-up after a real battle with Shannon Blues in the Championship final. Last summer their squad included the likes of Westmeath duo Gary Connaughton and Dessie Dolan, Louth duo Brian White and Brian Donnelly, along with Kevin Cassidy who infamously missed out on his county Donegal winning the Sam Maguire at home in Ireland.

Christoper’s have always had a strong Munster influence, notably a number of Dr. Crokes players lined out last year, including Daithí Casey and Christopher Brady. Brady is back out this summer, and the youngster opened his 2013 account with 0-03.

The sides couldn’t be seperated in this tight affair, although Donegal did miss a goal chance to win it at the death.

Kerry 1-05 0-06 Galway

In a low-scoring affair, Kerry defeated Galway by two points. Galway who had Meath goalie Paddy O’Rourke as their target man last season perhaps lacked a similar outlet up front.

Neither side have won a Senior Boston Championship for quite a while now, and judging from their opening match the drought won’t be ending this year.

Connemara Gaels 2-08 1-09 Aidan McAnespie’s

The first throw in of the 2013 season was between the 2011 finalists Connemara Gaels and Aidan McAnespie’s. The ‘Macs’ prevailed that day, but the Gaels got their 2013 summer off to a flying start.

The Connemara side fielded a youthful team in 2012 with a number of the 2011 u21 Galway side playing for them. This year two men from the Aran Islands GAA club are playing for the Gaels, Ciaran O’Donnell who also played in 2012 and Caomhán Seoighe.

Despite leading by a point at half-time it took a late goal by Michael Lundy to secure the victory for the Gaels.

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