A GAA club in west Belfast is to link up with Linfield Ladies after a chance meeting at a soccer match prompted one gael to bring the two sports together.
Liam Morrison, from Cardinal O'Donnell's GAC, said he approached Linfield about a possible link because his daughter plays football and soccer with both clubs.
From August 11, the clubs will run a programme of events for their under-10 girls at the GAA club's home at MacRory Park and Midgley Park, the home of Linfield girls' academy.
Cardinal O'Donnell's GAC is based on the Whiterock Road, just a mile from Midgley Park.
Girls from both clubs will visit the All Ireland Ladies' Finals day at Croke Park in Dublin on September 15 and the Women’s Irish FA Challenge Cup Final on September 21 at Windsor Park in Belfast.
Mr Morrison said such a link would have been unthinkable several years ago.
"My daughter plays for Linfield and I go to all the matches," he said.
"At one of the matches, another parent from a Protestant background was saying to me he'd never see gaelic before.
"It was talking to that parent that made me think it would be great to get the two clubs together."
Mr Morrison said his 10-year-old daughter Lauren enjoys playing both sports.
"It will be great to see players from Linfield going to O'Donnell's to play gaelic and our players going to Linfield to play soccer," he said.
He said the link-up will initially run as a six-week trial.
"What we really want is for it to run for longer so we will have a forever link between the clubs," he said.
"It's under-10s now but we're hoping that next year we'll have different age groups. Hopefully both clubs can benefit because at one point we were both struggling to get players at that age group."
He said it made sense to share resources because the clubs are so close together.
"You can see our clubhouse from their ground and vice versa," he said.
Neil Morrow from Linfield said he was enthusiastic about the link-up.
"This is a great opportunity for clubs less than a mile apart to contribute to the promotion of female sport," he said.
"Both football and gaelic games have many similarities and sharing experiences with and through our girls is a great way to maximise impact.
"We both have frustrations around capacity building, recruitment and retention of players and volunteers so any work that drives visibility can only help."
