STUDENTS from the Ulster University GAA squad may have made history this week by playing the first ever ceili on the Great Wall of China.
The ‘Poly’ students – who are in the country to promote Gaelic Games and strengthen UU links with China – struck up the impromptu session on the world famous landmark during a visit there this week.
Sight-seeing has been crammed into a packed itinerary which is dominated by the coaching programmes and exhibition matches the UU students will deliver during their two-week stay and they have been enthusiastically received since they arrived in China on Monday.
The UU players held a coaching session for kids at the Beijing National Vocational School yesterday morning and moved on to coach students from Beijing University of Technology in the afternoon.
Last night they attended a reception held in their honour at the Irish Embassy in the Chinese capital and today the UU students will visit the Beijng GAA club and coach children in the morning before playing an exhibition in the afternoon.
Tomorrow the 25-strong panel leaves Beijing and travels to the city of Wuhan using China’s high-speed train (450km per hour) system.
“We have been treated like kings,” explained UU GAA President John ‘Tommy Joe’ Farrell.
“The trip has been very well planned and organised and the players have been well disciplined and keen to play. The Chinese seem to really like hurling and football and they are mad-keen about Ireland.”
UU have two traditional musicians in their group – Magherafelt native Fintan Mulholland and fiddler Eugene McKenna (from Clogher) who have brought coaching sessions to a conclusion by playing a selection of jigs and reels.
“The students we coached at the National Vocational School had not had any exposure to Gaelic Games, but there is a GAA team at the University of Technology,” Tommy Joe explained.
“They were out today and we did a warm-up session and some skills sessions. Then we played an exhibition game and introduced their players one at a time until we had them all on and we played a match with them in with us.
“Several of them would walk onto any club team – they are very, very accomplished. Of course they play all sports – there were a lot of soccer and basketball players there – but you could see the skill set.”
The two-week tour is part of UU’s programme of engagement with international markets. The students left Belfast last Saturday morning for the two-week cultural exchange visit that aims to develop and enhance links with Chinese academic institutions.
“There are a billion people in China, so even if just a small percentage of them took up Gaelic Games, you’d be talking millions,” Rostrevor native Farrell explained.
“We’re in a city here (Beijing) that is home to 23 million people and we’re going to Wuhan which has something like 12 million people. The university we were in today has 230,000 students, so the scope for growth is just absolutely huge.
“They like Gaelic football, they like hurling and they like our music as well so I think the potential is phenomenal to put it mildly. They are very disciplined people and they seem to be very keen to learn. “As well as GAA, Ulster University would be keen to see more students from China coming to study at UU.”
He added: “Our students are loving it.
“We played some music on the Great Wall of China yesterday and I think that’s the first time they’ve ever had a ceili there! They have taken to the coaching very well even though we have had a very busy time of it.
“It took a lot of hard work to get here, but it has worked out. The GAA in the cities is starting with the kids – and that’s where it has to start – and you have the Irish diaspora who are coaching in the schools and hopefully they will keep it up until they’re adults.”
