Barcelona Gaels are set to make history this weekend when they become the first Iberian side to feature in the Leinster Championship.
The Spanish outfit will travel to Nowlan Park on Saturday where they'll take on Conahy Shamrocks in the historic stadium.
While Saturday might be their biggest game yet, it's been a long road to get there from a side who are feeling the benefits of Ireland's cost of living crisis with football-playing expats flocking to play on the Costa Brava.
Before qualifying to take on Conahy, Barcelona played an Iberian eleven-a-side tournament, a dramatic Spanish playoff on a rugby pitch in Zaragoza and a blitz-style European Championship in Maastricht.
Eoin McCall is the chairman of the club and explains what it takes to get a team to Leinster.
We have our own regional elven side tournament so we won that," McCall said.
We had to play a 13-a-side playoff on a rugby pitch in Zaragoza in June so we weren’t great on the day, we won with essentially the last kick of the ball which put us through. Then we played the European finals over a weekend in Maastricht last month.
In the European Championship, Barcelona breezed past standard-bearers Amsterdam in the semi-finals before recording a nine-point win over Berlin to book their spot on the plane to Dublin.
A journey that Amsterdam have made for the last two years, narrowly losing on both occasions with a last-minute penalty being the deciding factor in last year's clash with Kilbride.
We’d lost to Amsterdam the last two years in the last two finals so once we got that monkey off our back Berlin was a tough challenge but with the panel we had we were confident in ourselves.
They’ve really set the standards for European teams in Ireland and we’re hoping to go one further and win and then go from there.
While now they have their eyes set on provincial glory, it's been a costly experience for the ex-pats who are out of pocket to the tune of €700 for the trip, with their club holding a raffle to try help out. The club also receive €1500 in travel grants which Eoin McCall is very thankful for.
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Determined to make the most of a rare occasion to play in front of their families, Barcelona Gaels are under no illusion why they're playing and it isn't to make up the numbers.
You’re looking at probably about 350 per player and then going to Maastricht where we played the final it’s the same again so you’re looking at seven hundred euro or so just for this.
We’re not going over for the craic like, this is a significant financial burden on everyone, like we’re not going over for the craic, we’re a serious football team and we’re going over to show we’re a serious football team.
We’re happy to go to Ireland, it gives people’s families a chance to come and watch, that’s a huge motivation for people to get back and play in a historic stadium like Nowlan Park.
Despite preparing to take to the field in one of the GAA's most prolific stadiums this weekend, their very presence in Ireland is the product of a determination that sees them overcome problems that simply don't exist in the home of the GAA.
Barcelona Gaels last played a game over six weeks ago when they travelled to Maastricht for the European finals.
Believe it or not, unlike its twin city Dublin, GAA pitches aren't plentiful in Barcelona with the team training on a rugby pitch with a newly built cross-bar.
Six weeks isn’t ideal, it’s a challenge, there’s a lot of different challenges been a team in Europe that’s just one of them we’re not going to make an excuse or anything.
We would train on rugby pitches, so that’s about three-quarters of the size, so all our Iberian competitions are played on that, you either lower the crossbar or you build a second one beneath it. Again there’s challenges there but it’s not something we want to use as a crutch we’re confident in our abilities.
Barcelona Gaels take on Conahy Shamrocks this Saturday the second of November in the Leinster JFC in Nowlan Park Kilkenny
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