The Irish internet was in a state of shock yesterday as IShowSpeed turned up in Enniskillen to experience the charms of Co. Fermanagh. His visit included a gaelic football demonstration with some of the players from the Enniskillen Gaels club.
One snippet from the stream has gone viral around the world, as Speed left a "professional gaelic footballer" for dead.
🚨| BREAKING: SPEED JUST BROKE THE ANKLES OF A PROFESSIONAL GAELIC FOOTBALL PLAYER 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/SN8uYXk9qd
— Speedy HQ (@iShowSpeedHQ) July 19, 2024
Club secretary Pádraig Lunny revealed how the American's trip to Brewster Park came about, and said it was all down to a local musician.
“Yeah, it was a bit it was a hectic few days,” Lunny said
Now, we were very hush-hush, and there was a lot of scepticism on our part. When we were first contacted, we said, no, you're pulling my leg here. And you were going along with it if it came off brilliant. But we were half expecting it to be somebody we needed to get out of the car more than himself. We weren't expecting him to come out of the van when he arrived.
It all came about through a local lad in Enniskillen, Aaron Wilson. During Covid. Aaron was live streaming on Twitch. He got a big following, and was then verified on it. And then, because he was verified, he saw Speed posted a video saying that he was going to come to Europe. So, Aaron reached out and because he was verified, his message got to him.
And he pointed out, why would you go to Dublin or Galway or one of the other major cities that everybody goes to? Why don't you come up to this beautiful part of the world? He was chancing his arm as much as anything. And then, all of a sudden, he replied, and it all sort of snowballed very quickly from there, like amazing, and you couldn't go down to Enniskillen without a little visit to Brewster Park.
Lunny said Lorcan Love, the Enniskillen Gaels player who was marking Speed is taking his sudden fame well, saying it's 'water off a duck's back'.
Lorcan is just one of those lads. That's a water off a duck's back to him. So it is. So he, he's laughing at it as much as anybody is. He definitely regrets not putting those football boots on like he was told before he went out on the pitch. We have a cracking photo of him.
Lorcan has a podcast, the Lorcan Love podcast. And we're all joking and now going. We're all waiting for Speed to be his first guest in his new series.
Speed for county?
Lunny couldn’t get over the streamer's ability and could manage the game's skills well.
“Like, I was surprised at how talented he was,” he said.
He definitely has some raw football ability. He's a very athletic fellow. You know he played some sport. He's an exceptional gymnast; he was back-flipping over bins and people in Enniskillen in the middle of the town. If he took up most sports, except American football and rugby, he would probably do alright at them. You know, he did have the natural ability. He didn't know which foot he kicked with, which was very strange for a man into football.
Lunny doesn’t rule out the possibility of seeing Speed once again in Ireland or even Enniskillen in the future.
Everyone enjoyed it, it was a bit of craic, And you never know. He said he was happy here and he might come back, but we'll see. I know he went back to Dublin yesterday, but I don't know his plans. He has been touring Europe. He's been to different cities and towns every day. Now, for the last few weeks. And look at the team. The team won it down. They're lovely people.
He came into the clubhouse in the morning just to let us know what his plans were. And roughly when he'd be down. I don't think he probably expected the swarms of people in any skill to follow him; he maybe thought he would have gotten a bit longer stream out of it. But when he saw the droves of people following him around, it was just crazy, you know? So I think he was keen on it. He liked it, and it looked different. Most people just come to the main cities, and it's the same buzz. It is nice to get out and about, you know, and it's given him a good place. So I'm glad he came. Other people might now say that when they're taking a wee visit, they'll pop down as well.
Whether we will see him on a GAA pitch again or not, Speed has brought attention to Gaelic football.
