New GAA cup could provide fairytale for New York

What's a four-hour delay when you’ve been waiting 21 years?

New York’s senior football panel arrived into Dublin Airport at lunchtime today after their flights from JFK touched down later than scheduled due to problems with US airspace.

New York will play their first intercounty match on Irish soil since 2001 this weekend when they face Offaly in the Tailteann Cup on Saturday.

A lot has changed since those pre 9/11 days when the team from the Big Apple were a novel addition to the Connacht championship.

One sobering statistic remains unchanged though; the team based in Gaelic Park in the Bronx have yet to record an intercounty victory of note.

Could the GAA’s inaugural tournament provide a fairytale for New York?

"We are here to compete, we are not here just to take part in it", Joan Henchy, Chairperson of New York GAA insisted.

"The boys have a lot of hard work put in, a lot of hard grafting put in. We are delighted to be part of a second tier," she said.

Ms Henchy, a proud Kerry woman, is a big fan of the Tailteann Cup.

"I personally think the Tailteann Cup is the way to go given the right publicity and the right people behind it we can push it on to make it a massive success," she said.

"Counties need an opportunity to play beyond the provincial championship, or getting knocked out early or coming up against a Kerry or a Dublin or Donegal or whatever and you’ve no hope at all.

"At least this is an opportunity – a pathway to get to that higher level", Ms Henchy added.

New York will base themselves in Armagh ahead of their historic match in the midlands.

Native New Yorkers are well represented in the squad and Dan Corridan is one of those keen to embrace the occasion.

"We been looking forward to this for many weeks now" he says.

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