AN AMBITIOUS PLAN to have one of the most impressive purpose-built GAA facilities outside of Ireland is gathering momentum in the south of Spain, with a Cavan man spearheading the project.

It’s been five years since John Ryan first got the ball rolling on what he hopes will not only be a centre for the local GAA club, Costa Gaels, to meet, train and host competitions, but a venue that will attract sports clubs from abroad to come and train also.

With year-round sunshine and regular flights from Ireland, the south coast is already a popular destination but what local councillors really want, is to make it a less seasonal place.

But here’s the catch, the Costa Gaels club is tiny; one of the smallest GAA clubs in the world, actually.

They struggle to field teams and when the Gaelic Athletic Association sent over a representative to coach aspiring coaches here, Ryan laughed the numbers that ‘graduated’ was higher than the number of players they’d often have for games.

He explains to The42 how the whole thing started, what he plans for the future are – and how it’s damn hard to get Spaniards to work at the pace he’s used to working at.

“We originally wanted to have a pitch for ourselves out here because we intended to host tournaments and have teams visit but the problem was and still is, we’re a tiny club.

“We barely get a team together in the 11-a-side sport on a good day, so we were never going to generate enough money ourselves.

“About five years ago the plan was to build a pitch and have a school associated with it.

“At the time, the town hall (where decisions get made) were enthusiastic, put quite a bit of effort into it but over time, between bureaucracy and whatnot, it seemed to stall.

“Then the town hall’s attitude changed and the land they’d originally assigned for the project was given away to a different project.”

However, new councillors were elected to the area recently and Ryan’s vision aligned with theirs, which gave the project renewed hope.

Source: Costa Gaels/Facebook

First, as a short-term plan to preserve the club’s playing status they teamed with a local rugby club with a membership of over 3,000, while simultaneously trying to promote their objectives.

“Linking up with them meant that for very, very little cost we had changing facilities, bar facilities, playing facilities and access to do what we want, so we didn’t need our own ground,” he said.

The ex-pat community in the Costa del Sol is primarily retirees and the average age of the current team is over 40.

Young people come for the summer and haven’t the commitment or interest to help make it a long-lasting thing.

But that has opened doors to many other nationalities – which has helped Ryan’s other goal of making the club a centre of culture.

Now, unlike before, the Irish are the minority.

“The rugby players here are predominantly Argentinian so we’re getting them, we’ve a few Spaniards and a few others, including an Iraqi goalkeeper!

“The one thing, and this gives real weight to our claims for help from local government is we’ve managed to get a junior club going, from U6 to U14 and every week we’ve about 60 or 70 kids coming to play GAA, and only about around 30% of them are Irish.

“Hurling has completely captured their imagination.

“The local U16 rugby team were warming up for a recent match and they stopped it and started playing hurling instead. They were having a great time but their coach went berserk!

“That has been the beauty of the rugby club; it gives us great exposure and that can only do us good.”

This all helps build momentum because if they lose that, Ryan says it’ll crumble like a deck of cards.

In spite of the significant delays to date, there does appear to be an urgency within the new town hall to push the project forward.

On 10 August, the local mayor held a press conference highlighting the importance of the project to the town, with Ryan present as the GAA club’s representative.

Currently, the site is being signed off with the civil servants and the club hope to have formal approval by October.

Local councillor Jose Carlos Nunez said: “This would contribute to making tourism less seasonal, it would be a source of employment.

“For Marbella, it will promote the Irish community and lead to greater integration with Spanish and other nationalities.”