Na Gael Aeracha, Is Ireland Ready to Accept the First Explicitly Queer-Inclusive GAA Team? Catching up with Caoimhe Baxter, the secretary and co-founder of Na Gael Aeracha (The Rainbow Gaels): Ireland’s first explicitly queer-inclusive GAA team.
by Conor Biggins
Remind us, Caoimhe, what is Na Gael Aeracha? Na Gael Aeracha is the first-ever GAA and LGFA club that has been built on the purpose of being inclusive to the LGBTQ+ community. We are welcoming to all members from all walks of life, but the main idea behind it is the concept that it is non-discriminatory. Did you face any challenges this year? We did face some challenges when it came to actually setting up the club officially and getting some members registered. It is very rare that football clubs get set up out of nowhere, and the fact that we were setting up this club on principle as opposed to within a parish, led to some difficulties. Also, we had a little bit of push-back from outsiders on the fact that we are building it on the basis of being LGBTQ+ - inclusive.
Outsiders, you say? At the beginning of setup, there was some hate coming from online. The usual sort of social media ‘naysayers’. You know, homophobic backlash from people on twitter and against some articles. However, regarding all that, it was easy to overcome those when we saw the support we received from most of the public.
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Na Gaeil Aeracha Ladies Team. Photo by Conor Biggins.
“ The fact that we were starting up from scratch during a pandemic made it all the more challenging.
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This meant that we were not able to get our men’s team up and running, but, fortunately, we were able to get our women’s team up and running and have been quite successful on the front and we can only really go forward from here.
