Monthly Update: March

If we need to summarise the month of March in a colour, it would definitely be green; from the green grass of the tournament pitches to the green colours that we wore for St. Patrick’s Day. March was filled with loads of social and Gaelic football activities, embodying the colour green.

We started the month with St. Patrick’s Day. For the lads thinking St. Patrick’s Day symbolises drinking pints of Guinness, grab a chair and a pint, and read this quick history lesson:

St. Patrick's Day is always celebrated on the 17th of March and commemorates St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the 5th century. He was kidnapped by Irish pirates as a teenager and enslaved in Ireland. After his escape, he trained to be a priest and returned to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity. While doing this, he used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, which later became a national symbol of Ireland. Therefore, St. Patrick's Day started as a religious feast commemorating what St. Patrick did for Ireland; however, the day has also turned into a celebration of Irish culture (the source for the academics amongst us: https://www.ireland.ie/en/st-patricks-day-2026/everything-you-need-to-know-about-st-patricks-day/).

Back to the less serious part of this blog post. Since St. Patrick's Day was on a Tuesday, we celebrated it twice. First, we gathered at Tierney's on the Saturday before, for all the poor souls who had to work on St. Patrick’s Day or, worse, the day after. Together we watched the Six Nations rugby game, Ireland against Scotland, and the Kerry–Mayo Gaelic football match, whilst enjoying a good Irish breakfast. Tierney's baked beans passed the Irish taste test with a 10/10. As these days usually go, we also had dinner at Tierney's and a few more pints in the evening. Overall, a successful day with great craic, good pints, Ice Tea greens, and successful sports results. 

On Tuesday, the real party started. In the late afternoon, Tierney's was already packed with people. The pub was festively decorated, full of green, white, and orange colours. Some of us started the afternoon with a good Irish stew, while others dropped in after dinnertime. We all wore our best green outfits. Pints of Guinness and glasses of Ice Tea greens were drunk in abundance, and we chatted away the whole evening. Later on, there was live Irish music, and the dance floor opened. We proudly commemorated St. Patrick and Ireland until the next morning. For one day, we were all Irish; not all in blood, but all in soul. A special thanks to the best Irish pub in Nijmegen, Tierney's. We do not have many pictures of the evening, which describes it very well.

After we all recovered from St. Patrick's Day, four days later we had our first official Benelux tournament of the season in Maastricht. With four cars loaded with players, we drove in a Nijmegen GFC caravan to Maastricht. The day could not have been more perfect, with bright skies, bright sun, and bright people. Even though we almost had full teams, we joined up with Maastricht Gaels; since they organised the tournament, we all wore Maastricht gear. We had great girls’ and guys’ teams. The girls won half of their matches and even brought home the shield. The guys played well too and won a total of three matches. We even had our own team photographer with us for the day, explaining the amazing pictures attached to this post, a special thanks to Brian Reilly-Troy from brt.photo (give him a follow on Instagram 😉). 

We ended the day of a successful tournament with a pint (or Ice Tea green), watching the beautiful sunset we were blessed with. Is there a better feeling? To celebrate our success, we visited the Golden Arches restaurant on our way back to Nijmegen. 

Another great month has passed. The colour of next month... probably orange?