2010 and Beyond
The club resurfaces
Like many first chapters, the original Fionn MacCumhaill club eventually
faded. Life pulled people in different directions. Players moved to
California, Ireland, San Diego, Virginia, and elsewhere. Chad Cox, one of
the anchors of the original effort, left Dallas, and the first version of
the club gradually wound down.
But the name never fully disappeared.
Before the original club faded, Nicky Hurst had built a Fionn MacCumhaill
website and designed a club crest. In 1997, simply having a website was a
meaningful piece of club history. Years later, that digital trace helped
preserve the name and gave the founders of the current club a connection to
the earliest known Dallas GAA effort.
The current club began to resurface in spring 2010 after an invitation to
play in a tournament in Austin. Dallas played its first matches against
Austin and Toronto, bringing the Fionn MacCumhaill name back onto the field.
From there, through the stewardship of Kevin McCann, Emmett Long, Brian
Geraghty, Davey Devlin, and Derek Abel, the club played additional games
with Austin during 2010 and began to build momentum.
The early playing group was not polished. The average age was likely around
40, and many players were as new to Gaelic football as they were determined
to keep going. From the start, the club included many nationalities,
including people from the United States, Ireland, England, Scotland, France,
Croatia, Australia, Mexico, and beyond.
Just as importantly, Fionn MacCumhaill was never only a sports team. From
the beginning of its modern chapter, the club was built as both a sports
club and a social club, with the ambition of becoming a fulcrum for the
Irish and Irish-American community in Dallas.