Jack Anderson: Championship pull as powerful abroad as it is at home

For those of us in Australia, the first thing you look for in a championship fixture is not where it takes place or even against whom, but at what time.

While living abroad, if your team wins, you will listen to every GAA podcast under the sun during your week’s commute, starting, of course, with Dalo & co. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Global coverage of Cork TD Thomas Gould’s Jamaican-like accent during a recent Dáil speech is a reminder that the Irish brought more than their labour to foreign shores. They also brought language, music, song and even sport.

Last month in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the state legislature was to consider a Bill declaring the town of Windsor as the birthplace of ice hockey. There was evidence that the game was played there as early as 1810. The Bill was not without controversy. Other towns lay claim to being the first to play Canada’s national, winter game. Indigenous versions of hockey were ignored by the Bill. Some historians said that ice hockey’s heritage was Scottish, as shinty was played on ice two centuries earlier.