Swans fly off to meet namesakes in Valleys

Almost 100 members of the Carrick Swan GAA club will attend Swansea City’s Premier League game against West Brom on Saturday as part of fostering relations between the two outfits.

The South Tipperary club will make a presentation of a specially inscribed hurley and sliotar to the similarly nicknamed Swans at the Liberty Stadium as part of a novel twinning exercise. The trip, which sees the Carrick members arrive in Wales tomorrow, came about after the club wrote a letter to Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins early last year.

Carrick Swan secretary Sean O’Shea explained: “We informed him that both of our clubs were known as the Swans, and would they be interested in forming an alliance of sorts. The fact that Swansea play in the Premier League, we didn’t really hold out much hope of hearing from them. But shortly afterwards their club secretary Jackie Rockey wrote to us wishing us well for the year and was also curious as to what Carrick Swan GAA Club was all about and especially showed an interest in our history, while also making reference to how unique in sporting terms it would be to have a relationship between a GAA club and a Premier League football club.”