About Chicago GAA

The GAA was first organised in Chicago in 1890 on the west side of the city. The first game — a hurling match between Innisfails and Grattans — took place on Independence Day 1891. By 1893 there were fifteen clubs with a total membership of over two thousand in the city, and the Chicago clubs not only played each other but also teams from other areas. Chicago Central is believed to have been formed in 1895 with some form of affiliation to the GAA Council in Ireland.

From the 1890s until the 1930s the GAA continued to thrive in Chicago. In 1910 eleven Chicago hurlers teamed up with an equal number of hurlers from New York for a tour of Ireland, playing Kilkenny, Limerick, Dublin and Wexford. Non-competitive games were played for several years at the "Old" Chicago Gaelic Park at 4700 S. California Avenue. The number of clubs fluctuated during the 1920s, but the organisation got a great boost in 1926 when Tipperary, the 1925 All-Ireland hurling champions, visited Chicago — an estimated ten thousand people came to see them play a local selection. The following year the Kerry football team visited the city.

The Great Depression and a world war brought Irish immigration to a virtual halt and almost killed the GAA in Chicago. Once the war and the depression ended, Irish immigration re-emerged and a wave of new emigrants soon put the association back on a solid footing. A new GAA board was formed in 1949, with Kilkenny man Patrick Hennessy of the local Harry Boland's Hurling Club elected first chairman; Pat became a major force in public relations for the GAA in the city, writing weekly columns for local and national media until his death in 2013. Five new clubs affiliated to the new board and the number doubled by the end of the 1950s, with large crowds attending Sunday afternoon games in Shewbridge Stadium at 74th & Morgan on the south side and later in Rockne Stadium on the far west side. During the 1960s those two stadiums hosted several exhibition games involving club and county teams from Ireland.

There was little change in club numbers or membership through the sixties and early seventies, but reduced emigration in the late seventies and early eighties lowered affiliation from 10 clubs to 6, with the exit of popular hurling and football clubs such as St. Vincent's, Shannon Rangers, St. Mell's and St. Pat's. In the early seventies All-Ireland hurling champions Tipperary and Cork were popular visitors, as was the Bank of Ireland All-Star Hurling team. Arguably the greatest gathering of Ireland's top inter-county players in Chicago came in the late 1970s: a star-studded 1977 fixture at Hanson Stadium on the northwest side saw Dublin, the 1976 All-Ireland football champions, take on the 1976 Carroll's All-Star selection, followed by Cork, the 1976 All-Ireland hurling champions, against the Carroll's 1976 hurling All-Stars. No GAA fixture of that magnitude has been repeated in Chicago since.

Increased emigration in the late 1980s and the development of the "New" Gaelic Park, which opened in 1985 in Chicago's far southwest suburbs, brought another revival. Ever since its opening, Gaelic Park has been the home of the Chicago GAA, hosting several NACB playoff tournaments and considered the finest Irish facility in the country for Gaelic games.

Gaelic games flourished in the 1990s and into the new century with huge crowds at Gaelic Park, although a sharp fall in emigration from Ireland during the "Celtic Tiger" years and drastic changes in U.S. emigration visa laws contributed to perhaps the biggest decrease in club membership since the late seventies. Great clubs such as the Wolfe Tones and St. Brendan's in football and Harry Boland's in hurling almost went out of existence and were non-competitive for a few years — all three have since regrouped and are back as competitive as in earlier years, contributing to a brighter future for Chicago GAA.

History of Chicago GAA by Eamonn Kelly

Chicago Gaelic Park in Oak Forest is the association's permanent home, hosting league and championship matches, tournaments, youth games and the annual Irish Fest.

Chicago Gaelic Park, Oak Forest, Illinois

Venue-specific information such as pitch allocations is shown on each fixture. Official park contact details and opening hours will be added once supplied.

15 clubs are listed across 15 codes: Intermediate Hurling, Intermediate Ladies Football, Intermediate Men's Football, Junior Camogie, Junior Hurling, Junior Ladies Football, Junior Men's Football, Senior Camogie, Senior Hurling, Senior Ladies Football, Senior Men's Football, Youth Boys Football, Youth Camogie, Youth Girls Football, Youth Hurling.

Sponsorship supports pitch maintenance, coaching, youth development and match-day broadcasting. Partners can sponsor a competition, a club, a match day or the season as a whole.

Sponsorship packages, pricing and the association's official sponsor list will be published here once approved by Chicago GAA.

Enquiries: official contact details to be supplied

Players, coaches, referees, scorekeepers, volunteers and club administrators are always needed. Clubs run youth programmes and welcome new members each season.

Official association contact details, social media accounts and the Gaelic Park office information will be published here once they are supplied. Until then, please contact your club directly through its club page.