Irish Teams v USA & Canadian Services & Underage Teams 1991-Present

Date	Irish Team		American Team
06.07.1991	Irish All-Stars	6	USAF Lakenheath Eagles (US/UK)	W
05.1998	Dublin Tigers	0	Maranatha Baptist Bible College	48
05.1998	Carrickfergus Knights	6	Maranatha Baptist Bible College	42
2000	Irish Lions	12	Mount St. Josephs HS (MD)	36
25.08.2002	Carrickfergus Knights	6	Team Canada U21s	34
28.02.2009	UL Vikings	0	Philadelphia Blue Flame (PA)	22
27.08.2013	Ireland U20s	22	Greendell Falcons (MB, Can)	20
08.04.2017	Irish Wolfhounds	6	Team USA (AFW)	54

Irish Teams v US & Canadian Services & Underage Teams 1993-2017

In 1991 an Irish All-Stars lost to the USAF Lakenheath Eagles, who were USAFE League champions at the time (USAFE was the United States Air Force in Europe Football League from 1947 to early 1990s). the Irish lost heavily, but managed to put a touchdown on the board – Quarterback Eddie Goggins connecting with Wide Receiver Dermot Connolly for a TD Pass. [Ref: 18-19]

The Dublin Tornadoes defeated a US Coastguard team, from the Rota Naval Base in Spain 7-0 in June 1993, and in 1998 another Dublin team, Dublin Tigers, lost to Maranatha Baptist, an American High School team.

In 2000, there was no Irish League and the only match played was the Ireland National Team versus Mount St. Joseph’s High School from Baltimore, Maryland. Ireland lost 36-12, but the match led to the rebirth of American Football in Ireland.

Carricfergus Knights lost 6-34 to a Canadian U21 team in August 2002.

The University of Limerick Vikings also played a match against Philadelphia Blue Flame – losing 22-0 to a team of Firefighters and Policemen playing in the National Services League.

As part of the Global Ireland Football Tournament in 2012, in which over a dozen small Colleges & High Schools from North America played in various venues around Ireland, the Oak Park High School from Winnipeg Manitoba, beat Villanova College, from King City in Ontario 18-9, in front of 3,000 at Pairc Tailteann, in Navan Co. Meath.

The following year, as part of the Gathering Ireland celebrations in 2013, the Greendell Falcons, who play in the Winnipeg Major Football League played two games in Ireland – one against the Ireland U20s team, which they lost, and one against Bristol Academy Pride, who play in the European US High Schools League. Greendell won the latter 39-22 in front of 2,500 spectators at Tallaght Stadium. The Falcons Wide Receiver, Bryce LeBlanc was named MVP.

Ireland’s U20s lost a match in 2017, 54-6 to Team USA American Football Worldwide, a team of Elite High School students representing USA on tours throughout Europe. [Ref: 18-24]

Newspapers

[1] Evening Herald (1999) “American Football” Evening Herald, Tuesday, January 5, 1999, pg. 91 [Irish Newspaper Archive: Available online at: https://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/Olive/APA/INA/Print.Article.aspx?mode=image&href=EHD%2F1999%2F01%2F05&id=Ar09100 [Accessed 21 August 2020][The Irish Newspaper Archive is a Subscription Service]

Social Media Conversations

[18] Kevin Sharkey Facebook Messenger (2020) Facebook Messenger Conversation, 29 May 2020.

[19] Dublin Celts Facebook (2019) Photo, September 8, 2019: “Not strictly Dublin Celts, but in this fame QB Eddie Goggins�� threw a TD pass to WR Dermot Connolly��, we scored against good quality American opposition, these guys were the champions of their league in Europe.” [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/groups/259540917772370/permalink/270796126646849/ [Accessed 7 November 2019]

Bibliography

[18] Anon (1993) Coast Guard at Sea First Down. July 6-12 2000. pg. 19.

Bibliography

[19] Anon (2000) Plucky Irish Denied by Americans First Down. June 12, 2000. pg. 17.

Websites

[20] Britball Now (2016) Friendly Results against foreign opposition [1998] [Internet] Available from: http://www.britballnow.co.uk/history-index/friendly-results-against.html [Accessed 14 April 2020]

Websites

[21] Wayback Machine – Irish American Football Association (2002) August 25th 2002 – TEAM CANADA 34 – 6 CARRICKFERGUS KNIGHTS [Internet] Available from: http://web.archive.org/web/20021210031300/http://www.irish-american-football.org/news%20stories/25aug02.htm [Accessed 8 October 2017]

[22] Irish American Football Association (2013) IAFA U20s have historic win against Greendell Falcons [Internet] Available from: http://www.americanfootball.ie/breaking-news-iafa-u20s-win-against-greendell-falcons/ [Accessed 30 April 2017]

[23] Greendell Falcons (2017) MMFA Schedule [Internet] Available from: http://falconsfootball.ca/index.php [Accessed 16 November 2017]

[24] Irish American Football Association (2016) Journey to Thirty [Internet] Available from: http://www.americanfootball.ie/journeyto-thirty/ [Accessed 08 August 2016]

Images

[25] Irish American Football Association (2013) IAFA U20s on offense (white jerseys) [Internet] Available from: https://www.americanfootball.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/u20gf2-650×433.jpg [Accessed 12 May 2020]

Images

[26] American Football Ireland (2020) AFI Logo 2020 [Internet] Available from: https://www.americanfootball.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/AFI-Logo-200.png [Accessed 10 February 2020]

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Anton “Pippo” O’Grady.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 12 May 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.