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merican football in Ireland is growing, and rapid
ly too. A game that has become the Sunday tradition of American citizens has been continuing to expand to Europe for decades now, and the Irish are the next group to catch the bug. American Football Ireland, the national governing body of American football, is recognized by Sport Ireland and the Federation of Irish Sports, while working to become an associate member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF). Today, 20 clubs are competing across three senior leagues: Premier Division, Division I, and Division II. The Premier Division is home to the top clubs in the nation, whereas Division I and Division II host the growing squads that aren’t quite there with their development. Each season is highlighted by the Shamrock Bowl, AFI’s Super Bowl. It’s a match between the top two clubs in the nation. In 2024, UCD American Football defeated the Dublin Rebels 36-14 in Shamrock Bowl XXXVI. In early April, I had the chance to go see what an American football game is like here in Dublin. The West Dublin Rhinos and the Louth Mavericks, two Division I clubs as part of AFI, faced off at Castleknock College. About 400-500 people were in attendance to watch, from family and friends of players competing to fans coming to check out the American sport in Ireland. After it was all said and done, the Mavericks emerged victorious 68-22. The match was full of energy and intensity. Players were passionate, hollering on the sidelines for their respective clubs. It’s clear the folks competing in AFI have an emotional connection to the game and want to see it continue to expand in Ireland. The league itself isn’t limited to Irish natives, as players from all over Europe have come to join in the fun of AFI. Darragh Maher, an offensive lineman for the Rhinos, knows the interest is there, and at this point, it’s about bringing the attention of UND the game to the youth of the nation. “I feel it’s important that we make sure we tie in our local league as much with preparation for the NFL game or for the college game, because the amount of times I’ve gone to people, I’ve told them that I play for the West Dublin Rhinos, that there’s a league, the confusion that they don’t know that there was even a league here, especially when we go on recruitment days and stuff like that. I think a huge thing that we’re trying to push here now and we’re going to be creating in the near future is a youth team. So at the moment to play American football in Ireland, you have to be 18 or over. So with a youth league, you can actually get involved from 15 to 18, and that gives you an introduction to playing football. It gets you involved from an early age, so that when you turn 18 and you play the senior side, it’s not that big of a jump. You already know the fundamentals, you know offense/defense, you know schemes, you know how to catch, throw, block, or whatever you need to do.” As of now, most players around AFI don’t even begin playing American football until their mid-to-late 20s, if not later. Maher himself began at age 26, he says. And with COVID taking time away, and the growth of the game in Ireland being fairly new, it can be difficult to advance the skill of the game, with most of AFI’s players having a somewhat short time frame in which their bodies will allow them to play at a high level. American football is also a complicated game to learn, and getting lads to start as teenagers to stress the fundamentals for a few years could be extremely beneficial to the game’s growth here. Sean McVeigh, a current offensive assistant coach for the Rhinos and a former professional American football player in Switzerland, knows first-hand how difficult it can be for guys in their late 20s or early 30s to pick up the sport, which is why the league needs clinics and exposure to youth for the game to continue to blossom. “But for as far as growing the game, we need equipment, you know, coaching clinics,” McVeigh said. “And as well as its coaching on a grassroots level. So, you know, we don’t want guys coaching for the highest level. We want those kinds of, it’s like high school freshmen level of coaching. A lot of these guys are picking up football for the first time at age, you know, 28, that’s hard. We want the foundational coaching points, not the deep Sean McVay [Los Angeles Rams head coach], Kyle Shanahan [San Francisco 49ers head coach] stuff. That’s not what Europe needs right now. It’s the foundational stepping point, football 101 stuff we need.” With all of the efforts that the NFL is putting into trying to continue to grow American football in Ireland, the youth is where that is beginning. The NFL established a flag football league in Ireland as part of NFL Flag, the league’s official flag football program, in 2024 in partnership with AFI. In the firstever NFL Flag National Championships, Green Lanes School from Dublin won the title and had the opportunity to travel to the 2025 NFL Pro Bowl Games in Orlando, Florida. The flag football league is the NFL’s main effort to start football young in Ireland and have kids become passionate about the game to the point where it can become more relevant over time. The first NFL game coming to Dublin later this year will also be a huge stepping stone and a massive opportunity for AFI squads to recruit potential prospects. The Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t just chosen at random, but were selected due to the organization’s front office ties with Ireland. The president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Art Rooney II, has family from Derry, County Down in Northern Ireland. The late Dan M. Rooney, Art’s father, served as a US ambassador to Ireland from 2009-12 and was a co-founder of the Ireland Funds Charity. “We are very excited to be the designated team in the first regular season game to be played in Ireland this upcoming season,” Rooney II said. “The opportunity for the Pittsburgh Steelers to play in Ireland is truly special, not only because of the Rooney fam15