The All Ireland Football Championship of 2015 starts with its annual curtain raiser on May 3rd, with New York hosting Galway in Gaelic Park.

This will be the fourth time in the history of the championship that they have met with a place in the Connaught Semi Final again up for grabs. While the first encounter between the sides was in Ireland in 2000, the last two have been stateside with Galway winning 3-14 to 0-06 in 2005, before being pushed a lot harder in 2010 in a 2-13 to 0-12 victory. Galway and New York have a deep history however that goes back to the turn of the 1900's.  The Galway NY, footballers are listed in newspapers of the time as beating a Mayo selection on August 6th of 1907 by 1-04 to 0-04  players Brennan, Burke and Carroll all played starring roles. In the first 100 years of the NY Association, Galway have won five senior football titles while Connemara Gaels have two.

Numerous Galway players have togged out Across the Pond at club level including All Ireland winners Paraic Joyce with Kerry, , Liam Sammon with Connemara Gaels and Michael Donnellon with Four Provinces. Ollie and Gerry Burke were both prominent for the Gaels in the early 1980's.  Fergal O'Neill who won a minor All Ireland medal in 1986, has the distinction of lining out for both counties in the All Ireland Championship.  Another Galway native Mike Higgins captained NY versus Galway in the FBD final 

The National League Final of 1967 was a historic outing with NY the winner in a two legged affair. It has been 13 years now since Sam Maguire last crossed the Shannon into Ballinasloe and down in to the heartland of Gaillimh. This year Manager Kevin Walsh already has two league wins under his belt with the squad over Meath and Westmeath. County champions Corofin are also in the All Ireland club final on March 17th. The Big Killanin man has both All Ireland medals and All Stars on his resume, and brings the experience he gained with Sligo on his resume.   His panel has a number of players with All Ireland under 21 medals from 2005, 11 and 13 while a host of that 2011 side were minor winners in 2009.

On Friday May 1st at 7 pm the Galway Supporters club in New York will host a meet and greet with the Galway Management and
Panel, in The Manhattan Club in Rosie O'Grady's on Seventh Avenue.  Ollie Turner Head of Sports at Galway FM will broadcast from
the event while also taking the role of MC for the evening. Freebird Disco with Noel Finnigan will supply the entertainment. A Souvenir Journal will be published to commemorate the evening.

There will also be buffet dinner served, with dessert, Tea and coffee. Enjoy the evening while chatting to The Maroon stars of 2015, in a beautiful setting with Times Square, the heart of New York, as your backdrop. Contact Sean Gill at [email protected], or 917-324-8345, or Jimmy Glynn at 1212-337-3100 for information

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