This weekend’s European Hurling & Camogie Championship Finals will be played by Vienna Gaels for the very first time.
The traditionally Gaelic football-focused club broadened its horizons last year with entry into the European Gaelic Handball Championship in Italy and this year sees the Gaels go one step further with entry into all three European GAA final tournaments.
12 men make the trip to Dresden in Germany to take part in a 13-team tournament on 15 October and they face some stiff competition on their debut.
Berlin and top side Luxembourg await in their group and it will be a baptism of fire for a team featuring a number of players who only began training in the sport this summer.
“We’ve trained hard to represent ourselves and the city as the first Vienna hurling team in a competitive tournament, now we’ll compete and grow,” said Darren Gilbert, who alongside Rob McMahon has been instrumental in developing the team this year.
Vienna will also be represented in the camogie tournament by Katie Riley, who will play for Switzerland in the five-team tournament.