Ballyhaunis is a small market town in the west of Ireland.
Population, maybe about 3,000 people.
It's as rural and traditional a place as you could get in Ireland.
The idea of people coming here was bizarre.
Now, the town is maybe the most cosmopolitan small town in Ireland.
Actually, it is the most cosmopolitan small town in Ireland.
We had been a a very sheltered society before that.
We'd seldom seen any foreigners.
– Come on!
A lot of people, when I'm talking to them, they all think that I was born here, with
the accent and everything. Do you know?
How many different nationalities? Off the top of my head, just Russian, Polish, Lithuanian,
Syrian, Pakistani, Ivory Coast, Congo ...
I think I counted up 14 one day.
Yeah! Ballyhaunis!
Today's the county final. This is as big as it gets, really, in the GAA.
You're going to get a right battle here today, hopefully.
– And a hearty welcome to our neighbours Tooreen on this lovely summer's day.
Come on Bally!
OK, shake it out! Shake it out!
That's what the crowd love, you see, this action-packed game. This drama. This local drama.
Come on Haunis!
I'd love to see the youngsters – the Polish kids, Lithuanian kids, the Pakistani kids,
the Syrian kids, the African kids – I'd love to see some of their faces here today.
Once upon a time everyone went to mass – certainly here, 20 years ago. But that's not the case any more.
And the role of the GAA in a town like this simply couldn't be overstated.
It's central to the town.
It's the root of what makes a community like this cohesive.
Ballyhaunis, the best lads in this town!
The reason we need to integrate people is that we're losing our own.
We've always suffered, especially for the last 10 years.
We've lost an awful great number of young people.
There has been, you know, the economic recession.
They went off to Australia. They're everywhere.
– The west of Ireland has been exporting people since the famine, you know? And in huge numbers.
– The idea of inward migration, it would have been something people would have known nothing about.
I think the mosque was built in the 70s.
A west-of-Ireland town with a mosque was not the norm, to say the least.
I think it was the only purpose-built mosque in Ireland at the time.
They had a meat factory here, which made halal meat for export.
So there was always a Pakistani and a Syrian community here.
With the expansion of the European Union, suddenly you had really, really high numbers
of eastern European people living here all the time.
Later that decade, there was an influx of people from Africa. A lot of them were in the refugee centre.
This integration is a really important thing.
The GAA Club is really, really all-involving. But outside of that, you don't see a push.
You see two- well, several groups of people who don't know each other
and, you know, kind of are not really killing themselves to get to know each other.
There are 330 children up in Scoil Íosa.
But two thirds of them – as a teacher said to me one day, which just threw me back –
two thirds of them don't speak English as their native language when they go home.
OK, so that's the challenge we face. That's why we need the Polish, the Lithuanians,
the Pakistanis, all these guys.
If they don't come to training, we won't have teams.
Attackers, you go back here. Defenders, you go get your ball.
So you're coming in on this side.
– Attackers, are you ready? – Yeah!
– Defenders, are you ready? – Yeah!
–10! Watch your step!
– Yeah! Three!
I am from Malawi.
When I heard about Gaelic football, I had to ask, 'What is it?'
I only knew soccer.
Oh! He loves it! He loves it! He's very good!
– Oh, that's great pressure! That's it! Well done!
I moved back from Dublin.
I was at the stage where I was half my life away from own town, and it's like you never left.
It's like the mafia – you can't get out of it.
It's the social fabric of the town. You know, I want to be living in Ballyhaunis for the
rest of my days.
I love going up to the school or being at the supermarket, and the Polish lady – I
don't know her name – smiles at me and says, 'Hello, hello!'. You know?
They know me because of this club and that. I like that.
When I moved here I was seven, so I didn't even know English, never mind playing anything
until I was like, 10 or 11.
And then I started playing, when I was 11, with the club.
When I was 14, I was playing for Mayo in goal.
First, when they see you, they wouldn't know to react and stuff.
Then, once I start talking, they're like, 'Jesus! Where did you get that accent?'
So it's gas (funny) like that, like.
I just got really into it. And all the boys from school, we all started becoming good friends.
And you know, you've another group of really strong friends then, because you had your
own community and everything was grand.
But then when you play GAA and you play with the other boys in the team,
so they're all sound as well.
It's not for any soft lads, you know?
Tough lads going at each other.
Some lads will be always like, 'Oh, you don't know what you're missing. You should be doing
this and that.'
And I'm like, 'No, I just respect my culture and stuff like that.'
And I have the craic, like. Do you know? 'I don't need to drink to have banter, like.
I'm grand, like, where I am. So it's good.
If the other boys, you think, are going to make an effort towards you, you have to kind
of make an effort as well,
because it's not all one-way traffic. You know yourself.
– When the Pakistanis came in first, in the 1970s, they integrated very successfully.
Now there probably are at least 20 languages.
We're trying to integrate the new people into the club, and into the community.
Club and community. They have the same problems. They face the same challenges.
Now, you take 20 strangers that don't know one another. How many combinations have to
be there before they form a community?
– So who can start off and tell me about a bit of a the story of Cú Chulainn?
What was he very good at?
He was good at hurling.
– OK, so he left home, didn't he? – Yeah.
– And how old was he when he left home? Can you remember?
– Five years old.
– And what things did he bring with him when he left home?
– A javelin stick, a spear, a hurley and a sliotar.
– Very good.
It's about one third of the population of the school here, which have been new Irish
children, shall we say?
It was a huge shock. And it took a while for the people of the area to get used to it as well.
But down the line, it's probably one of the best things that did ever happen.
And I think the children, the local children, would have learnt hugely from it.
Yes, Aalis! Nice puck!
– Children that are living in direct provision, it's very difficult for them.
– Refugees are welcome here!
– What do you want?! – Immigrant provision!
– When do you want it?! – Now!
– What do you want?! – Immigrant provision!
– When do you want it?! – Now!
– The phenomenon, I think, dates back to the mid-90s. That was the first time I was
aware of refugees coming here.
How Ireland has dealt with it has been horrible. The Direct Provision system is awful.
This system that they're thrown into where they can't work,
where they're just in limbo for years.
– There was a great desire to do something for the children.
People could see the situation families were in and recognise that there was very little
that could be done to help the adults.
But in terms of the children, people were determined to make all of the children who
lived in our town feel just like the other children who live here.
You know, we had no real input with the asylum community in the convent.
They were there, but we didn't know them.
We knew that there were potential players there for us.
Oh! My little fella, Desmond.
The one over there. The one who just jumped, there.
You know, when they kick the ball, sometimes I fear that the ball go into his face.
He will be having some injuries, but it's OK!
I'm from the Ivory Coast.
When you arrive, in your mind, maybe your case will take, let's say, three or six months.
I was in the Direct Provision for almost six years before I was granted leave to remain.
Six years.
– How was your day today? – Good.
– No spelling today? – Oh yeah, I did.
– How many spellings? – I don't know.
– You didn't check? Why are you playing in class?
– A lot. – A lot! Oh!
For myself, I was getting, as a 19-year-old, 10 cents.
And my child was getting, as a 9-year-old, 50 cents every week.
The bad thing was that I couldn't work. I was not allowed to work.
That was the big problem.
Desmond is a Ballyhaunis boy.
When I asked him if he wants to move out of Ballyhaynis,
he said, 'No, Mummy. Here is my place. I don't know anywhere else.'
And I love Ballyhaunis. It's like my village now!
Mike there was in for rakes of points and scores.
There was brilliant stuff, great blocks. He got in two or three brilliant blocks. Absolutely brilliant.
– Go on mate! – Come on! That's it!
No, 15 and then your turn.
– You see my two young fellas playing with Mike there, you know? That's normal now in this town.
You know, all the different nationalities playing alongside each other.
– Who would you like to play for?
Ballyhaunis!
I'd like to play for Mayo and Galway.
Why would you play for Galway? Imagine if Mayo was playing against Galway.
Which one would you pick?
I'd half myself.
– No, I'm not a social worker. You know what I mean?
And I'm not a politician. Neither is anyone else in this club, you know?
We can't take on the burden of, oh, this big spectrum – you know what I mean?
Of solving all life's problems.
It's not Nirvana. You know what I mean?
Because, to tell you the truth, it's hard work.
– Set it up and keep it as tight as you can.
Yeah. Even down lower, yeah. Pull it tight.
Tomorrow is going to be the result of five weeks of hectic action, really.
So we're giving, more or less, a little taste of what goes on at the club
and the make-up of the club,
and the community spirit and community cooperation.
I think we're going to get a crowd tomorrow. I really hope that car park is going to be full.
You have lads from Africa. You have lads from Pakistan. Lads from travelling communities.
You have the Irish boys.
And just there, there's four different sets of people.
And if you think, they all can come together and play, and enjoy it, and they can be good friends,
why can't older people look at that as an example?
It's great to see them happy and playing together.
You know? That's what it's great to see.
No matter who they are or where they come from,
they're all Ballyhaunis kids playing for Ballyhaunis.