American Football High School Games to be Played Energia Park on Friday August 22 Will Support the Club’s Expansion and Community Programs
Proceeds from the 2025 Global Ireland Football Tournament being played at Energia
Park in Dublin on Friday, August 22, are to be shared with the Dublin based St. James
Gate Football Club, one of the founding members of the League of Ireland, now playing
as a grassroots club in the Leinster Senior League.
The St James Gate leadership team group is working alongside Global Football,
organizers of the annual high school American football tournament, to promote the GIFT
event and sell tickets for a doubleheader of games. Net profits from the matches will
benefit the soccer club that was saved from the brink of extinction in 2022.
The Hun School from Princeton, New Jersey will take on the NFL Academy UK at 3pm
at Energia Park on Friday, August 22, before the home team Ireland Under-19
Wolfhounds face Kiski School from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at 6.30pm. Tickets priced
€20 (adults) and €15 (students) are on sale at the LeinsterRugby.ie website. Admission
is free for children.
“We are delighted to enter this partnership with the Global Ireland Football Tournament,”
says Richard O’Brien, vice chairman of St James Gate. “All funds raised will support the
expansion and community programs run by St James Gate, with a specific focus on
funding education and sporting scholarships for young people in Ireland. We are hugely
grateful to Patrick Steenberge and his colleagues at Global Football and look forward to
seeing all sports fans in Energia Park on Friday, August 22.”
The GIFT games have been played since 2012 in association with the Aer Lingus
College Football Classic, which this year sees Iowa State play Kansas State at the
Aviva Stadium.
“Our GIFT event has always been about bringing local communities together, so we are
delighted to share our success with such an historic soccer club and are extremely
grateful for their commitment to promoting our games,” said Global Football president
and founder Patrick Steenberge. “This year we have high school students traveling to
Dublin to play rugby and field hockey as well as American football, so it is great that so
many are coming together in a true celebration of sport.”
St James Gate was established more than 120 years ago when together with
Shelbourne, Bohemians, Jacobs, Frankfort, Olympia, YMCA and Dublin United, Gate
became founder members of the League of Ireland. They claimed a unique double by
winning both the inaugural League of Ireland championship and the first ever FAI Cup
final in 1921/22.
On 28 May 1924 when Ireland made their international debut at the 1924 Olympics
against Bulgaria, the Ireland team included three Gate players – Paddy Duncan,
Michael Farrell and Ernie MacKay. A fourth member of the team, Paddy O’Reilly, would
also later play for the club. Duncan also scored the Republic of Ireland’s first
international goal. Joe O’Reilly, with 20, was also the most capped player for Ireland in
the pre–Second World War era.
The clubs Iveagh Grounds in Dublin have been their home since 1928 and Gate were
playing in Ireland’s topflight as recently as 1996.
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