New York jersey made from wool and worn by New York captain, Eddie ‘Sapper’ O’Neill, 1927

In 1927 the Kerry football team toured America. In New York, three games were played against New York selections and drew an aggregate crowd of 100,000. New York won all three games.

From 1926 until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, several tours of America were undertaken by hurling and football teams.  The main objectives were to popularise Gaelic games throughout America and raise finances for the Association there. The success of the trips varied.

A successful tour was undertaken by the Tipperary hurling team in 1926.  However, problems emerged as early as 1927, when the American sports promoter who organised the Kerry football tour of that year failed to pay the Kerry team’s expenses. The issue of private sponsorship was a recurring criticism of the American tours, with many in Ireland believing this ran against the amateur ethos of the Association.  

The 1929 Wall Street financial crash, and subsequent economic depression, had a detrimental effect on the GAA in America.  While the tours continued to prove popular, regularly attracting crowds of 60,000, they did not have the desired effect of improving the GAA scene in America with average crowds of just 200 at New York club games in the mid-1930s. The GAA realised that its future depended upon the second generation of (American-born) Irish-Americans and initiated a series of youth programmes.