It may be thousands of miles away from the World Cup hysteria in Brazil, but there are few places outside the home of beautiful football quite so enveloped by the festivities as Gort, Co Galway.
And few less likely places too, come to think of it. At first glance, it appears to conform to all the stereotypes of a quaint rural town: more pubs than people and a central square dotted with religious adornments.
However, it has had the highest proportion of Brazilian residents per head of population anywhere in the country since a wave of immigration in the mid-2000s.
The town’s multicultural identity has been exhaustively publicised in the national media in recent years, but nobody has wondered whether the football team is any good. As it turns out, they are pretty handy.
Having taken over where the now-defunct Gort Town left off in 2009, the founders of Coole FC made a deliberate ploy to entice the area’s Brazilians into the local sporting scene, as was evidenced by the appearance of the Brazilian national flag alongside its Irish equivalent on the club crest.
The chairman
Barry McCarry, now chairman, was manager of the team that provided the nascent club’s finest moment in 2011, when a squad comprised of Irish and Brazilian players embarked on a 12-game unbeaten run that culminated in the side’s first ever silverware.
“Myself and a couple of other lads in the town got together and we started a schoolboys’ club, under 13s and 14s, playing in the Clare League because it was cheaper than joining the Galway League,” says McCarry, a Co Antrim native who moved to Gort eight years ago.
“The year we won the Division Three title, we had a squad of 30, of which 17 or 18 were Brazilian lads. The Brazilians can play fantastically on nice surfaces, but when you have to go down to bogland in west Clare, that’s where the local guys from a GAA background would be more comfortable.
“It took a while but eventually we struck a good balance.”
In Hennelly's pub in Gort, the last vestiges of what had once been a thriving community gather to watch their national side take on Chile in the last 16 of the World Cup. Although about 300 Brazilians remain – a pretty decent representation out of a town of just over 2,500 – it's a far cry from the Celtic Tiger years that saw an influx of anything up to 1,500 South Americans, many of whom worked in the local meat factory, which failed to survive the subsequent crash.
Carnival atmosphere
Alexandre Da Silva is contributing to the carnival atmosphere during a fine evening of midsummer sun out west. Nerves fraying, the Gort resident of 10 years takes a minute to explain the cultural and footballing transition he underwent as his heroes struggle to an uninspiring win.
“Here [football is] more physical, whereas at home it’s quicker and more skilful. When I played my first league here it was very difficult. We brought a different style of football. We try to help the Irish play the way we play,” says Da Silva.
Edinei de Oliveira Ramos jnr, or simply Junior, played underage football for big clubs in Brazil before moving to Galway. “In Brazil it’s hard to get really good money, and here we can make a good life, and anybody who works here can make a good living compared to Brazil,” he says. “There’s plenty of work during the summer, but the winter is hard.”
According to McCarry, a local tournament for teams comprising only Brazilian players from across the country regularly attracted 30-40 sides a few years ago, but that number is now down to six or seven.
Coole itself hasn’t fared much better. Partly due to a more strictly enforced subscription and insurance policy within the club, but mostly caused by the rapid disappearance of the majority of Brazilian immigrants to the town since the bubble burst, the team ended up being relegated from division two last season.
They will always have memories of the sublime South American vintage of 2011.
