The All Britain Competition is only one week away – Are you ABCs Ready?
With 301 Club teams and 90 Primary & Secondary Schools registered, ABCs 2025 is set to be the biggest event yet with over 4,150 children from U7-U18 participating in all four codes across four days at The Hazelwood Centre in Sunbury-On-Thames.
Check out all the information surrounding this years games here – ABCs 2025 | Gaelic Games Council of Britain
Message from the ABC Committee Chairman in advance of the games:
We are all set to welcome everyone to The Hazelwood Centre for the 13th edition of the ABCs. Over the course of four days in the region of 4,000 children from clubs and schools across Britain and Ulster will have the opportunity to play our games, display their talents and make new friends along the way.
The growth of the ABCs over the past few years has been phenomenal and this year will hopefully see us surpass 4,000 participants for the first time which is a staggering number and makes the ABCs the largest Gaelic Games event outside of Ireland. The growth of the event saw us move to a new venue last year and we are once again delighted to be hosting this prestigious event at The Hazelwood Centre in Sunbury-on-Thames, a fantastic facility.
Being part of the GAA in Britain means being part of a support structure which provides not only an invaluable link to our culture and sport back home, but it also enables us to introduce our games to those who traditionally would not be familiar with them and provides an opportunity for our children and their friends to enjoy them. The ABC tournament is the embodiment of everything that is great about the GAA, a sense of belonging, a pride in our sport and the enjoyment of playing.
We would like to once again welcome our Uachtarán, Jarlath Burns who will be in attendance at this years event. We also welcome Ard Stiúrthóir, Tom Ryan, who is attending the ABCs for the very first time.
This year we are delighted to have Kilhan Construction on board as a new main sponsor – we look forward to working with them and creating a successful partnership over the next 3 years. We are also extremely grateful to have had the ESB, The Irish post and O’Neill’s as main sponsors for a number of years and we sincerely thank you and all of our other sponsors for your continued support this year.
The tournament was again launched at the Embassy of Ireland in London. The continued support and endorsement by Ambassador Martin Fraser, his colleagues in London, the Irish Abroad Unit and the Department of Foreign Affairs is sincerely appreciated.
The continued commitment and encouragement from our colleagues in Croke Park, Uachtarán, Jarlath Burns, Ard Stiúrthóir, Tom Ryan, Uachtarán LGFA, Trina Murray, Uachtarán Camogie, Brian Molloy, all of their teams and staff and volunteers, in particular through the office of Shane Flanagan, Director of Games Development and research, through the World Games committee of Ciaran McLaughlin and through Charlie Harrison, International Officer, is also sincerely acknowledged and appreciated by all of us here in Britain.
We also acknowledge the support we receive from our twinning partners in Ulster GAA and we wish all who have travelled over with the Cúchulainns team a successful weekend of sport and friendship. The Cúchulainns cross community initiative aims to afford young people from different backgrounds the opportunity to engage with one another, and to educate people not traditionally involved with the GAA more about the Association.
To the members and volunteers of Gael Londain and The Hazelwood Centre we extend a mile buiochas for hosting the ABC tournament. We acknowledge the work of the ABC committee, the CDA’s, all referees, car park attendants and all volunteers associated with the event.
The importance of this event cannot be understated, with the majority of homegrown players who proudly represented their counties in the All Britain Intercounty Championship, have played at the ABCs.
Finally, we would like to thank all the players for taking part and their mentors for their efforts preparing the teams. The ABC tournament is an important event providing a stepping stone for all youth players to Senior and we look forward to watching them progress on that pathway one step further this year as we celebrate the competitions 13th year.
We wish everyone involved a successful tournament.
Noel O’Sullivan
ABC Chairman
