The Singapore Gaelic Lions Club is the Gaelic Football and Hurling club in Singapore. It was established in 1997 and is currently the biggest (and best) club in Southeast Asia.

Where it all began

Gaelic Football in Asia originated in Taipei, Taiwan in 1995 when it was decided to hold the first Asian Gaelic Games the following year in Manila, Philippines. Singapore did not send a team, but the idea to start a club here was planted.

Tyrone stalwart Brian Cummings left Taiwan for Singapore in September 1996 with the threat ringing in his ears of ‘Don’t bother turning up in Manila, unless you have a Singapore team with you’. This drove Brian on and in 1997, on a balmy night in the Penny Black Pub, the club that was to become known as the Singapore Gaelic Lions was formed. Led by John Lyons of Limerick, Brian Cummings and 5 or 6 others in attendance that night, the group kicked on with a recruiting campaign, putting up flyers in local UK/Irish pubs and pulled together a team to start training. Stragglers would turn up each Sunday and numbers grew over time as the word got around.

The men spent most of their free time in those days ‘visiting’ the usual watering holes hoping to find a few likely lads for a kick about. A certain Sean Duggan was one of the first recruits. Sean was collared in Muddy Murphy’s upper bar and a few Kilkenny’s later John Lyons convinced him to turn up for Sunday training. Brian was the first Chairperson for 1997 and 1998 and started to build the club that has expanded to where we are today.

https://gaeliclions.org