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.