Irish games prove mettle

Saturday evening wrapped up an exciting weekend of Irish sports at the Dubai Duty Free Gulf Gaelic Games held at the 7even's Stadium.

Contact sports carry injury risk as Qatar Football Ladies Captain Nuala Owens found out during a spirited defence in front of her goal posts where her shoulder was dislocated as she challenged Abu Dhabi forwards. The game ended in a 0-2:0-2 draw.

In the men's Football Cup Dubai Celts teams A and B faced off in a competitive semi final game, but youth proved the seconds team's undoing going down by five points brought on by John Dorgan's runs up the pitch passing to the scoring foot of Gareth McDermott.

Joining them in the final was Qatar who overcame Thurles in a heated semi-final in a low scoring game 0-7 to 0-3.

The hurling A Cup final saw a clash of heavyweights from Tipperary. Thurles A team gave a superb exhibition of hurling. Colm O'Rouke, a former Dubai resident, led by example scoring an unbelievable 2-2 from his position as full back.

In the hurling B Cup final Jumeriah school boys in their first competitive outing delivered on Danny Cotterill's dedicated leadership finding themselves in the final against a canny Dubai Celts B team in a thrilling final. Where Jumeriah converted points, the Celts found the back of the net winning 4-0 to 0-4 at the final whistle.

On the second-largest event of its kind outside Ireland, Darragh McGreevy, Chairman of Dubai Celts, said: "The expansion of the competition to include African teams was a special achievement given the global situation."

Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.