Khmer 7 Club

[Candi Ruman]

KhmerStudent Society is a student organization dedicated to creating a supportive and learning environment for Khmer students at UCR. The club serves as a place of representation for Khmer students and advocates for all relevant issues. Due to the lack of representation of Khmer students in higher education, the Khmer Student Society feels the need to be a necessary element within the UCR campus. We are here to be a culturally active and supportive club for our fellow students. We strive to cultivate traditions and culture for our students as well as provide a leadership opportunity for members to be involved in the community.

Khmer Student Society was created to foster a learning and supportive environment where all Khmer students and fellow peers can enjoy each other's company and all together learn more about Khmer culture and history. We demand respect from all members towards one another. As well as be a supportive friend. This club also provides an opportunity to network not only within UCR but within all Khmer student organizations as well as Khmer communities in various cities.

Founded six years ago and based in Phnom Penh, Cairde Khmer has both male and female GAA teams and is currently raising funds to visit Derry in 2023. But how did Ronan become its chairperson and how did the club come to be?

Ronan was raised in Kanturk, a small town set in the rural meadows of Duhallow in north Co. Cork. As a child, he was very early steered towards music and sport. He grew up in a large family of seven where he shared a bedroom with his brothers.

As Ronan got older he got more into sports and GAA and there was a huge buzz surrounding their under-14s teams. In fact, they had future Cork stars in their ranks including Lorcan McLoughlin, Aidan Walsh and Anthony Nash.

Despite this strong sports pull in Ireland, Ronan had to leave in 2011 during the recession and banking crisis. He worked as a retained firefighter at the time but grew severely frustrated with the cutting of public sector wages and so took off around Europe, working in Manchester before doing seasonal work in the French Alps during the winters and the lakes of Northern Italy during the summertime.

Ronan began as a member of the club from the off-go as a player. The club initially just started as a coming together of some Irish ex-pats and friends who could enjoy GAA in Asia. It soon became apparent however that it was going to become so much more.

Initially, the club was made up of friends of the founders and even now how they gain traction is mainly through word of mouth. But a newfound interest appeared when they rejigged their training time.

As Ronan and Conor (founder and president) speak Khmer, training is led in both Khmer language and English but it also includes plenty of dramatic hand gestures and sweeps of the leg in demonstration.

The challenges Cairde Khmer face revolve around many things. Holding onto players can be difficult as players from the ex-pat community come and go. However, they usually retain the Cambodian contingent for the most part.

Ronan says that funding is also another big challenge. Their Khmer players come from tough backgrounds and getting passports, flights, accommodation and such at overseas tournaments around Asia certainly takes its toll.

Ronan says that the ultimate goal would be to pass the baton to the Khmer club members. While there are Khmer people involved, the bulk of work has been through the main Irish founders and runners of the club.

We Are Irish was formed out of a desire to share good news and interesting stories about Irish people at home and abroad. We also aim to tell stories from those with an affinity with Ireland through uplifting and positive pieces.

Gaelic games are well and truly alive and growing in popularity with new clubs springing to life in many major cities across the globe. With the introduction of the GAA World Games in 2015 and the growing network of International tournaments across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North America and Australasia, this certainly has played its part in bringing the games to life outside of Ireland.

The current Cairde Khmer members are spread across two cities (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap), and eight nationalities, including Irish, Cambodian, English, American, Canadian, French, Swedish and Japanese.

So despite an 'ocean' of distance from our birthplace and the many 'moons' we might have been away from home, a link between our 'culture and games' still burns bright, even in new foreign lands of 'temples'.

Thought behind the design elements: Four elements went into designing the crest to symbolise links between our culture and the game in new foreign lands, whilst he jersey colours signify the founding members home counties. As we were in a rush to make the 2017 AGG in Bangkok, sponsorship options were very limited. Paul Campbell from Powerscreen, who also sponsors OC Wild Geese and Ulster San Francisco, kindly helped out with jersey sponsorship after a last-minute call.

Cairde Khmer have also just finalised a partnership agreement with registered Irish charity, Scoop Foundation, which has been working in Cambodia since 2008, building schools that provide free education and community development for children from impoverished backgrounds. As many of the Cairde Khmer members are teachers, the club will set up and run a teacher-mentoring programme. This would require a number of club volunteers to donate two hours per month to visit Scoop-run schools and offer teacher training to local Khmer teachers. Also club players would offer Gaelic football training to the students attending Scoop-run schools. This would be achieved in the form of PE classes and after-school training sessions.

In 2018, the club also plans to research the possibility of starting underage GAA teams in Cambodia, so as to empower children to take up sport. This would be achieved through pilot schemes where Gaelic football would be taught in after-school programmes, PE lessons, or weekend club training sessions and games. One such pilot scheme has already been introduced in Go Global International School in Siem Reap. Here club co-founder, Patrick Campbell, introduced Gaelic football to students during PE lessons.

Throughout the year, Cairde Khmer members, kitted out in club jerseys if practical, aim to take part in local community, charitable and sporting events. Examples of such events include Angkor Wat Half Marathon (Siem Reap), Angkor Wat Bike4Kids Race (Siem Reap), Cambodia Charity Run & Ride (Phnom Penh), Bokor Half Marathon & Bike Race (Kampot), Mekong Swim (Phnom Penh) and Keep Phnom Penh Clean missions.

Such club participations have already began. On 4th December 2017, seven Cairde Khmer club members, proudly sporting Cairde Khmer jerseys, took part in the 22nd Angkor Wat Half Marathon, which raises funds for local charities. One club player, Ruadhan O'Deasmhunaigh, chaperoned 65 students around the 10km course. Another, Brian van Damme, ran to raise money for Temple Garden Foundation. And arguably most impressively, another club member, Ailbhe Ni Craith, raised 2,685 USD for Angkor Hospital for Children.

Club member who made most progress: Our English full forward, Matt Ball, after only playing Gaelic football for 6 weeks, bagged a highly impressive 6-1 at the AGG 2017. This was the first time he ever played GAA games. Also a shout out must be given to the members of the ladies team from Japan, England, America and even Ireland, who had never played GAA before. Their improvement was immense.

Most memorable story involving a club member: During the AGG, our one-man powerhouse and goalkeeper, Michael Davitt from Dublin, ticked quite a few boxes including keeping clean sheets, getting sent off, and even scoring a point.

I was fifteen years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power in April 1975. I can still remember how overwhelmed with joy I was that the war had finally ended. It did not matter who won. I and many Cambodians wanted peace at any price. The civil war had tired us out, and we could not make much sense out of killing our own brothers and sisters for a cause that was not ours. We were ready to support our new government to rebuild our country. We wanted to bring back that slow-paced, simple life we grew up with and loved dearly. At the time we didn't realize how high the price was that we had to pay for the Khmer Rouge's peace.

The Khmer Rouge were very clever and brutal. Their tactics were effective because most of us refused to believe their malicious intentions. Their goal was to liberate us. They risked their own lives and gave up their families for "justice" and "equality." How could these worms have come out of our own skin?

Even after our warmest welcome, the first word from the Khmer Rouge was a lie wrapped around a deep anger and hatred of the kind of society they felt Cambodia was becoming. They told us that Americans were going to bomb the cities. They forced millions of residents of Phnom Penh and other cities out of their homes. They separated us from our friends and neighbors to keep us off balance, to prevent us from forming any alliance to stand up and win back our rights. They ripped off our homes and our possessions. They did this intentionally, without mercy.

They were willing to pay any cost, any lost lives for their mission. Innocent children, old women, and sick patients from hospital beds were included. Along the way, many innocent Cambodians were dying of starvation, disease, loss of loved ones, confusion, and execution.

They took my father. They told my family that my father needed to be reeducated. Brainwashed. But my father's fate is unknown to this day. We can only imagine what happened to him. This is true for almost all Cambodian widows and orphans. We live in fear of finding out what atrocities were committed against our fathers, husbands, brothers. What could they have done that deserved a tortured death?

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