- SportsDraft
- Posts
- “Thank you, you won’t realise how much this means to us in New York”
“Thank you, you won’t realise how much this means to us in New York”
Killian Butler, the London connection in New York
SportsDraft
October 16, 2023
Killian Butler is an English born GAA player who grew up about 10 minutes from Ruislip, the home of GAA in London. He played for his hometown club Tir Chonaill Gaels all throughout his youth, and GAA was ingrained in him from an early age. He burst onto the inter county scene at 18 years of age, nearly 10 years ago, and he hasn't looked back since.
Now living and plying his trade in New York, Killian is used to an inter-county set up of different lads from different counties.
I’d probably have a different outlook on things compared to other lads. London and New York have their similarities, I’d be used to lads from different counties and different backgrounds coming together for another county.
And Butler feels that playing with New York is not that different to playing with London or another county team.
[There are] issues in terms of travelling to training that you just get over, I live out in Long Beach and training is in Yonkers which sometimes can be 1 hour 15 mins, whereas Ruislip is only 10 minutes up the road. However, going out to training and slogging with the lads is just like any pre season I’ve done with London.
Killian has been involved with inter county setups for just under a decade, and he knows all about the Connacht Championship and how hard it is to win. He has faced the likes of Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo and Galway, where he scored a superb goal, but never got a win with his home county. That's why he knows how special the win was with New York, and how much work it takes to win at this level.
I’d of been in with London for 7-8 years and never got a championship win so it was big for me. To make history, it meant so much to the people in New York. I had an old fella come up to me and say “thank you, you won’t realise how much this means to us in New York”
It may have been a surprise to many that New York did the unthinkable and beat Leitrim to create history, their first Connacht Championship win ever, but Killian knew that something was brewing on this side of the Atlantic.
This year has been a big season. We had always set out to beat Leitrim, that was our goal when we went back training. The A v b games have be unreal some Sundays. The week before we played Sligo [last weekend] the B team beat the As. It just shows the strength and depth of the squad. The talent in the squad is outrageous, one the best teams I’ve been apart of.
Reply