Shane Brosnan building on construction sites and New York Tailteann Cup progression

RTÉ News​

08-05-2025

Shane Brosnan is as Irish as an American can get really. The son of Kerry natives, growing up five minutes from Mclean Avenue in Yonkers, also known as 'Little Ireland', it wasn't unusual to play Gaelic Games, because most of his friends have Irish heritage in some shape or other.
"I don't even have too many (non-Irish friends). Everyone that I'm friends with or where we grew up is all pretty much Irish. So, they all know what we do," he told RTÉ Sport.
Brosnan dabbled in other sports like soccer and basketball, but by the time he reached his mid-teens, football was his main passion.
"I would have been interested in a lot of other sports too, growing up. But by the time I hit like 15 or 16, I knew I wanted to play football."
The 22-year-old New York native has fond memories watching from the sidelines when the Exiles gave Leitrim a scare in the closely fought Connacht quarter-final in 2018 and explained it's what spurred him on.
"My dad would always bring me to the New York games when I was younger.
"I'd say the first one I can really remember is probably that 2018 game with Leitrim. I would have been training maybe with the Under-16 development team at the time."
"And I knew probably around that time then when they ran Leitrim close, I knew that I wanted to try to get on the New York team."
It must have been a magical moment for Brosnan, when as a bright-eyed 20-year-old debutant, the Exiles claimed their first championship win over the same side that inspired him to pull on the navy and red jersey.
Brosnan is hopeful that the 2023 Connacht quarter-final win over Leitrim will inspire more American-born players to continue on to senior level.
"All the kids after the game against Leitrim; couple of hundred kids running on the field after.
"They're going to be the future. So, the more success we have now could probably drive another 20 or 30 kids to push on and try to get on the New York team when they're older."
It's not just the inter-county side that is inspiring the next generation, Brosnan's club, St Barnabas now has a successful senior team, driven in part by his father Mike, who is the president.
St Barnabas became the first American team made of entirely homegrown players to win the New York senior football championship in 2020, which they successfully defended in 2021, which Brosnan thinks has accelerated its growth.
"I think the underage is getting even bigger now with Barnabas. There's always a good 40 or 50 kids around the pitch.
"Even coming up to us after our games and stuff, they're always looking up to us now and they're definitely the future.
"I guess winning a couple of championships probably accelerated that growth. We probably didn't have that before when I was growing up, we didn't have had a senior team.
"So now they have something to probably look forward to and try to push on and get to that. They have a goal to set now."
Despite what history may suggest, with only a few American born players making the panel, the New York captain believes he hasn't had to prove himself as a 'homegrown', which he tributes to the attitudes of fellow team-mates.
In 2019, there were six American players on the squad, and up until 2022 that number was roughly the same. But in 2023, four homegrown players featured against Leitrim, whilst there were 12 in total on the panel. The number of truly American players is on the rise, well it depends what way you look at it, they are all of Irish descent after all.
"In the first year I came in with New York, we had a lot of good personalities in the team.
"They pretty much reassured us right away that we did belong there, that they were involved in other setups, and we were just as good."
Brosnan is balancing playing and training with a job in construction, the physicality of the work isn't a barrier though, and the early finish allows time for him to get to their Bronx base for training. There is a reason the majority of the panel work in the sector.
"I'm working construction. I'm in the carpenters union in Queens right now. Once we get finished up here around half three and then just head down to training.
"I think it probably helps me to keep me moving around and stuff... I think if I was inside an office I'd probably be driving myself nuts.
"I would say 75% of our team probably is (working in construction)."
The persisting challenge for New York is the lack of competitive minutes in the build up to their championship games.
The introduction of the new FRC rules would have many believing their Connacht quarter-final against Galway last month would be a likely trouncing, but the Exiles were stiffer competition than expected.
"We ran them close in the first-half.
"We probably just didn't have the legs to keep going in the second-half, but it was good to get the game against a team like Galway... Definitely took a lot from that game and hopefully bring it into that game in four weeks time."
Brosnan thinks there isn't a lot that needs to change ahead of his side's preliminary Tailteann Cup quarter-final on 7 June, but suggests less predictable kick-outs, alongside a fitness boost may help New York secure their first ever championship victory on Irish soil.
"We were very good for 35 minutes, we know we need to probably add on another bit of fitness and hopefully complete that performance that we had in the first-half for a full 70-minute game.
"Keeping stuff different. I think maybe we only had maybe a few things we need to figure out, our kick-outs after a while.
"We probably should work on a few different varieties of stuff that we can do to keep everything fresh so they're not figuring us out."
Watch Galway v Wexford in the Leinster Hurling Championship on Saturday from 2.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1