BY JAMIE CONLON Galway Advertiser, Thu, Oct 02, 2025
Pupils from Mercy Primary School at the NFL Flag in Galway, Ireland, Friday, September 19. (Peter Morrison/AP Content Services for the NFL)
Mercy Primary School and Coláiste Baile Chláir will compete at the 2025 NFL Flag All-Ireland National Championships which take place on November 20 at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Complex.
The National Football League (NFL ) announced that 13 schools from across Ireland earned their place with victories in regional NFL flag tournaments held in Connacht, Munster, Leinster and Ulster. The events saw a total of 330 students from 33 teams compete across the U12 Mixed and U15 Open categories.
The Mercy Primary School U12 Mixed team and the Coláiste Baile Chláir U15 team will participate at the NFL Flag All-Ireland Championships in November.
Dr Chris Long, NFL Head of Youth Football and Grassroots Development, congratulated the victorious schools.
"We have seen strong growth in participation across the island of Ireland since we launched our NFL Flag program last year, and it was fantastic to see the standard of play already so high along with incredible sportsmanship, teamwork and respect on display at each tournament," he added.
As of 2025, there are 60 schools (35 primary and 25 post-primary ) engaged nationwide in NFL Flag, with more than 4,500 boys and girls playing the game and ambitions to grow participation to more than 50,000 by 2027. Earlier this month, NFL Flag starter kits were also delivered to more than 900 post-primary schools in Ireland, for students aged 12–16 years. Teachers will also receive free online educational resources for the classroom, as well as information about free teacher training courses to help them use the game in lessons, after school clubs and leagues.