Royals' stars Burke and Queeney to visit Ethiopia on charity trip

Meath senior footballers Mickey Burke (Longwood) and Jamie Queeney (Na Fianna) will be supporting the GAA-nominated charity for 2011 when they travel to Ethiopia next January. The charity, Playing for Life, will bring Irish and Ethiopian communities together and the two Meath players are looking forward to the trip, following an invitation to get involved from former Meath senior football selector, Bob O'Malley. "Bob O'Malley asked myself and Jamie if we would be interested in raising some funds and going to Ethiopia," Burke said this week. "It will certainly be a new experience and we will be travelling at the end of January next year for 10 days." He added: "While in Ethiopia, we will be coaching football and hurling and playing a game or two, and we will also be involved in some building work and I'm sure it will open our eyes about life in that part of the world. "We will be organising some fundraising events in Longwood and Enfield initially. That will probably start with a table quiz or two and we will take it from there," added the Longwood player. In Ethiopia, a similar game is played with a wooden hurl-like stick and a ball. The game is called karsa and the Irish GAA players and the Ethiopian karsa team will play a challenge. Apart from the Meath duo, other players including Manus Boyle (Donegal), Brian Whelahan (Offaly), John Lynch (Tyrone) and a number of other current players will be travelling to Ethiopia to help build a community sports facility and to teach Gaelic games to the local Ethiopian community. The event was launched last week at Croke Park and GAA sports stars, past and present, turned out to show their support for the charity. Dublin's Eamonn Fennell, Niall Corcoran and Barney Rock attended the launch, along with Limerick's Gavin O'Mahony and Kilkenny hurler Tommy Walsh. RTE's Mary Kennedy lent her support and applauded the charity's ongoing work in Africa. 'Playing for Life' was established by RTÉ Sports presenter Tracy Piggott who has worked in Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi in the past six years. The charity's work focuses on self-development by providing education facilities, skills training and HIV/AIDS awareness through sport. "As a team, we are extremely honoured, proud and pleased to have been named as an official GAA charity. Over the years, we have had tremendous support from the GAA community throughout the country," said Tracy Piggott, a daughter of the legendary Lester Piggott.