It's no great secret that in the past 125 years the GAA has grown far beyond the borders of this island. But perhaps most of us don't realise just how far away from Thurles and Croke Park people are regularly plucking a high ball out of the sky or slinging a sideline cut over the bar. Far beyond the traditional focal points for the Irish diaspora – in places as far apart as Baltimore in the US, Hanoi in Vietnam and Dalian in the north of China – Gaelic games are being played.

Given the year that's in it, Aaron Dunne's idea to spend 12 months dropping in on a selection of these to get a feel for GAA life across the globe is an excellent one. What he finds is an interesting insight into Irish life abroad. They say that the further people are from home, and indeed the further removed they are from Irish culture, the closer they hold their identity. This certainly seems to be true in GAA circles abroad.

So often Dunne meets people who, by their own admission, would not have considered themselves traditional GAA folk at home, and yet they've joined or founded clubs and set about the arduous work of fundraising, finding facilities and, most importantly, finding players to play the games.

It's the sheer scale of ambition of so many of these clubs that leaves you in no doubt as to the sure foundations that are being laid for the GAA abroad, whether it's the top-notch facilities recently opened in San Francisco or the new clubs that continue to sprout up in ever-stranger locations.

No less jaw-dropping are little stories like the one about Connemara-native Jimmy Connolly who trained seven Australasian minor football championship-winning teams in New Zealand. In all of those teams there was only one non-Kiwi-born player in their ranks. And yet there are other areas better populated with Irish people who can't field underage teams. Just like at home, it's often the sheer single-mindedness of stubborn individuals that lift clubs to the next level.

Written in a snappy diary format – with plenty of insights throughout about the highs and lows of life as a backpacker – Dunne's timetable does not allow a greater depth of analysis that many of the clubs deserve. But this book works excellently as a whistle-stop tour through Gaelic life across the globe.

Around The World in GAA Days by Aaron Dunne (Mainstream) 223 pages €15.99 Rating: 3/5