Cork camogie captain discusses depression and urges others not to hide their feelings
And despite the teak-tough exterior that has won her All-Ireland medals, the Cork captain isn’t afraid to reveal a more vulnerable side, speaking openly on the Brendan O’Connor show on RTÉ Radio1 about her battle with depression.
The 25-year-old has been encouraging others suffering from depression not to hide their feelings, but to seek help. “Don’t bottle things up; you will lose friends. No matter how bad the situation may be, it always gets better,” she says.
A difficult couple of years, in which she was injured in a car crash and lost a boyfriend due to suicide, knocked her for six.
Ironically, after turning her back on the sport she loves, it was camogie that helped her way again.
“I’ve hit rock bottom and come back through sport,” says Ashling.
🙏RT: My interview from the @BOCShowRTE this morning. Well worth a listen, there's always hope.. #holdon #nevergiveup http://t.co/qvjWA5cz38
— Ashling Thompson (@AshlingThompson) July 14, 2015
Ashling’s struggles began when she sustained back and neck injuries in a car accident in 2009. She had finished her Leaving Cert and was starting college, and had already made the Cork senior squad when a collision close to her family’s home in Newtownshandrum left her unable to train and led to her dropping out of college.
Having played camogie since the age of seven, she wasn’t prepared for the effects of her injury.
“I had never been injured before, so I’d never sat on the sidelines,” she says. “It was extremely difficult to take sitting out for so long. There was nothing that could help me and I couldn’t do anything to get over it quickly. That’s where depression crept in.”
During that time, Ashling became more rebellious and changed her circle of friends. When she finally returned to the game, she started skipping training sessions with her club, Milford GAA.
“I was in my own bubble and nothing outside of that mattered,” she says.
“I got involved with all the wrong kind of friends and pushed away all the good ones. I got in loads of trouble and let my family down. The years that followed were really tough.”
The person that won her trust and helped her turn things around was Milford camogie team trainer and former Carrigtwohill hurler Frank Flannery, who took over the North Cork team in 2012. He led them to an All-Ireland in his first year with the squad. Ashling described him as firm but fair, and like a father figure to her.
Such an honest and inspirational interview from @AshlingThompson @CorkCamogie_ with @BOCShowRTE just now - hope for anyone in a dark place
— Tracey Kennedy (@Tracey_Cork) July 14, 2015
Ashling, who sports several tattoos and piercings, had developed a reputation as a rogue player by the time she met Frank, and had difficulty controlling her temper. Personality clashes with other trainers simply led to her being taken off.
“I was rebellious in general,” she says. “My trainers started to only see a negative side of me. It started to reflect in my play and on me as a person. Every referee in the country must know me, I’d say! They got an awful doing.”
Ashling’s bond with Frank formed quickly. “He told me he’d be my friend and that I could ring him any time of the day or night,” she says. “That was the first time I’d ever heard anything like that.”
Ashling’s emotional problems were nothing new to Frank. “I would have my own demons,” he says.
“Through my own experience and those of friends I could relate to where Ashling was coming from.”
Ashling was just getting back into her game when tragedy struck: Her “best friend” and “on-again, off-again” boyfriend committed suicide in 2012.
“It was a massive blow,” she says. “He committed suicide completely out of the blue. That makes it 10 times worse because you ask yourself, ‘how did I not notice’? He was always full of energy, full of life. I felt like I’d really failed and I should have noticed something.”
She describes the months following the bereavement as her darkest days. “There were two months where I went training but apart from that I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, and I was like a ghost walking around,” she says. “I felt invisible.” That’s when she began to feel that she couldn’t continue.
“I just felt, I can’t go through this pain anymore, it’s not worth it,” she says. After bottling everything up, Ashling finally broke down at training, but Frank was there to support her.
“Frankie told me: ‘If I’ve to pick you up and carry you I will. Stick with me, come to training. It will get easier.’ That was the turning point,” she says.
“I was at rock bottom but I trusted him 110%. I trusted in my sport. It’s the effort you make to find that gateway, to find your way out that does eventually pay off. I’m so proud of myself and I’m so thankful to Frankie and to everyone who’s helped me since.”
Frankie is “extremely proud” to watch Ashling’s progress since she became the captain of the Cork team.
“She’s reinvented herself, to be honest, and she’s put all that anger and drive into her achievements,” he says.
“She’s so talented, such an athlete. To watch her go from being taken off all the time to getting player of the match and then moving on to Cork in 2013 was fantastic.”
Ashling, now a self-employed sports therapist, took over as captain from fellow Milford player Anna Geary following Geary’s retirement as county captain in 2014, just after Cork’s All-Ireland win against Kilkenny.
Following a defeat at the hands of Galway in the opening round of this year’s Liberty Insurance Camogie Championship, the Rebelettes were back on form to beat Limerick in the second round by 1-14 to 1-10.
Cork meet Wexford in the next round of the Liberty Insurance Camogie Championship this Saturday.
Frank is optimistic about Cork’s chances at winning their 26th All-Irelan title this year.
“It’ll be Cork for the All-Ireland,” he says. “I’d say Galway are their biggest challenge.”
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