Helen O’Rourke Q&A: ‘They liked the game, it was fast, a purer form of football’

Dubliner Helen O’Rourke is celebrating 20 years as chief executive of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association. It’s been a hectic week at headquarters as the LGFA prepares for tomorrow’s TG4 All-Ireland finals in the junior, intermediate and senior grades.

Q: What kind of crowd are you hoping for on Sunday?

A: We had almost 35,000 last year, and we’d hope to meet that and exceed it. But a lot comes down to the weather on the day. If the weather is good, people will walk up and they’ll come but if the weather is miserable, sometimes you’d worry that if people bought tickets, they might say ‘ah to hell with it.’ But the fact that we had the Dublin and Mayo men in the final last Sunday, and that rivalry between the two counties, you can certainly see that flow over into the women’s game, with the same two counties. I would be hoping we’d have an excellent crowd, that would beat any of our records.