Lucinda Gahan can’t believe All-Ireland final dream coming true after years away from camogie

Lucinda Gahan: ‘When I went away at 20 or 21 years of age, I never would have imagined that I would be back at this level.’ Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Lucinda Gahan can’t quite believe that this Saturday evening she will captain Kilkenny in an All-Ireland senior camogie final.

The disbelief dripping off almost every word uttered by Gahan is more than justified when you consider Kilkenny’s captain for the 2020 campaign went the first seven years of the last decade without playing a single game of camogie.

A talented underage player who won three All-Ireland minor medals between 2005 and 2007, adding intermediate silverware in 2008, Gahan emigrated to Cardiff in 2010 and there began an almost eight-year stretch where camogie was not part of her sporting pursuits.

“I spent six years in Cardiff. But they had no camogie clubs so I did a bit of Gaelic football there. I got involved in running then and did some marathons. I needed to get involved in something else when camogie wasn’t there,” Gahan recalls of her time away from the game.

"After Cardiff, I did a year in Australia. My time there was short enough so I mainly focused on travelling. I wasn’t sure I was going to come back to Ireland, so I never imagined I’d be back playing camogie again.

“I only came back to Ireland in 2018, but when you come back it’s great to get back involved. It was my brothers who put the idea in my head to join the local team and they’ve been very welcoming.”

That local team is Dicksboro and when the club edged out Piltown in last year’s Kilkenny senior camogie final, Gahan was not only called up to the Kilkenny panel, she was handed the captaincy for 2020.

“I just can’t believe I’m here as captain of the Kilkenny senior camogie team.

“It’s what you dream of when you are a young girl. You are brought up playing camogie, all you do is play camogie.

“When I went away at 20 or 21 years of age, I never would have imagined that I would be back at this level.

“I’m 31 now and you question when you come back: ‘Oh, I’m too old to come back.’ You never are. And there’s still a lot to achieve at that age. It’s never too late.

“Even just settling back in again, getting to know people again, all the social inclusion.

“It’s good for your mental health, physical health — there’s just so many benefits.

“I’m delighted to be back playing and it’s a dream come true to have come this far.”

Gahan has been unable to break onto the starting team during Kilkenny’s run to a fifth consecutive All-Ireland final appearance and doesn’t see much relevance in the final heartache endured by her team-mates in 2017, ‘18, and ‘19.

“We’ve a new management and a new panel. We haven’t really dwelled on last year.

“The focus is all on this year and we’re just staying positive. The past is the past.

“We’re all just so determined to get there this year. It’s been a long time [to Kilkenny’s last title in 2016]. It’s 2008 when I won my last All-Ireland so it’s a very long time ago.”