All-Ireland final joy for siblings who encapsulate the spirit of camogie community
COMMUNITY SPIRIT: Brídiní Óga's Eimhear McAleenan Picture: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
The AIB All-Ireland club championships always throw up the kind of stories that tug at the heartstrings and this year’s renewals have been no different, with the kind of sparkling narratives that remind us of the primacy of the club and the ties that bind individuals and community alike.
One of the most remarkable you will ever hear, however, revolves around tomorrow’s All-Ireland junior and junior B camogie finals, as they involve clubs based in Antrim and Tyrone that were established by a brother and sister from Down.
Séamas McAleenan and Bríd Uí Dhonnghaile have been ever-present in the development of Brídíní Óga Glenravel and Éire Óg Carrickmore respectively, and the pride in achieving what is only a dream to the vast majority that ever lace a pair of boots, is accentuated even further by the fact that both have daughters involved.
Brídíní Óga are a little further down the line, having won the 2022 junior title in the first week of 2023, having been formed in 2002. They return to the decider, this time with Roscommon opposition in the form of St Dominic’s, at Donaghmore Ashbourne GAA (2pm, live on Camogie Association YouTube).
It is a new experience for Éire Óg and they face St Kevin’s of Louth in the junior B decider at NGDC Abbotstown (12.45pm, live on Camogie Association YouTube).
The McAleenans were reared in the Mourne village of Leitrim, at the altar of Gaelic games and the Irish language, and wherever they have travelled, they have served.
This is clearly in the DNA. Indeed distant relatives, the McAleenan brothers from Ballymaginaghy, were involved in setting up Liatroim Fontenoys. And on it went.
“My mother (Mary) reared ten children,” regales Séamas. “She never played but she was going all over the place with us to games. She ended up as the club GAA secretary for a good few years once we were reared and she had some more time on her hands.”
One of the youngest of the McAleenan dectet, Máirín, was named on Camogie’s inaugural All-Star team in 2004, the only non-senior player to be honoured. She had helped Down reach the All-Ireland junior final that year, and starred as the Fontenoys secured the first of two consecutive All-Ireland club junior titles.
Séamas and Bríd have their own lasting legacies.
“I’m the eldest of ten and Bríd is seven down the line,” expands Séamas, who has filled a host of roles beyond the club, including as the second full-time Árd Rúnaí of the Camogie Association as well as Ulster and Antrim PRO. “She had six boys older than her, so she was probably battered around the place a wee bit before she got out of the house!”
The school of hard knocks stood to Bríd as she was part of the Fontenoys squad that won the Ulster senior title for the first time in 1984, and played for Down before becoming a teacher and getting married.
She had six children and fitted in club fare between their births, including with Eglish after they moved to Tyrone from Belfast. But Séamas was the first to bring a new club into being, in 2002.
“I was bringing my girls up to Loughgiel, playing U10 and U12 and I just decided it was time to start something here. The school I was teaching in in Ballymoney had an indoor hurling league through winter at U10 and U12, so I decided to run an U10 and U12 camogie league indoors. All you needed were five or six players. We had eight or ten players from my daughter’s class so we were able to put a team in. Cloughmills Primary School, who are close by, had a team in as well and won the shield. Between the two of us, we decided we would come together and set up a camogie team.
“Geraldine Devlin, whose daughters were in Cloughmills, was there at the start and helped with the training, while a lot of other parents came in to help with the fundraising, running the club and admin. And a lot have continued to be involved in coaching and administration over the years, running the show.”
Séamas is the constant though, the lodestar. A year has not passed without him training some team, and this year, it’s the U9s and U16s.
Caoimhe was U12 when Brídíní Óga came into being, Eimhear U11 and Úna was U10, and all three are on the squad tomorrow. Caoimhe is a chip off the old block and has trained 14 of the 15 starting tomorrow.
“Caoimhe has three children so I’m now in the babysitting role,” says Séamas laughing.
“A big help was Máirín playing in the All-Ireland junior final against Cork in 2004. We got the bus down. They saw her out on the pitch playing and she came up and chatted to the girls and signed autographs, even though she was disappointed to lose. She came up for an awards’ night. For them to have somebody playing in Croke Park and get the All-Star as well, for her to be prominent in the papers, it was someone they could identify with, a role model, even though they weren’t from the same county.”
Bríd was central to Éire Óg Carrickmore’s foundation in 2004.
“The main reason I got involved in starting up the club was my own children were coming to the age where they were getting interested in playing sports,” Bríd details. “The eldest girl would have been 10 in 2004, the next girl was 8 and then the two boys were 6 and 4 and so on!
“The oldest boy was interested in hurling and Éire Óg had a hurling club but there was nothing for the girls. We were friendly with the Kerr family from Carrickmore through Irish medium education. Then Mickey Kerr, grandfather of four members of the present senior team, passed away on the 17th of November 2004. We were at the wake that night and Cathal and Peter Kerr, who was involved in hurling at Éire Óg got talking and that was the start of camogie.
“We wanted the girls to have camogie to play so we were willing to go for it.”
Bríd got to play competitively with Loinnir and Séimhin and on one momentous day, shared a pitch with that pair and their youngest sister Néamhann, who lines out tomorrow, in an exhibition.
“When the girls got too old for underage, we set up a senior team around 2010 and so I started back playing then until about nine years ago. Our camogie pitch was opened in 2016 and we had an exhibition match and there’s a photo of myself and the three girls playing in that match. Néamhann was only 15, but played a bit of that game, which was lovely.”
With Loinnir and Séimhín now married with children, Ciara Clarke, Leanne McKernan and Tara Haughey are the survivors from that initial team. And of course Bríd herself, who is a member of management.
“The club has grown so much over recent years, really since we got our own pitch and could strengthen the underage. We have a lot more people involved in the coaching. I think we were the second club in Tyrone to have their own pitch and it means you have your own identity.”
The narratives are everywhere.
“A classmate of Eimhear’s and Danielle Scally’s, Aisling Ward, came out for the first couple of training sessions this year and didn’t feel well. They discovered she had cancer,” Séamas reveals.
“She had the treatment, lost her hair and everything but she rang the bell in the Royal about a month ago. She’s now carrying hurls and water bottles for the senior team. So it’s very emotional to see her there.”
With Éire Óg, there was the ACL injury suffered by last year’s captain Ailise Coyle in the first match of the season. The mother of two just found another way to contribute.
“She’s coaching the girls now, she’s very good,” Bríd says. “She’s very close to the girls and it’s a different dynamic. She’s their age and it’s been a great help to have her in the role.” They are enjoying the ride.
“The build-up has been brilliant,” Bríd avers. “Our hurlers won the Ulster intermediate for the first time the day after we won our semi-final. It was the fourth time they were in the final so it was great to get over the line. In the middle of that, we had a presentation for U16s on Saturday night. We’ve been very successful underage in camogie and hurling this year and last year, so the mood is really positive now.”
“My high point was three years ago when we won the All-Ireland,” concludes Séamas. ”There were times that I despaired. I can remember playing a junior championship and only 12 players on the pitch and some of those would only have been 13 or 14. We fielded all the time. But to go from that to win the All-Ireland was fantastic.
“Now, we have built up momentum and Bríd is probably going through what we went through three years ago. And it’s emotional at times. It was emotional when we won the Antrim final three years ago. This is only the second title we won. And now Bríd is enjoying that. It’s a big deal.”
As big as it gets.
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