Jessica Gill chasing storybook ending on her beloved dad's birthday
Jessica Gill with husband Jonathan on the day of the county final win over Sarsfields, with children (L-R) Alfie, Poppy, and Jack.
Reeling in the years. Rolling back the decades. The mammies are still moving and conjuring magic.
Athenry scored 1-9 to win their All-Ireland semi-final two weeks ago — 36-year-old mother-of-three Jessica Gill struck the game’s only goal, 44-year-old mother-of-three Therese Donohoe struck a first-half point into the gale.
Therese Donohoe is of course Therese Maher. An all-time camogie great. After 17 years toiling on the inter-county stage, Therese got her storybook ending in September 2013. She got her All-Ireland senior medal.
She’s now seeking the same final chapter in club colours to tie the bow on a career of phenomenal longevity and leadership.
Jessica Gill is still chasing her storybook ending. She’s still chasing an All-Ireland senior medal. Her inter-county chapter a decade finished, Athenry is the last remaining avenue to reward a career of exceptional early promise and enduring perseverance.
Rewind 20 years. A child superstar. A 15-year-old midfielder in Athenry’s one-point county final defeat. A teenage tower in the four-in-a-row of Galway titles that followed.
Gill was Camogie’s young player of the year in 2007. The provider of 2-6 in Athenry’s All-Ireland semi-final stunning of four-in-a-row chasing St Lachtain’s. Match footage can be found on YouTube. Go marvel at the sideline she cuts over. Go marvel at her power.
Top scorer, at 18 years young, in the 2008 All-Ireland senior final. Top scorer across the entire ‘08 championship. All-Star half-forward.
Limitless potential, Gill was a fresh face and leading force in Galway’s reemergence as camogie contenders.
***
It’s Monday of All-Ireland final week. Jessica Gill is thanking us for thinking of her and remembering her.
Two of the kids are at home with her this Monday lunchtime. There’s the usual health warning that she may have to depart the call at any unknown moment.
Jessica and her husband, Jonathan, have three children. Jack is 11, Alfie is six, and Poppy is two.
The middle one asked mammy the other day how many All-Irelands she has. If the answer was different and she’d something to show Alfie, we might not be having this conversation. She might not be still turning out for Athenry.
A roll call of regret and frustration. All-Ireland senior final defeats in 2008, ‘10, ‘11, and ‘15. All-Ireland senior club final defeats in 2007 and ‘09. She was a 46th-minute introduction for the latter of those, having done her cruciate a few weeks earlier. All-Ireland intermediate club final defeat in 2017.
Gill fought her way back from a second cruciate rupture in four years to rejoin the Galway set-up in 2013. Becoming pregnant with Jack meant she had departed long before September’s famine-ending final victory over Kilkenny.
“The 2009 club final was a particularly hard one to take because I was at the peak of my camogie at that stage,” says Gill of her curtailed involvement on the last occasion Athenry reached this stage.
Such a statement reflects the cruel uncertainty of sport. Her 20s were but a few weeks old. Her best years were already behind her. Limitless potential interrupted.
“After both cruciates, I found it very hard to get back to where I was, mainly because I had to work very hard to get fit. I would never have been a player that you looked at and said, 'she is super fit'. I was known more for my strength and power.
“But coming back, I did feel I still had more to offer with Galway. Even in later years and after having Jack, I thought I had a bit to offer.”
At 36, and two cruciates and three kids later, slack continues to be infrequently cut. She still demands of herself.
“I definitely put it on myself that even though you've had kids you should be able to get back. It is in my head that you are expected to be what you were years ago.
“As the years have gone on, and you think it would be the other way around, I do find that there is a lot of pressure, a lot more so in recent years. It is pressure I am putting on myself, not what anyone else is putting on me.
“Maybe you are always trying to be the person you were years ago, or live up to what you would have been years ago. It’s hard, and I definitely put extra pressure on myself.
“I never in my life thought I would get to play in Croke Park again. I never thought my kids would get to see me playing in Croke Park. It is absolutely not about me, but on a personal level, it will be more special the fact that they will be there.”
Sunday, so, is her shot. Sunday is so much more than her shot. Sunday offers perspective of the privileged position she and her teammates occupy every time they pull on the Athenry shirt.
***
Mickey Gill would have been 70 this Sunday. He would have been the first person into Croker.
The Hogan Stand will have one less seat taken. The second anniversary of his death was last Thursday week.
Jessica’s parents separated when she was 10. Her dad moved out. Their relationship in no way suffered from the split. Camogie bound them right to the end. She had no greater supporter.
Jessica didn’t return to Joe Rabbitte’s Athenry panel until July of this year. Her focus was preparing for the Portumna half-marathon. The half-marathon was being run to raise funds for Merlin Park rehabilitation unit, the hospital wing that had taken such wonderful care of her dad in the months before he passed.
“He came home out of hospital in October [of 2023], it was a week or two after I had Poppy. He was delighted I had a girl because I already had two boys.”
On December 3, Mickey returned to hospital. Jessica and her four brothers got a call at lunchtime the following day to say an aneurysm had ruptured in his stomach.
“We got in at 2.30pm, he was sitting up in bed. We were asking him, 'how are you', and he said, 'not good'. He got to talk to us and he thanked us for everything. It was around 4.30pm when he passed.
“My brothers aren't really into the GAA, they'd be more on the creative side. It was me and my dad all the time. I would have been exceptionally close to him. He was massively involved with my camogie since I was tiny. He was at every single training, every single match.
“He did up so many scrapbooks for me that I now treasure. At the time, I was probably like, 'what are you at?' But now, I am so grateful for them.
“I don't know if it’s because I was his only girl, but we had a really strong bond. It would be very emotional to win on his birthday, but it would also be incredible.”
A bulging disc diagnosed in the weeks before the June half-marathon was unsuccessful in derailing her. She toed the start line in Portumna and raised almost €9,000 in honour of dad.
A pain injection in her lower back patched her up for October’s county final. Victory over All-Ireland champions Sarsfields, the club she has married into and for whom Jack and Alfie play, represented Athenry’s first county since the last of the four-in-a-row in 2009.
Gill has undressed herself of self-critique on the road to Croker. There’s an appreciation the end is near. There’s an appreciation for still being out there. Too many are absent from this journey to tie oneself up in knots over mistakes made or not.
“Frank O'Shea, who would have been involved with our team, passed away this year. Noel Madden, who would have been involved years ago, passed last week. I’d be thinking of Des Coen on a week like this. Noreen, his daughter, we've been best friends since I was four. I would have lived in that house growing up. Des is probably the reason I started playing.”
Last word to a lost teammate. Kate Moran would have been part of tomorrow's starting line-up. Tragedy on a local field three years ago took her far too early.
“I would send her dad, Cathal, a message every few weeks, just to let them know we are thinking of them. What they are going through, still, is terrible. It must be so tough.
“We are happy and looking forward to Sunday, we are able to go out and enjoy ourselves, but unfortunately Kate is no longer here with us. That’s the bigger picture.
“Her family would only love if she was there. Kate Moran will be the No.1 person with us on Sunday.”
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