Camogie legend Glynn reflects on the highs and lows of long career

FORMER Galway camogie great Sharon Glynn can certainly relate to the feeling of “emptiness” that many may be experiencing as they adjust, albeit temporarily, to a life without sport due to the impact of the current Covid-19 pandemic.

When she retired from inter-county camogie in 2003, it left “a huge void” in her and it took time to come to terms that a big part of her life was over. “I am not married, I don’t have children, so I didn’t have the immediate distractions that people of my age and my own friends had,” begins the Menlough native.

“They all automatically got into minding kids – family life took over – and that made the transition for them much easier. Whereas, for myself, when I retired from sport, I found the emptiness there was huge. I am sure for so many people around the country now, they are probably finding it something similar.”

Indeed, she believes the cessation of sport may hit today’s players harder than it would if it had been enforced in Glynn’s time. “I think I would have been delighted with the break, with a week or two off. The only thing is the pub would be closed as well so that wouldn’t have sat well,” she laughs.

“It’s different times, though. Today’s players spend three, four, five nights gone between training, gym, meetings and matches. It takes up a huge part of their life; it is nearly a full-time job.

“For us, we were going three nights a week and we would have played lots of matches that time between club and county because there wasn’t as many teams and there wasn’t as many games. So, you could play both. Today’s county players, though, mightn’t be playing club league games but their county structure is more intense.”

During her playing days in the 1990s and early 2000s, she remarks that the lifestyle of players was “very ordinary and simple back then”, particularly when it came to dietitians and nutrition. “There was no such thing,” she continues. “The reality was we ate whatever was put on the table.

“We were grateful to have the dinners in the evenings and if it was bacon and cabbage so be it. You ate it and you went training a couple of hours later. You minded yourself as good as you could but it was a completely different level to where sport is at today.”

By 2003, Glynn, who made her senior debut for the Tribeswomen as a goalkeeper in 1991 before subsequently moving outfield to become one of the game’s greatest ever forwards, had done it all in the Galway jersey.

She won an All-Ireland senior medal with the ground-breaking side of 1996 – defeating Cork 4-8 to 1-15 in the decider – and claimed National League titles in 1994 and 2002. In those two league finals, the sharpshooter, who also won five All-Ireland club titles with Pearses, tallied an accumulated 3-11, 3-2 from play, underlining the quality player she was.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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