Dervan doing all she can to stay upbeat in difficult times

SIX-time Galway camogie All-Star Sarah Dervan vividly paints a postcard portrait of life at Mullagh’s GAA grounds on a sunny summer’s evening. Of friends gathering, sliotars being hit, and laughter filling the air.

It is the absence of this that she misses most at present although she adds quickly that the current restrictions on gatherings and movement “is hard on everyone”, not just club and county players. All anyone can do at the moment, she says, is stay safe, keep sane and cling to optimism. Hope is the comfort blanket she has wrapped herself in.

“From a sporting point of view, the little bit of hope that there will be (camogie) this year is the only thing that keeps me going,” says Galway’s All-Ireland winning captain. “In fairness to Robbie Lane, our strength and conditioning coach, he has been absolutely phenomenal and is looking after us.”

Each day, Dervan, who is working from home for Medtronic during this period, logs in with the Galway set-up and receives a programme of activities to do, be it strength and conditioning work or runs. “Only for it! It is something to focus on and it gives me structure in what I am doing and that I am not running around like a lunatic.

“Times are hard and it is the unknown that is the worst of it. I’d rather have a bit of hope that something will be happening this year. It gets me up in the morning to do the programme, which I know every single one of the (Galway) girls are doing as well. So, we are all in it together. You take comfort in that.”

Yet, the lack of sporting action is leaving “a huge void” in her life and her thoughts wander to the pitch in Mullagh and what it can be like on a warm summer’s evening. “The whole parish would nearly be down there, tipping a ball around and having the craic. If there is a challenge match, then, you sit on the wall and chat everybody.

“If it’s training you are going to, you are meeting your friends and enjoying pushing yourself, enjoying every minute of it. So, I am struggling without it, but I know we are doing it for the right reason and I know it is important that we do our social distancing and that we do stick to the 2km (restriction).”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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