St. Brendan’s Ladies Club in mood for celebrating

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

Some may wonder why a club would want to write its history after just 20 years, but in St. Brendan’s Ladies Gaelic Football Club it’s very easy to see why.

For two decades, St. Brendan’s has been to the forefront of ladies football in the county and, indeed, country . . . no more so than between 1997 and 2002 when they won four All-Ireland titles – three National Féile and one All-Ireland intermediate club – in the space of those five years.

On Saturday, March 15, the Ballygar/Newbridge club will mark their first 20 years with a social in the Athlone Springs Hotel, at which they will also unveil a commemorative book on the club’s history. It will be officially launched by legendary GAA broadcaster Michael Ó Muircheartaigh.

The event will be the highlight of a weekend that will begin with mass for the club in St. Mary’s Church in Ballygar on the Friday (7:30pm) and the presentation of medals to their victorious underage teams in the Mattie McDonagh Centre later that evening.

On Saturday, the club will host the Mary Lohan Memorial and Luke Daly Memorial tournaments for their adult and underage players respectively, from U-6 to adult. It really will be a celebration benefitting a club of St. Brendan’s stature.

When Talking Sport calls to the home of PRO Geraldine Kelly on this Wednesday afternoon, the organising committee begins to gather. Also in attendance are Chairman John Muldoon, who is also Vice Chairman of the Galway County Board, Treasurer Regina Naughton, committee member Mattie Martin and players Nora Ward and Emma O’Malley, both stalwarts of club and county at one time or another.

Indeed, St. Brendan’s, arguably, has had no greater servant than O’Malley, who was there as a young player at the foundation of the club back in 1994. It’s only fitting then that she should be the one to give a broad outline of the club’s 20 years to date.

“Con Moynihan was the catalyst [for the foundation of the club] when he came to the parish as sergeant. I think he came here in late ’93 – November or December – and by February of ’94 we would have set up. Michelle Sullivan and Michelle Hughes, basically, asked him to set it up and he did.”

At this time, she explains there had been little for the young women of Ballygar and Newbridge, although there had been some camogie for a period. “At U-11 or U-12, Claire Wall used to take us. Then Claire went travelling and it fell apart. So, there was definitely a need for something to happen,” says O’Malley, who won an All-Ireland senior ladies football title with Galway in 2004.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune