Versatile sportswoman Coyne has set sights on returning to the hills

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

Connacht full-back Mairead Coyne has always loved the great outdoors so it should come as no surprise when she says that when she finishes playing rugby with Galwegians, Connacht and Ireland, she hopes to pursue a career as a sheep farmer in her native Leenane.

Be it putting in the tackles on muddy pitches in the depths of Winter or pulling new-borns during lambing season in Spring, Coyne, one of Galway’s and Connacht’s outstanding sportswomen, has never been afraid of getting her hands dirty.

Indeed, when she finished school, and while most of her friends were heading off to college, the Connemara woman – who is a daughter of Padraig and Mary Coyne – undertook an instructor’s course at Kilary Harbour Adventure Centre, where she would spend a hugely enjoyable eight years.

“That was my first job after secondary school,” outlines Coyne. “It was brilliant. I love being outdoors. I love being able to go out and enjoy the activities with the kids and meeting new instructors from all over the world. It was great working there.”

In 2009, her uncle, Michael Keane, sadly passed away, leaving his sheep farm to Coyne. With over 300 animals, it is currently being tended to by her other uncle Tommy Keane, her sisters and boyfriend Graham Daly – a ship’s navigator with Celtic Voyager – and she cannot thank them enough for covering the workload as she pursues her rugby career.

“It is quite hard to get out there and if it wasn’t for my family and friends, and my boyfriend Graham, they have helped me a lot and helped me to do these things. My uncle and grandad (Paddy Keane) were farmers so we grew up on the farm, basically, and I absolutely loved it.

“So, it is something I would like to go back to. Definitely. We are thinking of moving home (in the future) and that is the one thing that I want to do, to build on that. I did the course in Mountbellew, the Green Cert. I did that so that would help me too.”

Most would agree farming is a hard life but it is in such an environment that Coyne has always thrived, particularly in the sporting sense. Before rugby, she was a teak-tough defender with Galway senior ladies’ footballers, with whom she has four Connacht SFC medals.

It inevitably pitted her against one of the game’s greatest ladies’ footballers, Cora Staunton, so, for her, those contests were as tough as it gets. “With Cora, it was always a battle on the field,” she recalls. “It is always tough with Cora.

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

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