Latest news with #Camogie
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Mairead O'Brien warns Kilkenny that Waterford ‘running faster than ever' after skorts row ahead of All-Ireland clash
MAIRÉAD O'BRIEN has warned Kilkenny that Waterford are ready to hit the ground running — and they have been running faster than ever before. Today, Michael Boland's Suirsiders get their Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Championship Group 2 campaign underway against the Cats, who already have a win under their belt after thumping Derry last weekend. 2 Dual star Mairead O'Brien warned Kilkenny that Waterford are working harder than ever Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile 2 Kilkenny players return to the changing room before the Leinster Senior Camogie final against Wexford Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile The action throws in at UPMC Nowlan Park at 12.30pm and O'Brien cannot wait to don her shorts and try to take down the Cats. The game's postponement — after the players insisted they would be lining out in shorts — was a regrettable plotline but ultimately led to the alteration of the rule on playing kit by a 98 per cent majority at a Special Congress, allowing players to choose shorts or skorts. And O'Brien, 22, said: 'Yeah, we were delighted. We got the news at training and we were just about to do our running bloc. I swear we've never run so fast all year. Read More on Camogie 'It is a massive step. There was an issue with comfort levels but the players were listened to and the results were pretty significant. And any step forward for keeping younger girls involved is great. It was frustrating to have the Munster final postponed 16 hours before when all the preparations had been made to optimise our performance. We had been training well and had a good win over Tipperary to get there. 'I suppose as a group we're just driving it forward and just focusing on the Championship now. And I think the management team we have currently is phenomenal. 'The commitment they've shown is as much as the girls'. We're all just kind of working together and pushing forward as a group and trying to get the best out of each other.' The postponing of the Munster final and the fact they had a bye for the first week of the Championship means Waterford are perhaps more rested up than they would like to be. Most read in GAA Hurling But given she hit the Cats for a brace of goals on the way to defeat in the league in March, Tommy Shefflin and Co will definitely be forewarned about O'Brien's threat — and even if they were not, Caoimhe Keher Murtagh would inform them. Cats star Keher Murtagh was a colleague of O'Brien as UL won the Ashbourne Cup for a second season on the trot, and they were both in the third level Team of the Year. Young Kerry LGFA fan steals the show with sign during All-Ireland final win over Galway But whereas Keher Murtagh's Rower-Inistioge are a storied, traditional The camogie club was only established in 2011 to field an Under-12 team but O'Brien has been at the core of everything that has been good about them since, highlighted by her tally of 1-4 as they defeated Tipperary outfit Fethard by 2-5 to 0-10 in the Munster junior club final last November. She explained: 'The first adult team was put out in 2017, we won the junior in 2019 and then obviously last year we had a good run of luck. 'As a group, our main aim was to get back to the county final and try and win it. We probably bottled a lot of disappointment from the year previous. But to be fair, we used it to our advantage and went back training that bit earlier and worked really hard through the year. 'Once we got out of the county, we were definitely in bonus territory, and unknown territory. 'The lads involved were great when it came to the big days. They never kind of picked up on the occasion too much. Their main point is just to go out and enjoy it and work really hard. And that's what happened.' 'UNBELIEVABLE' The smile breaks out just thinking about Modeligo's odyssey and what it meant in the small country parish. She added: 'It was just unbelievable. We had a few good celebrations. We just enjoyed it. When we were enjoying it, we were just playing well. The whole community was behind us. 'And in the Munster final, they were definitely a 16th player. We were struggling for scores in the second half and had phenomenal support that got us over the line.' With that club success behind her, and experience of playing in one All-Ireland final already at a young age when the Déise went down to Cork in 2023, O'Brien is at the top of her game at the moment, alongside celebrated camogie county stars such as Beth Carton, Niamh Rockett, Lorraine Bray and Brianna O'Regan. But football has also been part of her story — a former dual operator, O'Brien stepped away from the big-ball squad this year as she was completing her final year in physiotherapy at UL. Everything right now is zoned in on the next couple of months with Waterford camogie — and today's date with the Cats ensures that it is no soft launch. She said: 'They beat us in the league but we would be looking to improve our performance from then. We got off to a good start but in the second half we didn't maintain it. 'I don't think we've ever actually beaten them in Championship so hopefully we will put that right this time.'
Irish Times
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
‘Those two weeks felt like two months': Kilkenny captain Katie Power reveals overwhelming toll of skorts protest
Katie Power admits the reaction to the Kilkenny-Dublin skorts protest was, at times, overwhelming. The Kilkenny captain and her Dublin counterpart Aisling Maher emerged as the embodiment of the campaign following an Irish Times photograph of the pair wearing shorts prior to their Leinster semi-final. The momentum gained from that initial stance ultimately led to last Thursday's Special Congress, at which 98 per cent of delegates supported a motion to provide players with a choice of wearing shorts or skorts. Power was happy with the outcome but admits the level of attention generated by the protest was difficult to manage. READ MORE 'I won't tell you a lie, I found those few weeks tough going,' she said at the launch of the 2025 Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Camogie Championships. 'Overwhelmed, I suppose, with everything that came with it. 'I 100 per cent didn't expect what happened to happen. We were just making the protest, obviously to voice our opinions, but I definitely wasn't aware of what was going to come afterwards. 'The two weeks after that were tough mentally – very draining. My phone was just absolutely blowing up, but for the better. 'It was only after the match that it kind of dawned on me that I was in for the toss and that was the picture that was going to go out. Kilkenny captain Katie Power and Dublin counterpart Aisling Maher, both wearing shorts, are addressed by referee Ray Kelly before the Leinster semi-final. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 'I'm happy that we decided to do it, but obviously what came in the aftermath was huge. It's done with now and looking back, it was great to have done it for the future of camogie and the younger girls. It's great now, but those two weeks were tough going, they felt like two months.' Power, who is entering her 18th season with Kilkenny, works as a personal trainer. She had to be up at 5am last Friday morning, which meant she was tucked up in bed as delegates were voting at Special Congress the night before. 'I didn't even look at the phone until the next morning,' she said. 'I was in bed, I was working early. I was [able to sleep]; I was nervous about it at the beginning, but in the few days beforehand there was too much about it for the motion not to pass.' Of the eight players present at Croke Park on Monday for the launch of the 2025 championships, seven wore shorts. Armagh's Nicola Woods wore a skort and the defender pointed out that nearly all her teammates togged out in skorts for last weekend's championship clash against Roscommon. I have an uncle in America and he was on the phone to my mother wondering if we were wearing shorts or skorts at the weekend — Méabh Cahalane 'Personally, I prefer shorts even though I'm wearing a skort here today,' said Woods. 'I think everybody just wanted players to have a choice. 'Unlike probably many counties, a lot of the Armagh girls are keen to keep the skort. For our game on Saturday, I think I was the only one on the team who wore the shorts.' Cork captain Méabh Cahalane also supported the campaign for players to have a choice. The late postponement of the Munster final between Cork and Waterford denied Cahalane the opportunity of leading her team to a possible provincial title earlier this month. [ Camogie president targets filling Croke Park for All-Ireland final Opens in new window ] [ Nicky English: Improving Galway will be serious opposition in Leinster final but nervous Cork continue to struggle Opens in new window ] There remains uncertainty around when the Munster final will be refixed because there is very little space in the calendar with the All-Ireland series now ongoing. However, Cahalane is pleased a resolution was found on the skorts-shorts issue. 'It obviously got huge coverage both on social media and in the news, it travelled fast and travelled wide,' she said. 'I have an uncle in America and he was on the phone to my mother wondering if we were wearing shorts or skorts at the weekend. I suppose it got huge coverage and hopefully now camogie, the game, will get the same coverage. 'Getting the result that a choice would be introduced, we were just delighted.'
RTÉ News
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
This week's Uncharted: 'it's going to be hardcore'
When Ray Goggins describes a task as "hardcore" you know that he isn't being hyperbolic - and that's he labels the challenge faced on this week's Uncharted with Ray Goggins. On this Wednesday night's episode, paralympic gold medallist Ellen Keane and six-time All-Ireland Camogie star Ashling Thompson travel to Bolivia to the start of the fabled "Death Road" and meet Ray Goggins' latest challenging journey. This hair-raising descent of the world's most dangerous road is just the start of an incredible seven-day journey for Ellen, Ashling and Ray as they trek close to 100km through the dense cloud forest of Bolivia. The trio have to negotiate raging rivers, punishing terrain and wild jungle as they climb ever higher into the Andean mountains. As the trio climb higher into the mountains, the altitude starts to affect them all. On meeting Ashling and Ellen in Bolivia, Ray warns: "We are going to negotiate some of the worst and most dangerous terrain on the planet - it's going to be hardcore, you are going to be at altitude so it's not going to be for the faint hearted. It will be hellish at times" Ellen recalls crossing a makeshift wire bridge over a fast flowing river. "I had to figure out how to get across a little differently to everyone else," she explains. "Ray was not offering help too soon which was really reassuring to me because it meant that he believed I could do it. "When you are a person with a disability, everyone always expects you not to be able to do something or to always need help, and I don't like that narrative," she adds. "I can do anything that Ashling does, I just have to do it a little differently. I think that's a really important lesson for people to learn that it doesn't matter how something is done, as long as it is done at the end of the day, that's the most important thing." As well as the endurance factor, Uncharted with Ray Goggins is also about getting inside the head of the participants. Opening up around the campfire three nights into the trip, Ray questions Ashling about her anxiety. She's quite candid about her experience. She reveals: "I was constantly tipping away with the camogie but I had a fairly bad car accident and camogie was the thing that always kept my feet on the that was taken away, I completely lost control of my life." Ashling also points out that camogie later saved her, recalling: "Something clicked in my head . . . eventually I got called back up to the Cork squad and all of a sudden, my life completely changed." The pair form a strong bond throughout the trip, with Ellen telling Ashling: "I actually don't know what I would do without you, I'm glad that we are here together" Ashling compliments Ellen's mental strength as the expedition intensifies: "The resilience she shows, nothing can stop her, anything is possible when it comes to Ellen Keane and I love it," she says. On the fifth day the majestic peak of Huayna Potosi is revealed. This is the final, most brutal of challenge of them all. In two days, the group will need to traverse sheer ice walls, snow fields and mountain glaciers as they to attempt to summit the 6088 metre peak. It will be the toughest test of their lives.
Irish Independent
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
‘Buy the ticket now, make a commitment now' – Camogie president wants to see Croke Park sell-out for the All-Ireland finals
Camogie president Brian Molloy is hoping to see a sold-out Croke Park for the All-Ireland finals in August, calling on those who got behind the movement around choice between skorts and shorts to buy tickets in a 'real tangible act of support for the players.'
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Skorts-gate finally over as sanity prevails
Hallelujah, skorts-gate is over. 'After 121 years, it only took the Camogie Association a little under half an hour to make history at Croke Park on Thursday night,' writes Gordon Manning, 98 per cent of the Special Congress delegates backing a motion allowing players the choice of wearing shorts or skorts. Gordon's mission, should he choose to accept it, is to track down the two per cent and ask 'what were ye thinking?' Joe Canning is wondering what the Cork hurlers were thinking when they played Limerick last weekend . Were they playing 'a long game', keeping their powder dry until they, possibly, meet Limerick again in the championship? If so, 'that is a risky business,' says Joe, 'if they don't beat Waterford at home on Sunday their season is over'. Mathew Costello is hoping there's plenty left in Meath's season yet , Gordon talking to the forward ahead of the start of his county's round-robin campaign at home to Cork in Navan on Saturday. In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey hears Colin Healy stand by his charge that the FAI's outgoing chief football officer Marc Canham and its chief executive David Courell lied about the nature of his departure from his role as assistant coach to the Republic of Ireland women's team. READ MORE Gavin also talked with new Shelbourne CEO Tomás 'Mossy' Quinn , the Dublin All-Ireland winner who, having switched football codes, is now trying to guide the club through the challenges ahead, among them ensuring Tolka Park meets Champions League standards. In rugby, former Irish captain Ciarán Fitzgerald tells Gerry Thornley about the 'Spirit of Garbally' campaign , the aim to ensure that the name of his famous alma mater is incorporated in to the title of the new amalgamated Ballinasloe schools, Ardscoil Mhuire and St Joseph's College, Garbally Park. For now, it is to be known as Clonfert College. Gerry also has news that Leinster plan on hosting this season's URC final at Croke Park ... if – and it's a big one – they actually reach the final. First they have to negotiate a passage past Scarlets in the quarter-finals and, if successful, whoever they might meet in the last four. Johnny Watterson, meanwhile, brings us the grim tale of the 'Enhanced Games', a sporting freak show with a cast of drugged-up athletes , which are scheduled to take place in Las Vegas next year. 'A poorly designed drug trial with no ethical oversight, it will,' he writes, 'be a ripping success if the athletes do better than Barnum's belugas and some don't die.' Shane Stokes has the latest from the Rás Tailteann , Cycling Ulster's Odhrán Doogan slipping in to the yellow jersey on Thursday, while Brian O'Connor retraces the story of the redevelopment of the Curragh . 'It is a modern facility, which, by most measures, is lovely to look at. It is also, by most measures, predominantly unloved.' TV Watch : Following Wednesday's 124-run victory, Ireland play the West Indies in the second of their three-match one day international series in Clontarf (TNT Sports 1 from 10.30am). Kerry and Cork meet in this evening's Munster minor football final (TG4, 7.30) and St Patrick's Athletic host Waterford in the Premier Division (Virgin Media Two, 7.45).
