Latest news with #Clanmaurice
Irish Daily Mirror
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Kerry camogie star on 'unbelievable' development of game in county
Given the rapid-fire nature of most matches in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Camogie Championships, with group games taking place on back-to-back weekends before the knockout stages, a month-long gap between the intermediate competition's semi-final and Sunday's final, featuring Kerry and Offaly (3pm, live on RTÉ2), must feel like an age. Jackie Horgan has witnessed just about everything during her time with Kerry camogie, a journey so extraordinary it would make even a Hollywood scriptwriter blush if they'd concocted such an implausible tale. Year upon year, despite only having a small pool of players from a relatively minor hurling region in a county that has just clinched its 39th All-Ireland senior football title, the camogie team has consistently raised the bar. Both Clanmaurice and the Kingdom have achieved unlikely victories and amassed a collection of All-Ireland medals along the way. Though only 27, Horgan is a veteran of this odyssey and there aren't many challenges she and her cohorts haven't encountered. Heck, Clanmaurice, until very recently the only adult club in the county, had to play an All-Ireland semi-final with 14 players just four years ago. They won. That was in junior but they will ply their trade at senior level later this year, after supplementing their two successes in the third tier with a second straight intermediate triumph last December. Now, in the green and gold, they are an hour away from the same exalted status, having won the junior in 2019. But even for such experienced operators, managing the time since the thrilling semi-final defeat of Down has not been easy. "Four weeks is a long gap," admits Horgan. "It's more the mind than the body. You can train away but it's trying not to think about it too much until the days before the game. But there's nowhere else you want to be coming into August like, so we'll manage it." The development of camogie in the south-west corner of this island has been staggering. "Years ago, when I first started playing, and when we left minor, Clanmaurice was the only option. There was nothing in the county really. There was underage, but that was it really. The work that has been done over the past few years is unbelievable. This year even, there's a club after being set up below in Kenmare. "And obviously the success feeds into all that. I'm actually teaching in Causeway, which would be a natural camogie and hurling area, and the numbers playing down there is huge. When I was in school, there was none of that. "In the hurling side of things it is getting bigger. You have Parnells, Crokes and Kenmare/Kilgarvan – they're spread around the county more. Camogie-wise, it was always North Kerry but again, we have clubs coming from the other side of Killarney playing camogie. With Clanmaurice, you've Danielle O'Leary from Rathmore, so it is slowly but surely getting around the county." Crotta was Horgan's local hurling club growing up but in her formative years, it was the big ball that was her focus. "We're at the Listowel side of North Kerry so we'd be all football. I actually didn't start playing camogie with a club until I was 15. Jerome O'Sullivan used to come at primary school so I used to play a bit there but I joined (underage club) Cillard when I was 15 or 16, and I probably am more camogie than football now." Little would you have imagined then that she would become such a scoring threat for club and county, at Croke Park and a host of other venues around the land, proving an adept freetaker too in support of the legendary Patrice Diggin, who she shares captaincy duties with this season. Certainly, as she scored a stunning goal within two minutes of Diggin planting a penalty to help Kerry establish the vital breathing space that enabled them to eke out a four-point triumph over Down, you would have presumed a hurley was thrust in her hand in the pram. That wasn't the case but Horgan is clearly a quick learner. "I remember coming home from my first training session and thinking, 'Ohhhh.' I loved it but I was thinking, 'Am I mad?' The following year, myself and Aoife Behan broke into the senior and we played a (Nancy Murray Cup) final against Carlow in Templetouhy and we got annihilated, and I remember thinking maybe I should stick to football but as time went on, we couldn't even think about the success we've had since." The core of the group from a decade ago remains, winning the old Division 4, 3 and 2 titles in the National League as well as the aforementioned All-Irelands. But thanks to this success, there is a depth to the squad that never existed before. "We were just very lucky with the group we got, that they stuck it out. To keep the bulk of that team - I actually, I went through it. I think nine of the starting 15 from that 2015 (final) are still playing, which really does drive it on. "The younger girls don't probably realise where we were, once upon a time. We really were the bottom of the barrel. When you've been there the whole way through, it is special. " I suppose the difference with where we were now and ten years ago, if we scored ten points in the game, Patrice probably scored the ten, whereas the past few years, your six forwards might score in the game. "Last year, Ruth (O'Connor), Róisín (Quinn) and Shannon (Collins) broke into the team. They had done a bit of training the year before when they weren't up to the age group, which was obviously a huge benefit to them. The three of them girls started the semi-final and they had only just done the Leaving Cert. They have been a massive plus. "For a few years there, you know, we just didn't have the numbers. There was nothing you could do about it. I suppose there was a bit more comfort and not as much pressure on you whereas now, in training, there's five or six girls there on the fringes, and they're pushing it. To have three girls starting in their first year senior is huge. "So that's a major difference, the girls coming through." This is a significant accomplishment, ever before a game is played but the big picture is one thing. You're in a final, you want to win it. Particularly, when the carrot is a crack at the Corks and Galways of this world. Offaly represent stern opposition. They took out Antrim in the other semi-final, meaning the finalists had beaten the two teams relegated from senior to secure their positions in Sunday's Croke Park carnival. "They're a super team. I suppose, if you were to take one team out at the start of the year of who would get a chance to get into a final, Offaly would probably be your first pick. We played them up in Birr in February in the first round of the league and they were even going well then. "But we're there. And the past couple of weekends the way the games have gone, no-one has been able to predict them so we'll give it our all and whatever happens on the day will happen. We're gone one step further than last year, so that was the aim. We'll see after that."
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
'We never in our wildest dreams saw this coming' - Kerry camogie joint captains intertwined in unlikely success story
The replies of Patrice Diggin and Jackie Horgan are strikingly similar. The replies are almost word for word identical. Once Patrice and I have finished our conversation in the meeting room of the Lixnaw clubhouse, she volunteers to go and fetch the other Kerry camogie stalwart available for Friday evening interrogation. A couple of minutes into our chat with Jackie, we ask if Patrice slipped her an answer sheet when out on the field fetching her. Was there maybe a preparatory Zoom call between the pair to ensure they were on the exact same page? It is hardly a coincidence that they are both churning out the same answers when reflecting on the long road to Sunday. No matter what part of the winding backroad we stop at and tease out, their reflections are two mirrors held against one another. 'Sure we have lived the same life for 10 years,' Jackie smiles. Read More Jackie Horgan has seen it all during Kerry's camogie journey Kerry camogie is Patrice Diggin. Kerry camogie is Jackie Horgan. The 2025 joint-captains have been around the green and gold scene since almost day dot. Their identities are intertwined in an unlikely success story that the rest of us are all of a sudden interested in. They were teenage kids lining out at midfield and full-forward respectively when Carlow whacked them in the 2015 second-tier All-Ireland junior final. They play their club camogie together, they play their club football together. They socialise together. They are the strongest of friends. 'As Patrice would say, sure what else would you be at in the evening only going training,' says Jackie, another smile shooting into view. We all know what they are at presently. We know they are heading up the road for a first All-Ireland intermediate final appearance. We know they are one hour from a historic step-up to the senior grade. We know they are backboned by back-to-back All-Ireland intermediate club champions Clanmaurice. We know they are well looked after because Patrice and Jackie arrive in for a chat dressed head-to-toe in Kerry training gear carrying their initials while an ice cream van parked outside the door is throwing out 99s to whoever wants one. But what did Kerry camogie look like before anyone took notice of them, before there was need for open nights and the hired services of the Shannon Ices van? What did Kerry camogie look like from the bottom of the barrel? 'You were only probably comparing yourself to a Kerry footballer and sure they were getting the best of the best at the time, and we were only nearly laughing. If you got a jumper, it was a great day' begins Diggin, the 29-year-old part of the Kerry set-up for the past 12 years. 'You were lucky if you got a pair of socks at the start of the year, and that was it,' Horgan adds. 'We went to training to go training, basically. We played because we loved it and because we were the best of friends.' Kerry manager John Madden was Causeway club secretary in 2008. He remembers the pivotal roles played by Patrice and Kerry full-back Sara Murphy in helping the boys win the county U14 Féile. 'But when they started camogie, they'd be playing in side fields and getting changed in dressing-rooms where you'd hardly fit three in the room. They have gone through the hardship. They have seen it all,' he explains. 'They've gone from being lucky to get a gearbag to going all the way to getting the full set. They fought hard for that. They saw the bad times and wanted to make it better.' Kerry's Jackie Horgan celebrates. Pic: ©INPHO/Leah Scholes. Horgan didn't play club camogie until she was 15. Two years later, she was at midfield in the aforementioned 2015 junior final. The thumping at Templetuohy continues to reside upstairs. 'I will never forget it. We got absolutely destroyed. I remember running around the pitch thinking, 'what am I doing here'. 'When I was minor, we used to go up the country with 15 players, maybe 16. You might be ringing someone at 8am of a Sunday morning saying, the bus is leaving, we'll meet you on the way with the gearbag.' They never complained or cursed their sorry environment simply because they knew no different. There was no adult club team for them when reaching the end of the underage ranks and so they all came from different corners to form Clanmaurice. If you were a club player in Kerry, you were an inter-county one too. Everyone got on the bus. Quality was secondary, the ability to field the priority. They couldn't afford to leave anyone behind, irrespective of how you gripped a hurley. Other counties would baulk at a panel of 17 or 18 players. This was Kerry's lived reality for years. It built them rather than broke them. Nine of the 2015 class are still showing up. 'There was a core group that just never gave up. We never knew any different than having the bare minimum. There'd be counties laughing at us, but we are probably closer than any of those teams. I know other teams will say they have a bond, but we have a bond,' says Diggin, her tone the Collins Dictionary definition of forceful. 'Kerry camogie is like one big family. No matter what I am doing, if I am going anywhere, it is, 'are ye coming'.' The friends forged a path for themselves. The friends paved a way for those coming after. They popularised Kerry camogie. Premier Junior finalists in 2018. Champions a year later. Intermediate semi-finalists 12 months ago. Three League titles. Club domination. They became annual visitors to Croke Park. They packed silverware onto a team bus now at capacity. The recent semi-final programme contained 30 names spread across four clubs. From one single adult club across an entire county, now senior status wearing Clanmaurice are joined at junior level by Cillard, Causeway, Killarney, and Tralee Parnells. Indeed, such are the growing numbers in these clubs that the county board was able to run, concurrent to the inter-county season, a nine-a-side league for the four junior teams and all their adult players not inside in the Kerry dressing-room. At underage, the numbers are stronger again. Abbeykillix (Abbeydorney, Kilflynn, and Lixnaw), Ballyduff, Causeway, Cillard (Kilmoyley and Ardfert), Killarney, Sliabh Luachra (Castleisland and surrounding areas) and Tralee Parnells have been joined this year by an eighth entity. Ceann Mara, serving Kenmare and its hinterland, stands as the perfect example of the Kerry camogie board capitalising on the increased interest in their brand. Aware of local appetite to grow the game, the county board paid Kerry panelist Kate Lynch to go down and coach in the Kenmare schools for six weeks. From that, Ceann Mara was born. 'You are always trying something new,' says Kerry chairperson Ann-Marie Russell. 'Last year we had an U13 school of excellence for those that didn't make the U14 county team. Six to 10 weeks of county-level training to keep the interest going and keep driving the standard.' John Madden, who assumed the Kingdom reins midway through this year's League, has a 14-year-old daughter. Team coach Aidan Boyle has two. They line out for Causeway and Ballyduff respectively. The fathers are driven to show their daughters, their daughters' friends, and every young girl in the county that Kerry camogie is about All-Ireland final Sundays in Croker and not the half promise of a free pair of shorts it once was. 'That is another motivating force for us in wanting to bring it to the next step, that the young girls can see that is the ambition you can hold if you are part of Kerry camogie.' John Barry is another member of management. His department is strength and conditioning. John was a member of the Kerry football backroom team during the return-to-the-summit 2022 campaign. That is the company and the quality the Kerry women now demand and expect. Last words to Diggin and Horgan. Let's make sure they are not identical. Patrice is the intermediate championship's leading contributor with 1-32 from four games. When she won three Ashbourne Cups with UL in the middle of the last decade, including player of the match in the '16 final, one guessed that would be the end of her exposure to top shelf camogie. She did herself. 'We never in our wildest dreams saw this coming. It comes down to the group of girls we have. Because we have had to fight for everything we have, nothing fazes us when things go wrong. We can just turn a blind eye and say to ourselves, sure we are used to things going wrong.' The mic is handed to Jackie. 'A win on Sunday would be bigger for the people behind us more so than ourselves because it will keep the whole thing going.' And one final pass to Patrice. 'Kerry camogie is safe for a long time.'
The 42
4 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
'For a few years there, we just didn't have the numbers' - Kerry camogie on the rise
GIVEN THE RAT-tat-tat nature of most of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Camogie Championships, with group games on consecutive weekends prior to the knockout stages, a month between the semi-final of the intermediate competition and Sunday's final, involving Kerry and Offaly (3pm, live on RTÉ2), must feel like an eternity. Jackie Horgan has pretty much seen it all during a Kerry camogie journey that would make a Hollywood scriptwriter redden with embarrassment, had he penned something so far-fetched. Year after year, despite drawing from a tiny sub-section of what is a very small hurling region in a county that has just secured its 39th All-Ireland senior football crown, the camogs have raised standards with both Clanmaurice and the Kingdom, posting improbable victories and gathering a plethora of All-Ireland medals along the way. Though only 27, Horgan is a veteran of this odyssey and there aren't many challenges she and her cohorts haven't encountered. Heck, Clanmaurice, until very recently the only adult club in the county, had to play an All-Ireland semi-final with 14 players just four years ago. They won. That was in junior but they will ply their trade at senior level later this year, after supplementing their two successes in the third tier with a second straight intermediate triumph last December. After an All-Ireland final win with Clanmaurice. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO Now, in the green and gold, they are an hour away from the same exalted status, having won the junior in 2019. But even for such experienced operators, managing the time since the thrilling semi-final defeat of Down has not been easy. 'Four weeks is a long gap,' admits Horgan. 'It's more the mind than the body. You can train away but it's trying not to think about it too much until the days before the game. But there's nowhere else you want to be coming into August like, so we'll manage it.' Advertisement The development of camogie in the south-west corner of this island has been staggering. 'Years ago, when I first started playing, and when we left minor, Clanmaurice was the only option. There was nothing in the county really. There was underage, but that was it really. The work that has been done over the past few years is unbelievable. This year even, there's a club after being set up below in Kenmare. 'I'm actually teaching in Causeway, which would be a natural camogie and hurling area, and the numbers playing down there is huge. When I was in school, there was none of that. 'In the hurling side of things it is getting bigger. You have Parnells, Crokes and Kenmare/Kilgarvan – they're spread around the county more. Camogie-wise, it was always North Kerry but again, we have clubs coming from the other side of Killarney playing camogie. With Clanmaurice, you've Danielle O'Leary from Rathmore, so it is slowly but surely getting around the county.' Crotta was Horgan's local hurling club growing up but in her formative years, it was the big ball that was her focus. 'We're at the Listowel side of North Kerry so we'd be all football. I actually didn't start playing camogie with a club until I was 15. Jerome O'Sullivan used to come at primary school so I used to play a bit there but I joined (underage club) Cillard when I was 15 or 16, and I probably am more camogie than football now.' Little would you have imagined then that she would become such a scoring threat for club and county, at Croke Park and a host of other venues around the land, proving an adept freetaker too in support of the legendary Patrice Diggin, who she shares captaincy duties with this season. Certainly, as she scored a stunning goal within two minutes of Diggin planting a penalty to help Kerry establish the vital breathing space that enabled them to eke out a four-point triumph over Down, you would have presumed a hurley was thrust in her hand in the pram. That wasn't the case but Horgan is clearly a quick learner. 'I remember coming home from my first training session and thinking, 'Ohhhh.' I loved it but I was thinking, 'Am I mad?' The following year, myself and Aoife Behan broke into the senior and we played a (Nancy Murray Cup) final against Carlow in Templetouhy and we got annihilated, and I remember thinking maybe I should stick to football but as time went on, we couldn't even think about the success we've had since.' The core of the group from a decade ago remains, winning the old Division 4, 3 and 2 titles in the National League as well as the aforementioned All-Irelands. But thanks to this success, there is a depth to the squad that never existed before. 'The younger girls don't probably realise where we were, once upon a time. We really were the bottom of the barrel. When you've been there the whole way through, it is special. Horgan celebrating the semi final win. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO 'Last year, Ruth (O'Connor), Róisín (Quinn) and Shannon (Collins) broke into the team. They had done a bit of training the year before when they weren't up to the age group, which was obviously a huge benefit to them. The three of them girls started the semi-final and they had only just done the Leaving Cert. They have been a massive plus. 'For a few years there, you know, we just didn't have the numbers. There was nothing you could do about it. I suppose there was a bit more comfort and not as much pressure on you whereas now, in training, there's five or six girls there on the fringes, and they're pushing it. To have three girls starting in their first year senior is huge.' This is a significant accomplishment, ever before a game is played but the big picture is one thing. You're in a final, you want to win it. Particularly, when the carrot is a crack at the Corks and Galways of this world. Offaly represent stern opposition. They took out Antrim in the other semi-final, meaning the finalists had beaten the two teams relegated from senior to secure their positions in Sunday's Croke Park carnival. 'They're a super team. I suppose, if you were to take one team out at the start of the year of who would get a chance to get into a final, Offaly would probably be your first pick. We played them up in Birr in February in the first round of the league and they were even going well then. 'But we're there. And the past couple of weekends the way the games have gone, no-one has been able to predict them so we'll give it our all and whatever happens on the day will happen. We're gone one step further than last year, so that was the aim. We'll see after that.' Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Jackie Horgan has seen it all during Kerry's camogie journey
Given the rat-tat-tat nature of most of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Camogie Championships, with group games on consecutive weekends prior to the knockout stages, a month between the semi-final of the intermediate competition and Sunday's final, involving Kerry and Offaly (3pm, live on RTÉ2), must feel like an eternity. Jackie Horgan has pretty much seen it all during a Kerry camogie journey that would make a Hollywood scriptwriter redden with embarrassment, had he penned something so far-fetched. Year after year, despite drawing from a tiny sub-section of what is a very small hurling region in a county that has just secured its 39th All-Ireland senior football crown, the camogs have raised standards with both Clanmaurice and the Kingdom, posting improbable victories and gathering a plethora of All-Ireland medals along the way. Though only 27, Horgan is a veteran of this odyssey and there aren't many challenges she and her cohorts haven't encountered. Heck, Clanmaurice, until very recently the only adult club in the county, had to play an All-Ireland semi-final with 14 players just four years ago. They won. That was in junior but they will ply their trade at senior level later this year, after supplementing their two successes in the third tier with a second straight intermediate triumph last December. Now, in the green and gold, they are an hour away from the same exalted status, having won the junior in 2019. But even for such experienced operators, managing the time since the thrilling semi-final defeat of Down has not been easy. 'Four weeks is a long gap,' admits Horgan. 'It's more the mind than the body. You can train away but it's trying not to think about it too much until the days before the game. But there's nowhere else you want to be coming into August like, so we'll manage it.' The development of camogie in the south-west corner of this island has been staggering. 'Years ago, when I first started playing, and when we left minor, Clanmaurice was the only option. There was nothing in the county really. There was underage, but that was it really. The work that has been done over the past few years is unbelievable. This year even, there's a club after being set up below in Kenmare. 'And obviously the success feeds into all that. I'm actually teaching in Causeway, which would be a natural camogie and hurling area, and the numbers playing down there is huge. When I was in school, there was none of that. 'In the hurling side of things it is getting bigger. You have Parnells, Crokes and Kenmare/Kilgarvan – they're spread around the county more. Camogie-wise, it was always North Kerry but again, we have clubs coming from the other side of Killarney playing camogie. With Clanmaurice, you've Danielle O'Leary from Rathmore, so it is slowly but surely getting around the county. 'For a few years there, you know, we just didn't have the numbers. There was nothing you could do about it. I suppose there was a bit more comfort and not as much pressure on you whereas now, in training, there's five or six girls there on the fringes, and they're pushing it. 'So that's a major difference, the girls coming through.' The big picture is one thing. You're in a final, you want to win it. Particularly, when the carrot is a crack at the Corks and Galways of this world. Offaly represent stern opposition. They took out Antrim in the other semi-final, meaning the finalists had beaten the two teams relegated from senior to secure their positions in Sunday's Corke Park carnival. 'They're a super team. I suppose, if you were to take one team out at the start of the year of who would get a chance to get into a final, Offaly would probably be your first pick. We played them up in Birr in February in the first round of the league and they were even going well then. 'But we're there. And the past couple of weekends the way the games have gone, no-one has been able to predict them so we'll give it our all and whatever happens on the day will happen. We're gone one step further than last year, so that was the aim. We'll see after that.'
Irish Examiner
12-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Cork and Galway eye first U23 camogie crown
For today's inaugural Glen Dimplex All-Ireland U23A final between Cork and Galway at TUS Gaelic Grounds (2pm), the only formline that can be drawn upon is the group encounter between the sides on June 7 at the Cork Camogie Grounds. On that occasion, the home team were too powerful, outscoring the westerners by 2-15 to 0-11. The Rebels started the campaign as favourites, given the number of players from All-Ireland-winning minor outfits they could call on, even allowing for those now playing at senior level. They could even afford to have their opening round victory over Kilkenny chalked off for a substitution infringement and still top the group. Their goalscoring prowess was in evidence as they were made to work hard to see off Tipperary in the semi-final, while Galway had a point to spare over the Cats in a humdinger at Kenny Park. The Maroons will need to find another gear but they have built momentum over the past few weeks and the Leesiders will need to be on their mettle to claim this cup for the first time. Elsewhere, both All-Ireland Intermediate semi-finals are in Cedral St Conleth's Park. The opener, Antrim v Offaly (1pm) is a meeting of league champions with Offaly winning Division 2 and Antrim Division 1B. The Ulster girls were relegated from the senior ranks last year but have won every game in national competition this term, beating three senior sides in the League including the Clare team that pushed Waterford all the way in last Saturday's senior quarter-final on two occasions. Offaly have been showing real goal threat throughout the season and only lost by two points to Antrim in the group. They were ruthless in ensuring progression from there and two goals in the first two minutes sent them on their way in a 12-point quarter-final success against Carlow last weekend. Antrim are marginal favourites. The second semi sees Down meet Kerry (3pm). These two were also only separated by two points when they met earlier in the campaign. The tight 0-13 to 0-11 away triumph secured Kerry the direct route to the semi-final. Down won their other games to go into the quarter-finals as the top seeds. For the Clanmaurice contingent, the goal of completing the All-Ireland intermediate club and county double will be an undoubted driving force.
