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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Offaly All-Ireland camogie success may divide Moneygall
'People of Offaly,' read an X post from the official Offaly camogie account after their intermediate success at Croke Park on Sunday, 'whether you're in Shinrone or Edenderry, Banagher or Tullamore, Clareen or Moneygall, Cheltenham or Florida, Birmingham or Zambia, Sydney or Uganda ... here are your All-Ireland Champions'. What caught the eye was the reference to Moneygall, which is disputed territory ('the border is fluid around there' was one succinct description we heard). While the village of Moneygall is in Co Offaly, the club's pitch is entirely in Tipperary . 'There are five roads out of Moneygall village, and all five bring you into Co Tipperary within two kilometres or less,' club secretary Eugene Ó Riain told in 2022. READ MORE The pitch, he explained 'was part of an old estate taken over by the Land Commission, and all of our developments would have been supported by the north Tipperary board or the Tipperary board.' There were two Moneygall players on the panel yesterday, Mairéad Teehan and Ciara Maher. Teehan played for Tipperary but grew up supporting Offaly and later made the switch. Asked in the Tullamore Tribune this week if she had attended the recent Tipp v Cork hurling final, Teehan laughed: 'No, no, no, I didn't go. I wouldn't be going supporting Tipp to be honest. It's mad the way it works out. Shur, half of our team in Moneygall would be wearing Offaly jerseys, half of them would be wearing Tipp.' O'Moore women continue tradition Laois banished the heartbreak of losing the 2024 All-Ireland premier junior championship decider by a point when they ran out nine-point victors over Armagh in Sunday's final. In doing so, the O'Moore women continued a well-established tradition. Laois' win marked the eighth occasion in the last 20 years that the winners of this competition had lost the final the season before. Derry lost the 2006 final but came back to beat Clare in the decider a year later. The year after that, the Banner went all the way against Offaly and, true to form, the following season, Offaly got over the line. Galway's Niamh Mallon and Laura Hayes of Cork. Photograph: INPHO/ Bryan Keane In 2015, it was the turn of Laois, who beat Roscommon in the final having lost out to Down the year before. Dublin lost the 2017 decider but won it in 2018 against Kerry ; the Kingdom claimed the title in 2019. Last year, Tipperary made amends for losing the previous final to Clare when they defeated Laois. Based on the trends, Armagh for the premier junior championship in 2026 – their last success was in 2020 – seems a reasonable bet at this point in time. Cork and Galway former team-mates face off An intriguing subplot to Sunday's senior final was the fact that two former team-mates – Niamh Mallon and Sorcha McCartan – were in opposition. Mallon lined out at wing forward for the Tribeswomen while McCartan was full forward for Cork . The pair are both natives of Co Down and played together on the Mourne side who won the All-Ireland intermediate title five years ago. Portaferry native Mallon, who transferred to Sarsfields in Galway in 2023, scored 2-3 from play in that final win over Antrim with McCartan, daughter of Down 1994 All-Ireland winner Greg, scoring a point. McCartan made the switch a year earlier, swapping home club Castlewellan for St Finbarr's. She scored 1-1 on her debut for the Rebels, a league clash with Clare, and added another 1-1 in the All-Ireland final win over Waterford later that season. On this occasion, bragging rights go to Mallon. Martina McMahon is on an extraordinary run of success over the last 12 months across three different handball codes. Photograph: Stephen Marken Success on the handball court There was success for some noted camógs in the handball court at Croke Park at the weekend as well as on the pitch. In the All-Ireland senior softball singles semi-finals, Limerick's Martina McMahon and Kilkenny's Amy Brennan took straight-games wins, qualifying for this Saturday's final. McMahon, who is on an extraordinary run of success over the last 12 months across three different handball codes, formerly represented Limerick in camogie up to intermediate level before hanging up her camán to focus on handball. Brennan is still heavily involved in camogie. Having represented the Cats at minor level, she was a member of the county Under-23 panel this year (a grade which has essentially replaced the old intermediate grade for top-tier counties) and played in the forward line as they lost the All-Ireland semi-final by a point to Galway. Quote 'A seventh point of the match scored by marvellous Carrie Dolan ...' Shades of Marvellous Marvin Hagler as commentator Ger Canning perhaps bestows a new nom de guerre on Galway ace Dolan. Number: 28,795 The attendance on Sunday was up by around 1,000 on last year but fell shy of the 30,000-mark last broken in 2023.
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Tipp All-Ireland winner Teehan keeps faith on winding road to Offaly jersey
For those who live in frontier territory, every county boundary feels like the 38th parallel across Korea, or the Maginot Line. Home is where the light touches, what lies beyond is nothing more than 'that shadowy place,' or an Irish equivalent to the elephant graveyard about which Lion King Mufasa warned his son Simba. For supporters and players alike, winning matches and championships might be the primary ambition, but keeping the neighbours in line is a close second. And when the border itself is a source of acrimony, that feeling is multiplied. Ballaghaderreen and Ferrybank are among the most prominent stories of disputed zones, but nowhere are the waters more muddy than along the Offaly and Tipperary border. Truncating the story of that boundary into a handful of sentences is akin to doing the same thing to the history of Ireland's relationship with Britain, but among the key points are that Ballyskenach (now part of Ballyskenach-Killavilla GAA club and Naomh Bríd Camogie Club) started life in Tipperary before moving to Offaly. Hurlers from Shinrone were known to take part in Tipp championships with Knockshegowna, while both Lorrha and Coolderry each looked to cross the border in 1925, though neither succeeded. Then there are the two major flashpoints. Carrig & Riverstown is mostly located in Tipperary but is part of the Birr parish and hurls in Offaly, as does the St Cillian's camogie club, which takes in the village of Crinkill. Then there's Moneygall. Though the pitch is in Tipperary, most of the catchment area is Offaly, including Dunkerrin. Dunkerrin was the club that represented the parish in 1910, winning the inaugural Offaly junior hurling championship before being thrown out following an objection. Two years later, Moneygall were affiliated in Tipperary and Barack Obama's ancestral homeland has been a Premier County stronghold ever since. Except in camogie, where the dual identity of the area has been recognised. Caithlyn Treacy of Moneygall joined Ciara Brennan of St Cillian's in the Tipperary senior panel this year, while Ciara Maher and Mairéad Teehan (both Moneygall) will be central to Offaly's bid to join their neighbours in the senior grade for 2026. Offaly take on Kerry in Croke Park this Sunday in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland intermediate final (3pm, live on RTÉ2) and even though both players lined out for Tipperary at underage level, with Teehan winning All-Irelands at U16 amd minor level, if the sharpshooting forward is anything to go by, there are no doubts about where they stand on the border issue. 'Offaly people are just proud to be from Offaly, it's just lovely to be from here. I'm delighted to be from Offaly,' beams Teehan, before offering a very diplomatic but still unequivocal answer to whether or not she supported Tipperary against Cork in the All-Ireland hurling final a fortnight ago. 'Ah no, I wouldn't say I was supporting them now! We played with the two lads (Seánie Kenneally and Joe Fogarty) in school and we grew up with them all along so I'm delighted for them. In fairness to Tipp, the way they won the match, you wouldn't begrudge them. They just were the better team, they brought the work, they had the right attitude. 'It's just great that we're in an All-Ireland final as well, that we can say we're here too, don't forget about us!' she laughs. 'So let's have a few Offaly flags flying around home; it's time to take down all the Tipp ones and put up the Offaly tricolours!' After competing for Tipperary throughout the underage grades and then making the adult team as a teenager, Teehan stepped away in 2017, citing burnout. However, when her home county came calling, it was a different story. 'When I was U12 and U14, playing for Offaly just wasn't an option. If you were lucky enough to be selected from the club, you were sent for Tipperary trials and at that age, you just want to go and play.' Her club colleague, Niamh Larkin was the trailblazer, seeking and receiving permission to tog out with the Faithful County. And after Larkin changed colours, Teehan was delighted to get the call to 'come home'. 'Niamh paved the way, and I was very happy to be asked in. I love playing for Offaly, always have.' In 2024, it wasn't an accident of geography that prevented her from wearing green, white and gold, but an injury. Teehan's cruciate ligament gave way in 2023 and while she intended to come back into the fold in advance of last year's intermediate championship, by the end of April she knew she physically wasn't ready. A young Offaly team eventually fell short to Cork in a competitive All-Ireland semi-final at FBD Semple Stadium the same day that Kerry lost to Kilkenny. This year the championship structure changed with second teams removed from the intermediate and junior competitions. Offaly and Kerry knew that they had a glorious chance to go even further though initially, many would have said that the door was open for Antrim to bounce back up to the top flight. Instead Offaly knocked over the Division 1B winners from Ulster by a single point, 1-16 to 2-12, with Teehan scoring the all-important goal in a player-of-the-match performance in Newbridge last month. She feels that having a solid platform on which to build was crucial to the county's progression. 'The girls getting to the semi-final last year brought a lot of positivity to Offaly camogie in general. When teams are successful, people want to be part of it, so it was a matter of building on last year and bringing that to this year. 'I think there's a good core group that has stayed from last year into this year, which is not always the case. There's a few more, myself included, has come back in and hopefully added to it. But to keep that consistent core group is a really big thing, and the same with the management, that you keep a consistent management team as well really helps build. Given that Teehan's absence in 2024 was injury-enforced rather than a case of the part-time lecturer and substitute primary school teacher opting out, it would have been easy for manager David Sullivan – himself no stranger to the vagaries of the border, having grown up in Lorrha and gone to school in Banagher – to look at Teehan as a potential captain for 2025. Instead, he placed the responsibility on the broad but young shoulders of full-back Orlagh Phelan, who has been a tower of strength and dependability for the midlanders in just her third year out of the minor grade. So much so that Teehan is happy to stick to playing, with little or no onus on her to take on a leadership role. 'Orlagh is our captain, she's very young still, but she has a serious head on her shoulders. I feel like all the girls have good heads on them, they're well able to manage themselves, so I don't need to do too much in the dressing room in that way,' she says. 'All I'm doing i trying to make the girls aware that it's a massive game, it's probably the biggest game for all of us that we have had in our careers and it's okay to enjoy it, it's okay to look forward to it. You can be nervous, but to enjoy the nerves as well.' One suspects that Mufasa's advice to 'remember who you are' is also central to Teehan's philosophy on life, home and camogie.
Irish Examiner
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Camogie: Kerry and Offaly through to intermediate final
Kerry and Offaly will play in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland intermediate camogie final after coming through two rip-roaring semi-finals at Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge. Both sides were beaten at this stage of last year's championship and were up against it when attempting to clear the penultimate hurdle this time, playing the two teams relegated from the senior championship 12 months ago, Antrim and Down. A 36th minute goal from Mairéad Teehan helped Offaly turn a half-time lead of two points to a seven-point advantage and that was critical as the Faithful held off Antrim to prevail by 1-16 to 2-12 in the first leg of a mouth-watering double-header. Two goals in under a minute, also in the third quarter, turned the tide in Kerry's favour against Down, with the Patrice Diggin planting a penalty in the 40th minute on her way to scoring 1-7, before Jackie Horgan popped up with a brilliant score. Hard though they tried, there was no way back for Down and it was the green and gold booking a date to Croke Park on a 3-12 to 0-16 scoreline. Goals have been the key to Offaly's success this year but they showed they had other strings to their bow when outpointing Antrim in the battle of the Very League champions. The Ulster crew were marginal favourites, given that they had beaten three senior sides to win the Division 1B title. But Offaly had impressed in garnering the Division 2 crown and were only two points in arrears when the teams met in the group stages. Antrim scored their first goal in the 15th minute, starting with good defensive work to thwart a dangerous looking Offaly attack. They countered quickly and Róisín McCormick won the long delivery well, then popped the sliotar to the onrushing Annie Lynn. Lynn didn't have to break stride before in turn feeding Caitrin Dobbin, and while her shot was saved brilliantly by Emer Reynolds, the Loughgiel sniper managed to scramble the rebound over the line. David Sullivan's crew responded well with Grace Teehan leading the resistance. She took over freetaking duties and quickly brought her tally to four points, finishing with a wonderful score from play just before the break to send her side in leading 0-10 to 1-5. Antrim had the wind in the second half however, and the hope that they could get Róisín McCormick into the play even more, the Loughgiel ace scoring all of her team's points in that opening period. The sides shared four points early on in the second half but after Grace Teehan converted another free from a tight angle, Offaly made the definitive burst thanks to a sublime goal by her cousin Mairéad. The Moneygall maestro, denied by a tremendous Caitriona Graham save in the first half, executed a lightning quick pick-up and took the direct route, cutting back expertly inside to lose two defenders in a blink before blasting off her left to the roof of the net. That put six between the teams and the margin quickly became seven with all the momentum in the Faithful's direction. It was McCormick who provided the fuel injection Antrim needed six minutes after Teehan's major. Kate Molloy did the donkey work on this occasion, somehow emerging from a ruck with possession. She offloaded to McCormick and she did the rest, slaloming into space before unleashing an unstoppable shot from close range. It was nip and tuck from there to the end, Offaly wasting a few chances to extend their advantage and Antrim chipping away to reduce the deficit to the minimum with points from McCormick (free) and Dobbin. Offaly defended well in the last two minutes of injury time however and it was the midlanders progressing to HQ. There had been nothing between Down and Kerry in the group stages either – two points again – so no one was surprised that this also went down to the wire. Defences had held sway on that occasion and this was no scorefest either for a long while before the game really opened up as both outfits threw off the shackles with everything on the line. Playing with the breeze, Down started with real intent and had four points on the board in less than ten minutes. Paula O'Hagan, back from injury, had three of those and the Mourne women led by four after 13 minutes, Beth Fitzpatrick also landing a monster. The legendary Diggin drove Kerry forward and shot a fantastic point into the wind but a very lucky goal from Amy O'Sullivan seemed to knock Down for six, briefly at least. O'Sullivan twisted and turned to make space and let go for a point, but the sliotar dropped into the corner of the net and suddenly the teams were level at the end of the first quarter. The scoring rate dropped thereafter and Jackie Horgan showed her trademark strength to make space and point just before the break, sending Kerry in leading by 1-5 to 0-7. Down are a side with plenty of experience and they used the interval well to steady down. They resumed in similar fashion to how they started the first half, hitting four points to go one in front but the game was turned on its head by those two goals in under a minute. Diggin dispatched a penalty to the corner in the 40th minute, after Ann Marie Leen was fouled in the square and before Down knew what had happened, Horgan was rampaging in from the corner, having shown good pace to go with her strength to get away, shortening her grip and making enough of an angle to finish expertly. Down never gave up but they had given themselves too much to do and in the end it was Diggin who had the final say with a pointed free from distance to spark wild celebrations.
