Kilmoremoy hope final can be start of something special

As we get to the business end of the season, there is silverware on the line as Kilmoremoy take on Breaffy in the Junior A Ladies final this Sunday at 4pm in MacHale Park.

For the Ballina club, it is the response they would have wanted after their relegation from intermediate last season.

After some big wins in the championship, they defeated Balla in a hard-fought encounter in the semi-finals.

For Mary McHale, it was a meeting at the start of the year which convinced her the team was heading in the right direction.

“We had a meeting before the season started, and the attitude at the start was a little bit of disappointment as we dropped down to Junior.

“But we came out of it with a new perspective. We have a lot of young players, and a year makes a really big difference when you are talking about girls that would have been in Leaving Cert and now in first year of college. You see a lot of development in that year.

“We have a really young, strong, fit team this year, and we just said to ourselves we are going to put our heads down and have a right crack at it, and that is what we have done.

“It was down to the wire with Balla, which is no harm for us. Now there is loads of excitement in the lead up to the final.” In what should be a time of celebration, the reality of the limited facilities, coverage, and support for female-only clubs across the country is no different for Kilmoremoy.

Despite being based in Ballina, one of the biggest demographics in Mayo, what other clubs take for granted is not there for the Kilmoremoy women.

“We have our pitch in Bunree, but we don’t have a clubhouse. We don’t have that same sense of community.

“If we were a female Ardnaree or female Stephanites team, you would feel that support in the community a little bit more. The club is such a core part of every community.

“I grew up fundraising and hosting bake sales with teammates, standing out on the street trying to fundraise. It has been developed since, but now we have had to look elsewhere since then.

“Our club has been trying to develop a field where the old national school was. It is hard to put into words when you constantly feel you are pushing against the grain, there is a lack of support and resources.

“We don’t have a physio on hand. There is girls' training a couple times of week with little niggly bits, that’s costs put on a player. You have girls on Saturday night making sandwiches to have ready for Sunday morning.” A team in a county final despite a lack of resources, shows the importance of integration, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The 2027 date will not be met, despite the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association agreeing to come together for this date.

While it is another disappointing setback for women in sport, Mary is happy the right conversations are being held.

“When I was a teenager playing, we all felt that same way, but there was far more shame around saying we want more, we deserve more.

“People kept quiet. You speak to any physio that works with women’s teams, women will play through injury to try out of fear that if they show any sort of weakness, it is solidifying what those sort of people are saying.

“We are all happy to see that this is finally being spoke about.

“This was something that was decided in 2022, the organisations and the Government had all come on board and said we all agree this should happen, and yet they have said in this statement that since then there has been meetings at the very top, they spoke about getting people around the country to meet from the GAA and LGFA to see how on a local level we can bring it all together, but none of that has happened.

“It is disheartening to turn around and say 2027 is not a realistic date, but it is not a realistic date because nothing has been actioned.

“It has been four years, and we haven’t made any progress, the stone was just kicked down the road. I think that is the part that hurts.” 

Should Kilmoremoy win their first county title since 2016, the former Mayo footballer hopes this will be a moment that can inspire young player in the club.

“It would mean so much. We find ourselves in a bit of a rebuilding phase. We know we have such great talent there.

“We have had more of the younger teams coming along and watching, seeing older women that look like them playing well, I think it would mean so much to every one of us, having been there for so many years without a proper pitch and resources to actually win a county final.

“To find ourselves in intermediate next year would be phenomenal because we all know we would all be capable of it, we are all able to compete.”