Clann and Brigid’s ladies meet again with senior title at stake

By Kevin Egan

You can definitely feel that there’s an ‘R’ in the month, and all the ‘R’ words look especially relevant this Saturday when it comes to the Roscommon LGFA senior final between Clann na nGael and St Brigid’s (Ballyleague, 4.15pm).

For St. Brigid’s, those keywords might be redemption, or even revenge, given last year’s final. For Clann, who looked a couple of years ago as if they might be about to embark on an era of real dominance, they’re looking east at a rebellion, a rising power that will no doubt be transformed if they manage to win a first county title since their decade-long reign of supremacy has its last hurrah in 2014.

Plus of course, rivalry is always on the table when these two sides clash, regardless of the gender or the age.

The first question facing the St Brigid’s panel in 2025 was whether they would draw a line under last year, or embrace the hurt.

“It has to be fuel to hold onto,” says Claire Grehan, who battled against the rising Clann tide this time last year but couldn’t hold back the tsunami.

“It hurt a lot last year, we felt we had it and we didn’t push on, but here we are a year later.

“We do have a lot of young girls on our team and they’ve got more experience, they’re playing in school and college, and we hope that - as well as playing in last year’s final - will stand to us.”

As someone who was there at the heart of things when St Brigid’s ruled the landscape in the county, Grehan will be leaned on to try and guide this young group to the promised land, though she insists that it’s a different game now to what it was a decade or two ago.

“Not unless I’ve really slowed down, the speed of the game now is amazing!” she laughs.

“The skill level is high, it’s up and down the pitch. The panel of players we have is very talented, we’re a very tight-knit group but there are lots of clubs, including Clann of course, who also have incredible talent.

"We won the intermediate five years ago but it’s so hard to win a county senior title now. We won eight county titles in ten years but it was a different time and the game has changed. You have the gym, strength and conditioning and everything else, we just went out and trained and played matches, now there’s all the extras," Claire continued.

Even though the narrative is that it’s St. Brigid’s trying to break Clann’s stranglehold, Clann na nGael goalkeeper and captain Éadaoin Lennon is quick to point out that they’ve experienced plenty of heartbreak of their own.

“We’ve been in quite a few finals now at this stage,” said the Athlone-based pharmacist.

“My first was in 2015, I came on as a sub at the age of 15 against Strokestown, I think the goalkeeper (Yvonne Dolan) got injured so it’s been a long ten years. I’ve had seven since I’ve been playing, but more were lost than were won so that doesn’t dampen our determination at all.”

Lennon recalled how her previous experience of captaincy was U-12 soccer, and how when that didn’t end well, she figured it wasn’t something that suited her. Denis Gavin and Joe Fallon felt differently, however.

“Joe and Denis came to me and asked me would I do it and I thought there was no way because there’s so many leaders on our team. I wouldn’t have been an obvious choice. I accepted it and I’m trying my best for the girls. Any one of them could have been captains, but I’ll do my best for the girls that are playing and not playing.”

Last year Lennon stepped away, due to her work in Dublin, but was back on board for the semi-final and final after a handful of senior players made an aggressive recruitment drive to bring her back into the fold.

“I don’t think they were going to let me away when I came back. The girls brought me out of retirement before our semi-final in the championship last year. When Ruth Finlass and Jenny Higgins (or Jenny Shine, I should call her now) when they come knocking on your door, you don’t say no to them,” she says, though she’s keen to point out that she was very grateful in the end.

“When the final whistle went down in Ballyleague last year there was a fair few grown men and women crying after the final whistle,” she recalled.

“The relief that came with it, I was just happy to be a part of it and to have helped. But obviously it’s going to be that bit sweeter if it happens when you’ve been there all the time,” added Éadaoin.