Athlone Town star juggles Garda graduation with Champions League action

This is a week Kayleigh Shine won't forget in a hurry.

The 23-year-old Drum native lined out for Athlone Town in a 4-0 Champions League qualifier victory in Poland on Wednesday, before flying home in order to graduate as a Garda from Templemore Training College earlier today (Friday).

And at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning she will be flying back to Poland for her home town club's next Champions League qualification tie with Czarni Sosnowiec (kick-off 6pm local time, 5pm Irish time).

Kayleigh was one of 206 policing recruits who were attested as sworn members of An Garda Síochána today.

During her training she gained work experience locally, in Athlone, and will now be stationed in Dún Laoghaire. Another Athlone woman, Emma Silke, also graduated today and will be stationed at Sundrive Road in Dublin.

Six of the new Garda graduates were given postings in Tullamore, but none of the Gardai graduating today are to be stationed in either Westmeath or Roscommon.

Kayleigh Shine was part of intake 254, which began its Garda training last November, and she said the nine months seemed to go by in a flash.

"The training flew by - I feel like I just blinked and it was all over!" she told the Westmeath Independent.

"The (graduation ceremony) was really nice. Having the family down to see it all today made it a very special occasion."

Her proud parents, Mary and David, along with other family members such as her sister Ava, grandad Michael Duffy, and cousin Orla Duffy, who is also a Garda, were in Templemore for today's ceremony attended by Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan.

During her Garda training, Kayleigh gained work experience by being based at Athlone Garda Station.

"That was good. I was close to home, so it was handy, and luckily enough I didn't know anyone that we were dealing with, so it was grand in that sense. Just being close to home was handy with (Athlone Town) training too."

Kayleigh played the 90 minutes of Athlone's comfortable win against North Macedonian side ZFK Skopje 2014 on Wednesday morning, before parting with the rest of the squad to fly home later that day.

She said the club was very supportive and understanding.

"They've been very accommodating, to be fair," she said. "I had planned this since last year, so they've been very accommodating and they're flying me back over tomorrow. They understand that both (the Gardai role and playing for the club) are very important to me."

As for tomorrow's game against Polish hosts Czarni Sosnowiec, Kayleigh is expecting a tough challenge.

"We've done a lot of homework - I've been going on calls with the team there while I've been away. Obviously this next game is going to be tougher because I think they won their game on Wednesday (against Georgian opposition) 7-1.

"It will be a difficult game, but it should be a good one and hopefully we can come out on top."

The new Gardai graduating today consisted of 142 men and 64 women, including 24 Gardaí born outside the State, from 15 countries.

It was the largest single class to graduate since before the Covid-19 pandemic, and brings the total number of sworn officers in the force to 14,733.