Day of reckoning beckons for Mount Saint Michael golden girls

LADIES football in Claremorris is cresting a golden wave at present. In 2024, a hugely talented Claremorris team completed a royal flush by adding a Minor ‘A’ title to a cabinet that already holds U-16 and U-14 county titles. Many of them went even further, winning Connacht titles with Mayo and Mount Saint Michael.

On Thursday, the cream of that golden crop will attempt to succeed where Claremorris teams have failed in two attempts since 2022.

Drawn primarily from Claremorris, but also from Davitts, Hollymount, Kilmaine and Aghamore, very few footballers have played at such a high level at such tender years as the stars of this Mount Saint Michael team.

Take Bree Hession, who is already a starter for the Mayo seniors. Hession was only 15 when she first played in All-Ireland Senior B final for the school back in 2022. That day, she scored three points from full-forward in a 2-13 to  0-7 loss to Coláiste Oiriall of Monaghan.

Fast forward three years. Different year, same competition, and some of the same faces that contested the 2022 decider.

These include Hession, Ashleagh Sammon, Amy Cummins, Sienna Kelly, Caoilinn Walsh and Síomha McNulty. In December 2023, they were among nine teenagers who started for Claremorris in their two-point All-Ireland junior club final defeat to O’Donavan Rossa.

The biggest prize of all has twice eluded them. On Thursday, that could all change.

^{Bree Hession of Mount Saint Michael lets loose a shot during the All-Ireland Post Primary School B semi-final}

And there is every reason to believe that these girls will become the first Mount Saint Michael team to win an All-Ireland senior ‘B’ title since Sarah Tierney captained them to national glory in 2010.

Their back line is stewarded by Connacht title-winning Mayo U-16 captain Emma Higgins, with support from Sienna Kelly, another veteran of 2022, and the Cummins twins - whose father, Johnnie, won an All-Ireland Minor title with Mayo in 1985.

Mount Saint Michael captain, Síomha McNulty, is a veteran of two All-Ireland finals and lines out at midfield with Isobel Phillips, another Claremorris intermediate team regular who is mature beyond her years.

The aforementioned Bree Hession is one of the best forwards in Mayo. The Brickens bomber will be flanked by Mayo Minor Lily Hession and Éabha Finnerty.

Corner-forwards Ashleagh Sammon (another Mayo Minor) and Caoilinn Walsh have the pace and skill to hurt any team while the towering Róisín Horkan brings power and physicality at full-forward.

Where did Mount Saint Michael come upon so many good footballers in such a short space of time?

Who better to ask than Claremorris footballer Marina Cawley, who has coached and/or played with a ‘special group of girls’ that swept all before them at underage.

“They drive each other on. They all want the best out of each other,” she told The Mayo News.

“They have won so much at underage and they have set such high standards for themselves and they’ve just kept it up.

“They need to do it for themselves more than anything at this stage. They deserve it. I know it’s a real clichéd thing to say, but a lot of them would have learned a lot from losing All-Ireland finals. Winning is great, but you learn a lot from losing.”

Mount Saint Michael are managed by Emma Galligan and Laura Brogan, who, between them, take every other Gaelic football team in the school.

Now in her tenth year managing Mount Saint Michael teams, Galligan took plenty of confidence from their 4-13 to 3-9 win over Spanish Point, where they rode out two big offensives to make their second All-Ireland final in three years.

“We were close before when we were a really young team but I think if they can just go out and play like they did for most of the semi-final they are nearly unstoppable,” Galligan, an ex-Moy Davitts footballer, told The Mayo News.

^{Mount Saint Michael senior ladies Gaelic football team manager, Emma Galligan} 

Eureka Secondary School of Kells, are understood to have several Cavan-based players in their ranks.

Given how Cavan Ladies football is riding its own blue wave at underage, coupled with Eureka’s impressive semi-final win over St Columba’s of Glenties, Mount Saint Michael’s golden generation will have to fight harder than ever to finally win an All-Ireland title.

FIXTURE

LIDL ALL-IRELAND SENIOR B PPS FINAL

MOUNT ST MICHAEL V EUREKA SS

THURSDAY, MARCH 27

KILTOOM AT 2 PM