Aghamore girls dreaming of junior glory

Even travelling within the speed limit, it’s easy to miss the turn off for Aghamore. Make that turn of the N17, and you’ll quickly find yourself in a sparse rural community that is steeped in Gaelic games.

Between Tooreen, Aghamore GAA and Aghamore LGFA, few communities in Ireland have produced as big a proportion of footballers and camogie players as Aghamore.

No more than their male counterparts, the Aghamore ladies play both codes with distinction and wear their hearts on their sleeves.

They began life as St Mary’s before Ballyhaunis formed their own club. They lost a few handy footballers, but that didn’t stop a proud East Mayo club from becoming a force at Junior A and Junior B level in later years.

Niamh Mooney, who played U-8s with St Mary’s as a six-year-old, gives an insight into how they’ve achieved this.

“Football is more than a sport. My best friends play on my football team with me and some of them I didn’t even go to school with, I’ve just played with them since I was very small,” Mooney tells The Mayo News at the pre-county final press conference at the TF Royal Hotel and Theatre in Castlebar.

“Even this year to see the numbers we have out, we have nearly 30 girls, which is phenomenal for a small village and a small parish. To see it grow and grow and grow has been fantastic and see the success and the good things that are happening at underage level as well. That gives you confidence that’s going to be there for a few years to come too.”

Throw in that half those 30 women puck ball with Na Brídeoga, and that they’ve two Mayo senior footballers and a scatter of intercounty camogie players, and you really begin to understand what Aghamore have achieved in recent times.

“The commitment they show to those sports is phenomenal,” says Mairéad, a sister of Mayo senior footballer Niamh Mooney.

“They are out training maybe five nights a week between the two sports and never missing anything, and turning up to games and having very little recovery time. So they’re great, the girls that do play.”

For her, winning a county title would “be a dream come true, just to win with my friends and do the club and the village proud.”

“I have two sisters on the panel as well,” she adds, “so it would be a dream come true to finally get over the line and get our hands on that cup.”

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