Mayo Ladies football club to celebrate a huge milestone

Last Tuesday night, the Achill ladies junior club trained in the new community pitch in Keel with 24 players present. For some clubs, that might not be in any way remarkable but for Achill it is a real break from tradition.

Achill LGFA chairperson Packie McGinty cannot recall the club having anything close to those numbers for a midweek training session. 

For both the men’s and women’s branches of Gaelic football in Achill, midweek training sessions can often be more akin to a book club. With their players scattered to the four winds in search of work, few enough are ever around during the week to train in Achill. 

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Patterns of emigration have not changed drastically but for Achill LGFA, player retention has improved considerably thanks to a lot of hard work by club officers and coaches. 

Packie McGinty recalls minor team after minor team disappearing into the ether as soon as girls went to college, very few of them staying involved in football, certainly not with their home club. 

But that’s starting to change with players based away in Dublin, Limerick and Galway committing to the club’s junior team. Ladies football is beset by drop-off of players in their mid to late teens and it is particularly pronounced in Achill due to its peripherality. 

As the club prepare to celebrate their 25th anniversary this coming Saturday night, that retention is as much a cause for joy as anything else. 

Last year there were titles and tournaments won by the Under 12s, U-13s, 14s, 15s and 16s. The Juniors won their league in 2023 while there was plenty of progress by the club’s minor, and younger teams (Under 11s, 10s, 8s and 6s). The Junior team are just back from participating in the Páidí Ó Sé Tournament in Kerry. 

“I think the future is bright for the club,” McGinty told The Mayo News. “We’ve teams from Under 6s all the way up to Junior and numbers are good at all levels, it’s our best year for numbers in a long time and when you see the numbers we have training and girls coming down from the other side of the country to play, I think it is clear the club is on an upward trend at moment,” he added. 

The club was founded in 1998 with McGinty as its first chairperson with Maureen Scott Cafferkey performing the role of both secretary and treasurer in the opening years. Their first ever game was a challenge against Tourmakeady – then a hardened senior outfit – in Kilmeena. 

McGinty knew when he saw 40 players in the dressing room, they were onto something with a ladies club. At that time, only Carnacon and Tourmakeady were established ladies clubs in West Mayo. 

Since then, through thick and thin, McGinty has stayed the course. He has been chairperson right through. Not even a near-fatal heart attack last year could stop him, it only halted his gallop for a few weeks. Long enough to postpone plans for last year’s 25th celebrations but better late than never. 

He led a powerful fundraiser for the club and Croí last August which saw Achill Ladies solo a football all along the Great Western Greenway from Westport to Achill, raising over €24,000.

The club also led the running of the Féile Chorn Acla, an evocative tournament where children and grandchildren of Achill people came home to compete in a blitz. 

One of the most passionate gaels in the county, McGinty is a regular presence at all club games and training sessions. 
“My ghost will be seen at the field one of these years,” he quips, though he is only half joking. 

“The women are part of my family. I didn’t think I would be this long at it! I’ve worked with some fantastic people over the years,” he added.

He is the first to admit he has an ‘absolutely brilliant crew’ with him in the club, secretary Orla McNamara, treasurer Andrea Kilbane, children’s officer and senior player/mentor Máiréad Corrigan and PRO Grace Gallagher as well as coaches and mentors at all grades. 

“It is absolutely fabulous the way the club is at the moment,” he said.

There are always challenges. Achill’s location presents logistical and financial challenges. Their ‘nearest’ away game, against Burrishoole, involves a 50km bus journey for players from Dooagh, on the western end of the island, and it cost €21,000 to run the club in 2024. 

“That cost is the biggest challenge we have. Games in Newport are 50km away and if you were playing in Bekan, well you’d be halfway to Dublin. Fundraising is a challenge,” he admitted.

Foremost in McGinty’s thoughts this week is young club member Shannon Lynch, a member of the Under 12 girls, who is recuperating in hospital. “We wish Shannon the best on her recovery. All in the club are praying for her,” he said.

The club play and train mostly in Polranny though the development of the community pitch in Keel, a partnership between Achill Rovers, Achill GAA and Achill LGFA, has been a huge boon for training and McGinty is hopeful that, in time, it can be extended to be big enough to play games in.  

Highlights over the years include watching lots of Achill girls wear the county colours; winning their first title, a junior league victory over Knockmore over 20 years ago; but, above all, keeping the flame going.

“About ten years after our formation, with the crash of the Celtic Tiger, emigration took its toll and it was hard to keep the club afloat. We were only able to field at Under 14, Under 18 and Junior. 

“The highlight of the 25 years plus for me is we got a girls club going and we kept it going in good times and bad.”

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Achill LGFA’s 25th anniversary dinner dance will take place on Saturday, March 8 next at Óstán Oileán Acla (Alice’s) at 8pm.
There will be live music followed by a DJ. Tickets, costing €40, are available in Achill Sound Post Office and from club members.

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