‘I actually can’t believe it to be honest’

BEING the descendant of Garrymore royalty, Alana Fitzpatrick was always destined for big things.

But even the great Billy Fitzpatrick’s grand-daughter still couldn’t quite believe she had just made it into an All-Ireland final with her childhood friends.

“I actually can’t believe it to be honest. It’s just overwhelmed with feelings, the whole team is,” the Mayo Minor said.

But she always knew that they’d go far as a group. Just ask the dozens of teams that they have cast to the wind at underage level in recent years.

“Absolutely. I knew from Under-12 all the way up, there’s a certain group of us there and with the experience and the knowledge of the likes of Laura Kelly, Síle Hughes, I knew the minute that there was going to be an All-Ireland in us,” a confident Fitzpatrick said afterwards.

Claremorris manager Aidan Brennan didn’t get ahead of himself when they won the Mayo junior title with 16 underage players on their panel.

He didn’t get ahead of himself before, during or after their historic All-Ireland semi-final win either.

“We knew what was coming, we saw them playing up in Omagh the last week and we knew they’d fight to the very last and they did,” said Brennan.

“Realistically there was the kick of a ball in it. That’s all the difference there was. But it’s a credit to our girls that they had the courage and the strength to hold on.”

On a day which saw possibly the largest ever crowd witness a Claremorris LGFA match, the support of the local community couldn’t go unacknowledged.

Brennan described it as: “A great day for the LGFA in the town, but also a great day for the GAA club. Everybody has been together behind this. It’s a great movement in that sense, us pulling towards a one-club situation here in the town.”

The greatest day of all awaits them in Parnell Park on Sunday week.