DONEGAL’S Emer Gallagher insists she won’t be swapping the classroom for an acting career despite having ‘a good laugh’ while filming Lidl’s latest Ladies Football television advert ‘Level the Playing Field’.
The campaign which runs from February 8 to March 8 is a visual representation of the uphill battle that ladies gaelic footballers and women in sport face in striving for equality.
Gallagher, is one of eight Lidl brand ambassadors and stars in the ad along with four other well know ladies footballers - Tipperary’s Aishling Moloney, Dublin’s Carla Rowe, Waterford’s Caoimhe McGrath, Galway’s Nicola Ward and Meath’s Monica McGuirk.
It was shot on location in Glendalough in County Wicklow early last year, literally on the side of a mountain as Gallagher says.
“It was filmed in March 2020, just before we went into lockdown with Covid. I remember it so well because we filmed on a Monday and Tuesday, I went into school on the Wednesday and then lockdown was announced on the Thursday,” she said.
“It was a real trek to the location, which was the side of a mountain, actually. The pitch that you see on TV is really that steep! If the ball bounced wrong or you lost control of it, it would literally run right back down the hill right to the bottom.
“It was freezing cold, there was a real biting wind, and we were given foil blankets in between takes to keep us warm.”
Gallagher’s role for the cameras was to solo the ball up the hill, but she gets dispossessed as she tried to lay off a hand pass and the ball falls away back down the mountain side.
Gallagher falls to the ground and has to dig in and pull herself back up and off she goes to support her team-mates who have won the ball back.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a one-time take and by the end of the first day, after multiple runs ‘up’ the field, she felt she had been in a real battle.
“We were all given our roles. You had the likes of Moncia McGuirk kicking the ball out, Caoimhe McGrath catching it, Carla Rowe doing her turn and go, and then they said to me that I had to solo up the side of the mountain,” she laughs.
“I remember getting home on the Monday night and my body was in bits, it was worse than pre-season! Then on the Tuesday, after I thought I had my bit down, they made us do it all over again but with close-up cameras this time around!
“It was a good laugh and a brilliant experience and it would amaze you to see what goes into making adverts. That was two full days of filming.
''You can imagine what it’s like for programmes and films. I think though after my ‘taste’ of acting it’s not something for me!
“It was fantastic to work with professionals whose job it is to bring things to our screens. They are real perfectionists but when you see the finished product you can see why they want everything to be perfect.”
Gallagher said she was only too delighted to take part in the campaign and while it was fun there is a serious side to it and it has generated a lot of talk and positive response.
“The response has been amazing and I think the message got across to people right away. To have a multinational company like Lidl put their support behind Ladies Football show you how seriously they take ladies football,” she said.
“If they are prepared to take it seriously by teaming up with the association, creating this partnership, and promoting it the way they do and take the commitment, effort and dedication of players, managers, coaches, officials and club people seriously, then we should be taken seriously by everyone.”
Gallagher, who is a secondary school Irish teacher at Loreto Secondary School, Letterkenny, became a Lidl One Good Club Ambassador last year.
The initiative in association with the LGFA and Jigsaw, aims to raise awareness and improve understanding of mental health while empowering clubs to positively affect their members and communities.
It’s a role she says fits like a jigsaw alongside her job as a teacher.
“I found there was a close relationship between my job as a teacher and this initiative and I felt it was something I could give back to my club, community and to ladies football,” she explained.
“I think too the programme has never been as important because of the situation we have found ourselves in over the last 12 months.
“I am really passionate about it. The dropout rates of girls in football aged between 15 and 18 is huge and it’s for various reasons like loss of interest, peer pressure, self-confidence. I see it at school and I saw to the girls to try and pick something you are passionate about, it doesn’t have to be football, it could be walking your dog, baking anything, but pick something that gives you happiness and use it in your life every day.”
The Termon club player is honest too about admitting she herself has ‘off’ days and just because she is a county footballer doesn’t mean that everything goes perfect for her all the time.
“Young girls might look at the likes of me as a county footballer and other county footballers who they look up to and think all is perfect, we never have a bad day or days when we find it hard to drag ourselves out to training, but that is certainly not the case.
“I am the first to say to the younger girls in my club even that I have had a bad day and for every three or whatever weeks of great training and matches, I will have a bad week.
''I think it’s important to get that message out there that it’s very normal to have bad days but you try to keep going – change the pace down to what suits you rather than not doing anything at all - it’s about how you respond to those bad days.”
