TWO weeks ago, Antrim reached the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie quarter-finals for the first time in more than four decades with a 3-16 to 1-12 win over Offaly.
While the rest of the team since then have been focusing on this Saturday’s task in SETU Arena, when they take on leaders Waterford in their final group game, corner-back Maria Lynn has had to fit in another big matchday.
Last Saturday, the Loughgiel-based primary school teacher married Cushendun hurler Dónal O’Hara. The pair have postponed the honeymoon “until we see how this All-Ireland run goes”.
Lynn has had the last week of the school term off and that means she is back into the camogie zone ahead of a third successive momentous Saturday.
“The inter-county camogie championship used to start at the beginning of July and Dónal and I picked the June date to avoid a clash,” she said.
“You also have to factor in school holidays, club championship and Dónal’s hurling and farming commitments. We didn’t anticipate the camogie inter-county calendar changing last year and the wedding then ended up bang in the middle of the championship.
“We were lucky, though, last Saturday wasn’t a matchday!”
Read more: Antrim's history-making camogs into All-Ireland senior quarter-finals
Not so lucky, however, was the groom. He broke his arm during an Antrim hurling league game against Carryduff just 10 days earlier.
“Dónal got the cast off for the week-end and was in splints. You wouldn’t really notice it in the photographs. He was back in on Monday morning getting the cast on again,” said the Early Years teacher.
Maria, in particular, has had a very busy camogie schedule with club and county and no break for quite a while. Last year’s county season ended in mid-July and it was straight back to her club Loughgiel. The Shamrocks went all the way to the All-Ireland final the weekend before Christmas and then it was right back to the county once again.
Sisters Katie and Annie were key members of the club team, as were cousins Lucia and Úna McNaughton.
“We had a great run with Loughgiel last year, finally beating Slaughtneil and then getting to Croke Park. Lucia and I would be going flat out with club and county all the time. Úna played county before she went to Australia. Katie and Annie played underage county right through. But it is a huge commitment and doesn’t suit everyone.
“Katie and Annie are farming and, with lambing in the springtime, they are very busy at a time when the county season has just got into full swing,” she added.
“The way the county seniors are now, you are training five nights a week on weeks you don’t have games. It is so different to when we went to county at the start.
“I didn’t go directly after minor, took maybe a year or two out and then got involved. But back then it was very different. You only had a handful at training and it was so disheartening because the talent was always in Antrim.
“Covid changed all that. We would say that Covid was the best thing that ever happened Antrim camogie because since then we have been starting to realise all that potential in the county and making huge strides.”
Read more:2022 Camogie Review of the Year
Last season, Antrim were back in the senior championship for the first time in many years and, this year, they went up to Division One league as well.
“Our main aim at the start of last year’s championship and this year’s league was to stay up because it has taken a long time to get there.
“In the league, we beat Down, Limerick and Offaly. We knew Waterford would be a tough game for us. Then we were beaten by Wexford in Portglenone. That was disappointing because we played well in that game.
“We didn’t perform at all in the Ulster championship. We were lucky to beat Derry and then Down beat us. All the games we have played against Down in the last three or four years have been tough, physical games. There isn’t much between us, but we didn’t perform.”
With the Limerick game coming hot on the heels of the Ulster championship, the team needed to park those performances and get a result in Dunloy: “Yeah, we had a chat at training, drew a line under it and worked hard for Limerick. They had put us out of the championship last year, but we had beaten them in the league this year.
“We got the result against them and then beat Offaly. I suppose we felt that we were well capable of getting to this last group game against Waterford with two wins under our belt. But you can’t take anything for granted and have to work hard.
“Now that we are qualified we want to make an impression down in Waterford. There is only a week until the next game after that and you don’t want to be going to Croke Park with the heads down after a bad performance.”
Extending the Antrim campaign into the semi-finals might postpone the honeymoon further, but the new Mrs O’Hara will take that challenge on board as well.
