ÉILIS McNamee was a corner-back aged just 14 when she won her first All-Ireland intermediate club title with Eoghan Rua 11 years ago. The team added a second title the following year and then stepped up to claim the Ulster senior club title.
Since then, however, Slaughtneil’s achievements have eclipsed everyone else’s at Ulster club level and Coleraine slipped down the pecking order.
But over the last couple of months Eoghan Rua have bounced back into the spotlight with McNamee as their captain collecting a third All-Ireland title at the weekend with a 1-11 to 1-10 win in the junior final over 2019 champions Clanmaurice of Kerry.
“It’s not that I didn’t appreciate it fully when I was younger. I was just living in the moment and we were winning. I was enjoying the whole experience. A decade on, it is a different type of appreciation," she said.
“When you go through a few years not winning anything, you appreciate days like Saturday and how much it means to everyone in the club,” said McNamee who works in communications and marketing.
“We are a small club, but we really rally around our teams, whatever the code and it was great to see everyone at the games recently cheering us on. Then there was the homecoming at the club on Saturday evening and all the kids around the place.”
But an All-Ireland title was definitely not on the agenda when the season got under way last summer.
“No, we were struggling for numbers in the league games. We had some girls out having babies, others not working close to home. I supposed Covid helped us get some girls back playing. They had stopped and then there was little to do. So they started again. But it was a struggle to field for a period alright.
“Winning the Derry Intermediate championship was an achievement that can’t be under-estimated. There are some good teams in Derry at that level, Dungiven, Kilrea, Newbridge. We did well to come out of Derry.”
The three months between the Derry final and Ulster campaign in January allowed Méabh Duffy, an All-Ireland-winning captain, and Katie Mullan, the Ireland hockey captain, to come on board.
“The more leaders we have in the team the better. Both Méabh and Katie bring great experience to the team and the whole team improved. I would say that we fancied an All-Ireland run once they were available. But it wasn’t an easy run.
“The fitness and work we did back in the summer stood to us as well. You have to give credit to the management for working us hard even when there were low numbers.”
During the past three games Eoghan Rua gained the reputation of being a second half team, weathering the storm opponents threw at them for the first 40 minutes and then hitting a series of scores to claim victory.
“That was our fitness and work-rate. We could keep on tackling and working and then, when we got that five or 10 minutes on top, we had players like Gráinne (Holmes) and Megan (Kerr) who could really punish teams. Yes, we probably won the last three games with a ten minutes scoring burst. But we had to stay in the game until then.”
McNamee is looking forward to some good days ahead for the club.
“We can’t expect some of the older players to be around much longer, nor will Katie (Mullan) be around with her hockey commitments. But the younger players have really come on during this campaign. They have had a great opportunity this year and have been thriving in the team.
“We are looking forward to the likes of Kate Doherty, Sorcha Duggan and Shauna Doherty now taking on more central roles in the team.”
And what are you looking forward to in the immediate future?
“I think many of us have sacrificed a lot of time with our families to achieve what we did on Saturday. I think we will all enjoy a bit of time away from the pitch doing our own thing.”
