Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Intermediate Championship
REBECCA Kirkpatrick was born two weeks before the Derry footballers collected their only All-Ireland senior football title in 1993. Her arrival meant that her mother Úna Ferguson couldn’t attend the final. Coming from a family steeped in the GAA, this was a monumental sacrifice.
Almost 29 years later and Rebecca is hoping to give her mother an unforgettable day out in Croke Park.
“We played our quarter-final against Dublin [on July 9] and then it was off to Croke Park to watch the boys in their All-Ireland semi-final,” Kirkpatrick said.
“Mummy was at both games. She never misses a match I play in and there was never a chance that she was going to miss out on Derry footballers in Croke Park either.
“She was beside me in the stand in Croke Park and when the anthem was being played, I looked over at her and I just knew that I wanted her back there for us next month. It would mean so much for both of us.”
Of course Rebecca and her team-mates have to overcome Cork in the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final on Sunday before that dream can be realised.
Kirkpatrick was always going to be a camogie player. Her grandmother Elizabeth Convery was one of the founder members of Glen camogie club and was involved in the club right up until her death in 2013.
Her aunt Margaret Brolly won an All-Ireland junior title with Derry in 1978, refereed at inter-county level, is still involved with the county executive and is the current chairperson of Glen.
Mum Úna was the St Patrick’s, Maghera captain when they reached their first ever Ulster senior final away back in 1985 and has spent many years in GAA and camogie administration after she finished her playing days. Indeed she, along with Rebecca when available, is currently part of the club’s under 14 management team.
“I may be wrong in this, but there is a plaque inside the Sports Hall in St Pat’s with the names of everyone who captained the senior teams in football, hurling and camogie. I think that mummy and I are the only mother and daughter to get our names up there.”
While Úna was a losing schools’ captain, her daughter got to lift Corn Uan Uladh in 2012, but Maghera didn’t manage to progress to All-Ireland level. However, five members of the winning Maghera team a decade ago helped to dismantle Dublin in the recent intermediate quarter-final on a 1-23 to 1-10 scoreline.
“I played under age for Derry right through the age groups, but was only involved at senior level one year – for about four months in 2018.
“When you were not getting into the team on a regular basis and the club season was running in tandem, the easy thing to do was throw the lot in with the club and I think that was the situation with players in many Ulster counties until recent times,” says the solicitor with Carson McDowell.
“The split season has solved that problem to a certain extent. But you still feel guilty going back to club training for a night here and there.”
It was last autumn’s run with the club that put her into the eyeline of new Derry manager Martin Coulter, who was then coaching Randalstown Tír na nÓg, whom Glen defeated in the Ulster final. Kirkpatrick scored eight points as the underdogs came through strongly to win 1-11 to 0-9 and take the provincial junior title for the first time.
“We lost the All-Ireland semi-final by two points to Raharney from Westmeath and they went on to win the final by four. I remember watching the stream of the final on TV and crying my eyes out. We just seemed to be so close and you keep thinking you won’t get another chance.”
However, the tight-marking defender is now part of another team just one match away from a national final and she hopes it is a case of third time lucky.
“I hope that we play the way we did in the second half against Dublin. In the first half, it took us a while to figure out the way they were playing. We came into the game well after about 15 minutes and then I think just before half time we maybe lost concentration again.
“We sorted it out in the second half though. We came out like a completely different team. We have been a bit like that in games recently, playing exceptionally well at times and then at other times taking our foot off the throttle.
“Martin [Coulter] and Danny (McGrellis) have come in this year and they have been very eager to build on what has been there before. Any new management is going to have different ideas and it probably helped that Martin wasn’t that familiar with the Derry camogie scene before he took the job.
“I think this is a really special group of girls and they have all bought into the set-up. We feel the managers want us to do well for ourselves. They really want the players to achieve their potential. They care about us as individuals, as players and I think that is why they have got the buy-in.
“The Derry club scene is pretty strong, all you have to do is look at the club success of Slaughtneil, Eoghan Rua and even ourselves last year. Those prove it. Then you have the likes of Swatragh and Ballinascreen who are up there challenging Slaughtneil. But sometimes it has been hard to channel that club talent into a county team.
“We are on a good run at the minute and hopefully that continues for two more games.”
