DONAGHMOYNE’S Eileen McElroy came back to Ireland a few months ago to play football with her beloved club with the ambition to try and win some more silverware before returning to Perth where she has set herself up over the last five years.
She says reaching an All-Ireland final – their first since they won back-to-back titles in 2016 – was the aim, that and seeing the joy that the footballing journey brings her parents, siblings and extended family.
McElroy has captained Donaghmoyne to All-Ireland glory – back in 2015 – but it’s only now, looking back on the memories that she realises how special that was.
“In 2015, at the time I didn’t think too much of the captaincy label,” she said.
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“Looking back now I think of how lovely it was to be an All-Ireland winning captain and have my family there with big smiles on their faces and the pride they took in me being able to get up the steps and lift the cup.
“Probably my favourite photo, is one at the front door, in a picture frame of me with the All-Ireland Cup in 2015 and all of my family beside me.
"I do love looking back at that memory and it does give you a sense of pride and they were really good times. I think it’s the memories more so that you appreciate because when you are in it at the time you probably didn’t really pass too many remarks on it.”
McElroy, who qualified as a doctor from UCD in 2015, left for Western Australia in February 2017 having stuck around to help Donaghmoyne to a fifth All-Ireland senior club title in 2016 while a lot of her college friends had went on ahead of her the previous year.
She only went initially for six months. She had to come back for football, there was a three in-a-row to go for after all, but they lost their Ulster and All-Ireland crowns with a provincial final defeat to St Macartan's.
She headed off again and what was meant to only be a year eventually turned into five-and-a-half years where she has worked as a doctor and is currently training as an emergency specialist.
While the 31-year-old played football for Perth-based Western Shamrocks, and camogie for St Gabriel’s, Donaghmoyne was never far from her mind.
“Getting back with Donaghmoyne was always very high up on the agenda. When I left in 2017 I never really felt I was hanging up the boots because I was always going for a year and coming home and when the years went by, it had crossed my mind had I played my last game for Donaghmoyne and that didn’t really sit too well with me.
"The driver forcing me to get home was to get another season with Donaghmoyne and last year I knew they weren’t too far away getting to the All-Ireland semi-final that we would be in with a good chance this year and there might be a few girls nearing retirement age and I was lucky a lot girls I played with before I went away were still involved so it’s pretty much the same team bar some new young players coming through.
"That and my mum. She has always loved to come to the Donaghmoyne games and I love being able to give her the days out again and she along with my brothers and my sister and my dad just love the days out as did my aunties, uncles and cousin and it’s great to be able to give that back to them again.
"She did, when I was in Australia, go to the couple of Donaghmoyne games but she said it wasn’t the same and it’s been lovely for her to come along on that journey the last couple of months.”
Standing in McElroy and Donaghmoyne’s way of a sixth All-Ireland title are defending champions Kilkerrin-Clonberne and the historic occasion of playing an All-Ireland club final in Croke Park for the first time.
“When we found out the final was going to be in Croke Park, training definitely stepped up a gear. To walk out with our club-mates in Croke Park is special and the fact that Francie Coleman founded the club and has ultimately brought us to the highs we have experienced is very fitting that he leads us out onto the field on Saturday.”