Hurling & Camogie

New Camogie President Hilda Breslin: respect for progress camogie has been making in Ulster

Leinster Camogie chairperson Hilda Breslin presents Ulster's Sinead Kieran and Niamh Donnelly with the Junior Interprovincial Championship cup after the Ulster girls defeated Munster at the National Sports Campus, Abbotstown, Dublin on May 19 2019. Picture by INPHO/Oisin Keniry
Leinster Camogie chairperson Hilda Breslin presents Ulster's Sinead Kieran and Niamh Donnelly with the Junior Interprovincial Championship cup after the Ulster girls defeated Munster at the National Sports Campus, Abbotstown, Dublin on May 19 2019. Pi Leinster Camogie chairperson Hilda Breslin presents Ulster's Sinead Kieran and Niamh Donnelly with the Junior Interprovincial Championship cup after the Ulster girls defeated Munster at the National Sports Campus, Abbotstown, Dublin on May 19 2019. Picture by INPHO/Oisin Keniry

NEW Camogie President Hilda Breslin talks about the status of the club player, the difficulties of running a programme of games with the ongoing restrictions and her respect for the progress camogie has been making in Ulster over recent years....

A FEW years ago the lady who will become the 31st President of the Camogie Association today, Hilda Breslin, attended a meeting in Down where the discussion was around whether the county would revert to Premier Junior level after a couple of years of struggling in the Intermediate grade.

“Look at Down after their outstanding Intermediate All-Ireland win requesting Ardchomhairle to allow themselves to move up to the senior grade. I went to a county board meeting in Castlewellan one night after they had indicated that they wanted to revert to Junior,” said Hilda this week.

“Morale in the county was a bit low at the time as there hadn’t been the kick-on they wanted from winning the All-Ireland Junior in 2014. My own county Kildare had been in a similar situation after coming through the same process a couple of years earlier.

“I told the meeting that they had some fantastic players and that all they needed was to keep investing in younger players as well as providing an environment in which the older players could thrive,” remembers Breslin, whose day-time job is in Financial Regulation.

“I wasn’t the voice that swayed the meeting, but sometimes it’s helpful to get an outside perspective to appreciate where you are at.

“Look at Down now. And losing to Cork and Westmeath seems to have made them so much stronger now and better prepared to enter the senior grade.

“They also have strong clubs; Clonduff have done very well. I have been up there many times and I could nearly tell you what ferry the Ards’ girls need to get to be in time for a match in Newry!”

Slaughtneil’s success has also caught the attention of the new President as well as the rise of Antrim.

“What Slaughtneil has achieved has been phenomenal. They are brilliantly organised on and off the field and have had a tremendous run over the past few seasons.

“A few years ago Derry were up in senior camogie and they competed quite a few years despite results not giving them a lot of encouragement. They made the decision to go back to Intermediate to rebuild. I feel that they, like Down, have quality players and, if they get the right formula, they can bounce back to compete at the top level.

“I was pleased to see Antrim up there in the Intermediate final last December. They are a county with a serious history in camogie and are a sleeping giant at the moment.

“They have had a couple of brilliant teams that came through underage recently – and Ballycastle have been competing at the very top level in schools’ camogie for a number of years now.

''Over the next two or three years, those young players should be coming through.

“Honestly it would not be a surprise to me if we had Ulster counties making it three in a row wins in the All-Ireland Intermediate.”

The Kildare woman has witnessed tremendous development work in a couple of other Ulster counties as well.

“Obviously Cavan’s rise was the story of last year. It came on the back of great development work in the county. Tyrone have also undertaken similar work and it has been showing at under-age level and with Dungannon Academy at schools’ level.

“I attended a county board meeting recently in Donegal and they too are laying great foundations.

“So right across Ulster there is a lot of promising stories and a lot of counties can be optimistic about the season that lies ahead. I can’t wait to return to Ulster later this year to watch games and see first-hand the quality that is on show.”

Hilda Breslin of Leinster Camogie (centre) is presented with the Mick Dunne Memorial Award for Digital Promotion with Una Dunne (left) and President of the Camogie Association Kathleen Woods at the Camogie Association Volunteer and Media Awards in Croke Park on February 15 2020. Picture by INPHO/Bryan Keane
Hilda Breslin of Leinster Camogie (centre) is presented with the Mick Dunne Memorial Award for Digital Promotion with Una Dunne (left) and President of the Camogie Association Kathleen Woods at the Camogie Association Volunteer and Media Awards in Croke P Hilda Breslin of Leinster Camogie (centre) is presented with the Mick Dunne Memorial Award for Digital Promotion with Una Dunne (left) and President of the Camogie Association Kathleen Woods at the Camogie Association Volunteer and Media Awards in Croke Park on February 15 2020. Picture by INPHO/Bryan Keane

But what does lie ahead when we emerge from our second full lockdown?

“Obviously we all had hoped to be out playing at this stage. But the public health restrictions don’t yet allow games.

“We, at national level, have a games’ programme ready to set out as soon as we get the go-ahead. It will obviously have to be a reduced programme at inter-county level, but I still think it will be a good programme for our players.

“There were a lot of positives with what was put together last year. But we had to leave out some elements and that was heart-breaking for us – and I am sure a lot worse for the players.

“We reluctantly had to cut the minor and under 16 championships last year – and a government decision pulled out the seconds’ teams from the Intermediate and Junior championships. That wasn’t our decision; we had set out games for them and had to pull them at about 24 hours’ notice.

“We hope to have those teams back in this year.”

The way things were laid out last season, splitting the season between club action and then inter-county seemed to work. Is that the plan this year and further ahead?

“The inter-country game is our show-piece, but it only involves around 2 per cent of our players. The other 98 per cent are club players and those are the bed-rock of our association.

“That 98 per cent should be playing during our summer and enjoying their camogie when the weather is favourable. That was the situation last year with the inter-county season following from it.

“I think the Association is being cautious in not immediately jumping to roll out a situation like last year for a full season – just yet. We need to look at what works well this year and bring the best we can see to the 2022 season.”

So is the first Kildare native to head the Camogie Association the cautious type?

“When the Association was set up nearly 120 years ago, those women and men who founded it were forward thinkers, away ahead of their time in promoting sport for Irish women.

“I have been handed a role to steer that organisation forward over the next three years. You cannot move forward while standing still.

''I hope to be able to say at the end of my term that our association has embraced change where we needed it and is in a better position to provide for our members and their communities.”