Gaelic4Mothers and Others …

A bit of club history was created in Ballymore on Saturday evening when Shamammies, our Galeic4Mothers and Others team played their first match against their Ballymore equivalents. Four times, All-Ireland senior hurling final referee Barry Kelly marked the occasion by taking charge of the whistle.

New jerseys also adorned the occasion jointly sponsored by Ennell Jewellers and Canton Caseys with the Opt for Life logo prominently displayed.

  Minutes into the match Yvonne McNamee had the distinction of securing the first score for the team … a superb point and early in the second-half Jemma McNamee raced through the Ballymore defence like greased lightning and crashed the ball to the net to score the first goal for the Shamammies.

Our scorers in Ballymore were Yvonne McNamee (1-3), Jemma McNamee (1-2), Aishia Keegan (0-1) Joan Leonard (0-1) and Aileen Daly (0-1). A great Róisin Masterson is also worthy of note.

Who won? It doesn’t matter and nobody cared at the final whistle. Football and fun was the winner; there was a rumour doing the rounds amongst the Shamrocks supporters that the Shamammies were ahead but the Ballymore supporters were of the same opinion regarding their sqaud. It might even have been a draw but nobody was counting.  Winning was not the object of the exercise in what is a superb initiative by the LGFA.

Some of our players were making their football debut in Ballymore. Well done to all the players who took part and to manager Paul Aherne who has been supervising the demanding training sessions for the past twelve months in what has been a great addition to the club’s activities.

The history making Gaelic4Mothers and Others players were:  Helen Hassett, Róisin Masterson, Aoife Austin, Yvonne McNamee, Debbie Newman, Aileen Daly, Maria Carroll, Niamh Gilmartin, Jemma McNamee, Joan Leonard, Alma Casey, Aimee Forde, Aishia Keegan, Ciara Keegan.