IT’S almost eight years since former Fermanagh footballer Liam McBarron urged a helicopter pilot: “get me to the church on time!”
McBarron’s wife Ann-Marie chuckles as she recalls how Liam lined out for the Erne County against Cork at Croke Park on Saturday, 17 July 2004, before flying to Kinawley on the Cavan-Fermanagh border for the wedding ceremony.
Towering midfielder Liam and Ann-Marie were due to be married at 2pm before the qualifier fixture, won by Fermanagh, was fixed for the same time at GAA HQ.
She smiled: “I was really upset originally when Liam told me but it was his dream to play at Croke Park. It was the first time that Fermanagh had ever been to Croke Park so walking down the aisle at two or five o’clock didn’t matter. I had to stop thinking about myself and think about Liam.”
McBarron’s dash from the capital to tie the knot hit the headlines and since then, the couple have become the proud parents of three children. And one of them, six-year-old Sean, is lining out in today’s Kilmacud Crokes mini All-Irelands – an event sponsored by VHI Swiftcare Clinics. Proud mother Ann-Marie, meanwhile, is hoping to get her hands on the Aisling McGing trophy when she lines out at midfield for the Sky Blues. This will be Dublin’s sixth successive Aisling McGing final and the Jackies were last crowned champions in 2010.
Kerry, meanwhile, are contesting the final for the very first time. Ann-Marie, a former Leinster senior medallist with Dublin, revealed: “I was born in Cork but lived in Dungarvan, county Waterford. Then, in 1989, my parents moved to Boston and I lived there for 11 years, through all of high school. I met Liam over there — he was over for a summer playing football and I was playing for the same ladies club. He had to come back to finish his masters and I decided that I would come back too.
“Liam was playing for Fermanagh so I said that I would give Dublin a go. “I played in 2003 and 2004 and then had three kids. When Liam retired from intercounty and club, I said that I’d give it one more go.”So, after an eight-year break from the intercounty scene, Kilmacud Crokes star Ann-Marie (34) pulled on the county shirt again.
Liam, meanwhile, is busy working on a new business as Ann-Marie explains: “He was a teacher but the school shut down. For a while, that was tough on him but he started up his own little business and he’s getting there. Liam installs and empties grease-traps — which separate water from grease in restaurants. It costs the government millions to unplug drains but grease-traps solve that particular problem.”
