SLAUGHTNEIL DEFENDER Grainne Ní Chathain pauses for a few moments when she’s asked to recall the last time her all-conquering camogie team was defeated.
This writer quickly informs her that it was the 2015 Ulster final where the Derry kingpins were downed by Loughgiel of Antrim.
Even then, she’s still not quite sure. After building up an accumulation of success, which includes four consecutive Ulster titles and an All-Ireland three-in-a-row, Slaughtneil have forgotten how to lose.
Croke Park has practically become a second home pitch for them, as they prepare for their fourth All-Ireland decider against Galway champions Sarsfields on Sunday.
But Ní Chathain, and a few of her team-mates from an older vintage, remember the pain of losing big.
There’s been a few challenge games that have slipped away from Slaughtneil in the past 12 months, and even though the stakes weren’t high, they still stung for her.
“No-one likes that feeling of getting beaten, even if it is just a challenge game,” Ní Chathain explains to The42.
“Trust me, we had our fair share of beatings before that. We only won our first county title in 2012. Coming out of Derry was a massive achievement, which wasn’t a long time ago.
It’s important to remember that. A few of our younger girls probably take it for granted that they’ve never been in a position where they have never been in the position where they were being beaten.
“But they’re fighting for a position and always trying to get better. That fight of being constantly in for a position is even more a learning curve than even the team getting beaten.”
Defeats were a regular outcome for Slauhgtneil in those days, but it didn’t deter the players from coming back for more each season. In their small rural community, the GAA club is the focal point of the area. It connects everyone.
And it wasn’t the winning or losing of games that kept them interested. The sense of local pride that permeates through the maroon and white jersey is worth so much more to the players.
“The club is everything and you didn’t know any better. You just kept coming back because it was a social thing. You enjoyed it so much. We probably didn’t have a taste for success at that stage so you didn’t know anywhere. You were still happy to go out and put in the hours.”
Indeed, Slaughtneil’s fortunes on the pitch have improved in recent years, but that sense of passion for where they come from is still integral to their culture.
Ní Chathain is at the epicentre of all that through her job as an Irish language development officer in the local community centre. She runs Irish classes and works closely in the area of youth development.
Her life philosophy, which doubles as an Irish proverb, symbolises what the people of Slaughtneil are about both inside and outside sport.
Ní neart go cur le chéile. There’s no strength without unity,” Ní Chathain explains.
“It sums up the GAA really and especially in our community, that it takes everybody to get on board. All the small jobs and the big jobs for success to come around. It’s lovely.”
Remarking on the local efforts to revive the Irish language in Slaughtneil, Ní Chathain continues:
“I came through the Irish medium in education. It was one of the first bunscoils outside of a Gaeltacht area in Derry, which was in Maghera.
“From that really, it’s developed and grown. So I was one of the first pupils to come through that in Derry. I attended an English language secondary school, but now there is a Gaelcholáiste in Dungiven, so a lot of the feeder schools would lead into that.
I was one of seven in a class whereas now they’re up to 27 in each class. So it really has grown.”
Unsurprisingly, Ní Chathain identifies herself as a Gaeilgeoir. Some of her team-mates are fluent Irish speakers as well, and they sometimes communicate as Gaeilge during games.
It’s not an act of trickery to try and speak in code in front of their opponents. Of course, they don’t need to. They’ve earned plenty of success without having to be creative about their tactics in recent times.
It just becomes second nature to just speak Irish,” says Ní Chathain, “whether you’re on the street or on the pitch. You just speak Irish to one another because that’s what you’ve always kind of known. It does have its nice touch to it as well.
“One of our managers has come on board this year and he’s a fluent Irish speaker as well. There’s something real nice about it. It’s not a crazy tactic or anything.
“A lot of the coaches would have Irish or are learning Irish. Probably a bigger percentage would be children or anywhere from minors down. Simply because of that growth in Irish language schools and that’s now filtering into the club.”
Slaughtneil’s All-Ireland final opponents will provide a familiar challenge for them. Galway champions Sarsfields reached the decider in 2017 and 2018, falling under Slaughtneill’s sword on both occasions.
Their meeting in the 2018 final was particularly significant. The original fixture, which was pencilled for Croke Park, was interrupted by bad weather. A combination of Storm Emma and the Beast from the East were causing all the disruption to sports fixtures at the time.
A second date was fixed for the game to go ahead in mid-March, but again, bad weather interfered and the final was pushed back again. This time, heavy snowfall was at the heart of the problem.
The game was ultimately diverted to Clones as the holders Slaughtneil edged out the Galway challengers to defend their crown.
“Yeah you don’t know whether it’s a good thing or not,” says Ní Chathain about the prospect of coming up against a familiar challenger with a four-in-a-row on the line.
“Sometimes I like to go in and not know a lot about the opposition. Those two match were two very tough games and I expect nothing less from them this time around, only to be tougher.
“They would have learned a lot from the hurt of getting beaten so that emotional thing of they’ll be coming into the game really wanting to prove a point. We just have to be ready for it and focus on our own game.
“We’ll take it as it comes but we’ll be ready for a tough game ahead. Nothing’s easy in an All-Ireland final.”
Slaughtneil’s Grainne Ní Chathain was speaking ahead of the AIB All-Ireland Senior Camogie Club Championship Final taking place at Croke Park on Sunday, 1 March where the Derry club will face Sarsfields of Galway.
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