RECORDS OF ST Ergnat and her life and times are patchy but a couple of things are apparently beyond doubt.
A fifth century nun, she is said to have received the veil from St Patrick himself and is remembered on 8 January, her birthday and feast day. She was a lover of music too, which chimes neatly with the local ladies football team from Moneyglass in Antrim that plays in her name.
The St Ergnat’s players also love a good sing-song and, fittingly, were joined by parish priest Fr James O’Reilly in the Tumble Down Bar after the Ulster final win over Errigal Ciaran for an uptempo rendition of Our Lady of Knock. Needless to say, that video did the rounds on social media.
“It just shows what a strong connection we have as a community,” said club and county star Maria O’Neill.
Fr O’Reilly was on more familiar ground last Saturday evening when, at evening mass, he gave the team a special blessing ahead of their trip to Dublin for tomorrow’s AIB All-Ireland club SFC final.
They’ll take every bit of help they can get because Kilkerrin-Clonberne, chasing a remarkable five-in-a-row of national titles, are formidable opponents. If St Ergnat’s can pull it off, and become the first Antrim team to take the title, they’ll probably still be singing on 8 January.
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“We’ve done a few team bonding trips and we’d have a few songs that everyone sings along to, like Florence and the Machine’s Dog Days Are Over, and Gasolina, ‘Money, Money, Gasolina!’ and all the rest of it,” said O’Neill.
“But I think everyone was really surprised when Fr James entered the Tumble Down. We were caught a bit off guard but he’s such a massive part of the community, he’s at the games, he’s one of our biggest supporters and he’s such a friendly face.
“To see him come in and join us for the celebrations, it was great. I know he really enjoyed it and the whole team and the whole community, who were down in the Tumble Down at the time, they were all buzzing and really, really happy to see him join us. Then it went a bit…is it TikTok famous you’d call it?! Everyone was talking about it and it was on the news. I feel it just shows how close of a community we are.”
Maria O'Neill in action in this year's All-Ireland junior final. Leah Scholes / INPHO
Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO
These are new and novel times for the St Ergnat’s players who came up short in Ulster in each of the previous four seasons before finally navigating that hurdle last month. If they do have a spiritual leader within their group, it is manager Maxi Curran, part of Jim McGuinness’ Donegal backroom team for the 2012 All-Ireland win and, later on, the Donegal ladies manager for six years. A native of Downings in Donegal, you could call Curran a prophet in a far off land now.
“He joined us about two and a half years ago and if you were to look back on some of the games we played before he joined the management, he’s brought us on leaps and bounds,” said O’Neill, who explained the link between Curran and a club two hours away across Ulster.
“I think it was maybe Cathy Carey or someone in the club asked him to take a session we were doing, I think it was team bonding down in the Downings. I think Cathy had asked him to maybe run through a session, kind of bring some of his experiences and put it into a training session. Then he came back for another and he’s just kind of been with us since.
“I think he said he was really impressed with us at the time so the next year, after he’d taken a few training sessions, I think Cathy and I kind of asked him, would you be interested in being part of our management team and he said yeah.”
It hasn’t all been plain sailing. Provincial defeats to Bredagh, Donaghmoyne and Clann Eireann over the years hit hard. So smashing through that glass ceiling and winning Ulster was the big target this year. They were in bonus territory after that and took full advantage of the opportunity when they beat Dublin and Leinster kingpins Kilmacud Crokes, the 2024 All-Ireland runners-up, on the last day of November.
Now here they are, preparing for an All-Ireland final at Croke Park, the second of the year as it happens for a number of the club’s county contingent, including O’Neill. She was the Antrim top scorer last August when they lost narrowly to Louth in the All-Ireland junior final.
The fact that that was a junior final, compared to many of the Kilkerrin-Clonberne players back boning the Galway senior team, only underlines the extent of the challenge facing St Ergnat’s this weekend.
“I don’t think they’ve been beaten in the last four years,” said O’Neill, referencing Kilkerrin-Clonberne’s 52-game unbeaten record in championship football. “It just shows the quality of players that they have but on the flipside, I feel like that puts kind of less pressure on us. You have to take into account the quality of the team you’re playing – we’re playing against the best club team in Ireland so that does take the pressure off a wee bit.”
You certainly couldn’t say they don’t have a prayer, not with Fr O’Reilly on their side and an entire community set to make the pilgrimage south to Croker.
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Ulster final celebrations with the parish priest and facing All-Ireland five-in-a-row chasers
RECORDS OF ST Ergnat and her life and times are patchy but a couple of things are apparently beyond doubt.
A fifth century nun, she is said to have received the veil from St Patrick himself and is remembered on 8 January, her birthday and feast day. She was a lover of music too, which chimes neatly with the local ladies football team from Moneyglass in Antrim that plays in her name.
The St Ergnat’s players also love a good sing-song and, fittingly, were joined by parish priest Fr James O’Reilly in the Tumble Down Bar after the Ulster final win over Errigal Ciaran for an uptempo rendition of Our Lady of Knock. Needless to say, that video did the rounds on social media.
“It just shows what a strong connection we have as a community,” said club and county star Maria O’Neill.
Fr O’Reilly was on more familiar ground last Saturday evening when, at evening mass, he gave the team a special blessing ahead of their trip to Dublin for tomorrow’s AIB All-Ireland club SFC final.
They’ll take every bit of help they can get because Kilkerrin-Clonberne, chasing a remarkable five-in-a-row of national titles, are formidable opponents. If St Ergnat’s can pull it off, and become the first Antrim team to take the title, they’ll probably still be singing on 8 January.
“We’ve done a few team bonding trips and we’d have a few songs that everyone sings along to, like Florence and the Machine’s Dog Days Are Over, and Gasolina, ‘Money, Money, Gasolina!’ and all the rest of it,” said O’Neill.
“But I think everyone was really surprised when Fr James entered the Tumble Down. We were caught a bit off guard but he’s such a massive part of the community, he’s at the games, he’s one of our biggest supporters and he’s such a friendly face.
“To see him come in and join us for the celebrations, it was great. I know he really enjoyed it and the whole team and the whole community, who were down in the Tumble Down at the time, they were all buzzing and really, really happy to see him join us. Then it went a bit…is it TikTok famous you’d call it?! Everyone was talking about it and it was on the news. I feel it just shows how close of a community we are.”
These are new and novel times for the St Ergnat’s players who came up short in Ulster in each of the previous four seasons before finally navigating that hurdle last month. If they do have a spiritual leader within their group, it is manager Maxi Curran, part of Jim McGuinness’ Donegal backroom team for the 2012 All-Ireland win and, later on, the Donegal ladies manager for six years. A native of Downings in Donegal, you could call Curran a prophet in a far off land now.
“He joined us about two and a half years ago and if you were to look back on some of the games we played before he joined the management, he’s brought us on leaps and bounds,” said O’Neill, who explained the link between Curran and a club two hours away across Ulster.
“I think it was maybe Cathy Carey or someone in the club asked him to take a session we were doing, I think it was team bonding down in the Downings. I think Cathy had asked him to maybe run through a session, kind of bring some of his experiences and put it into a training session. Then he came back for another and he’s just kind of been with us since.
“I think he said he was really impressed with us at the time so the next year, after he’d taken a few training sessions, I think Cathy and I kind of asked him, would you be interested in being part of our management team and he said yeah.”
It hasn’t all been plain sailing. Provincial defeats to Bredagh, Donaghmoyne and Clann Eireann over the years hit hard. So smashing through that glass ceiling and winning Ulster was the big target this year. They were in bonus territory after that and took full advantage of the opportunity when they beat Dublin and Leinster kingpins Kilmacud Crokes, the 2024 All-Ireland runners-up, on the last day of November.
Now here they are, preparing for an All-Ireland final at Croke Park, the second of the year as it happens for a number of the club’s county contingent, including O’Neill. She was the Antrim top scorer last August when they lost narrowly to Louth in the All-Ireland junior final.
The fact that that was a junior final, compared to many of the Kilkerrin-Clonberne players back boning the Galway senior team, only underlines the extent of the challenge facing St Ergnat’s this weekend.
“I don’t think they’ve been beaten in the last four years,” said O’Neill, referencing Kilkerrin-Clonberne’s 52-game unbeaten record in championship football. “It just shows the quality of players that they have but on the flipside, I feel like that puts kind of less pressure on us. You have to take into account the quality of the team you’re playing – we’re playing against the best club team in Ireland so that does take the pressure off a wee bit.”
You certainly couldn’t say they don’t have a prayer, not with Fr O’Reilly on their side and an entire community set to make the pilgrimage south to Croker.
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All-Ireland Ladies Club Final GAA Guided By The Holy Spirit Kilkerrin-Clonberne LGFA Ladies Football St Ergnat’s Moneyglass