Mary Gibson

Involvement through younger brother:

“I would have first got involved in the club through Sean-Paul [my brother] playing and going up and watching his matches. Siobhan [my sister] and myself were up one night and there was a few of the ladies training on the side-line. We approached Kieran Megraw to enquire about getting involved in the ladies team and from there on we were hooked in and club life just took over”.

“Diesel [Damian McGarry] is a big, big part of how Sean-Paul joined the club, he was actually playing for St Enda’s at the time and there was a tournament at Rossa. Sean-Paul had turned up but none of his team had actually came over to field. Diesel had spotted him on his own and said – look don’t be standing on your own, come on over and you can play for us. He brought him over and joined him in. Diesel has a big hand in how Sean-Paul made the move from St Enda’s to play for Lámh Dhearg”.

Playing Senior Football:

“I’ve some brilliant memories of playing, when we first joined we weren’t really winning any matches – it was defeat after defeat -we just had to keep plodding along and gaining new team members and trying to build a team. Eventually we won the first league title in the club’s history, it’s a memory I’ll always have with me. I missed out on Championship the year before because I was pregnant- it was gutting to miss out on the campaign”.

“I’ve fond memories of playing with Siobhan and when you look back at some of the stuff- travelling to matches and even after defeats you’d go back into the clubrooms after as a team. Even though you’d lost, you’d go over and recap and there were team building events that we went on and there were some brilliant memories”.

“We’d some fantastic coaches over the years – Kieran [Megraw] started it up and Eamon McGarry helped out for a while, James Martin and Peter Kane took it. The year we won the league we’d Smickers and Micky Boyle. It took a lot for people to come forward and take the team. We struggled for a while trying to get people in that wanted to come and coach us. Eventually we got that and now there is a good coaching set-up for the ladies. It’s great to see them going from strength to strength and very encouraging to see such strong teams at juvenile and this can only augur well for the future”.

“It’s great to see Celine still playing, she’s up there in the history books and you just expect to see her at every game. Even when she was playing camogie as well for Gort na Mona- we’d always joke and laugh and say that Celine was always the last to arrive and would always be late. She was always coming from training with the camogs and then racing up to train with ourselves”.

Winning the league:

“It was an amazing feeling to win the league, you think of the years of hard work. As I said there were years of trodding along and having defeats and sometimes we wouldn’t have enough team members to field – but we still went out and played anyway. To get to a point where we had such a strong team that year, we’d a lot of players coming through that were U-16 playing along with us at senior level. There were girls that I would have coached when they were U-6 and U-8 and playing along with them and winning our first ever league title for the club was just amazing when we first got started you were playing along with Caoimhe Whinnery, Celine [Daly], Aisling [McConville], Grainne [Herron], Caoimhe and Orla [Megraw], Orla and Emer [McGarry] and a lot of others”.

Coaching:

“Playing alongside Caoimhe [Whinnery] tied me along with coaching. We looked after the girls from U-6 through to U-16. One day after training Caoimhe had asked if I would be able to give her a hand. You know yourself- you’re asked to give a hand once and that’s you you’re not allowed to leave. You’d have been organising matches and organising players for travelling to games and training sessions up in Hannahstown in the rain- such is life”.

“I coached on a Saturday morning with Buke with the fundamentals, it was really good and I really enjoyed that and years down the line, kids that you coached in U-6 and U-8- you’re actually playing with them at senior level when they come through. You’d have had the likes of Maeve Diamond, Emer McGarry, Maeve Martin, Ciara Larkin and Niamh Webb. Niamh is playing for the county and I remember coaching them when they first started- it’s great to see them come along and represent the club at county level, it’s amazing”.

“It gives you immense pride to see the kids that you used to coach train and you look at them and think- I wish I could still be playing. I’ve a back injury which has put me completely out. I’m so proud of all the girls and how well they’re getting on, their commitment, they’re strong and playing for county – which is amazing. To think you had a wee hand in that when they were back in U-6 and U-8 were they all started out”.

Gaelic For Mothers & Others:

“I’d only been involved for a while because I had a slipped disc and my back had gone- we did the Rossa tournament and won with the Gaelic For Mothers & Others- which was really good. My back problems meant I had to completely stop playing all together which was sad, but there’s nothing you can do about that. You’d Caoimhe [Whinnery] and Linda [Fegan] – I’d known Linda from I was on the Youth Committee and I’d organised events along with her and getting to play along with her was good and the camaraderie and fun with the panel is great and fair play to them all ”.

Youth committee and other roles:

“Fiona Clifford would have been a big part of getting me involved in the youth committee – I’d have been really friendly with Fiona and Henry [Clifford] and I got to know Linda and Deirdre [Diamond] as well. As I say like everything else, you get asked once and roped in. Barney [Herron] approached me and asked me if I’d be interested in helping out and from then on that was it you were expected to come along and help out at the events”.

“I did the club news-sheets and I redesigned the web-site; I was looking after uploading all the photos, taking photos and any articles that needed to be uploaded on the website. The website was hugely important in keeping members fully informed of club activity especially before Twitter and Facebook arrived on the scene. I was doing that along with O’Neill’s orders which was time consuming and pressure at Christmas but very satisfying and rewarding to see so many members proudly wear club gear and colours.  I was also designing posters and booklets. I did the brochures for the Boxing night at the Balmoral and the Night at the Races”.

“People don’t really realise the work that people do on the committee’s to organise events. A lot of people just turn up and have a brilliant night and support the club – but there is a lot of hard work for months on end to organise and make sure things run off smoothly. It’s great to see everyone on the night enjoying themselves – you know you had a wee hand in that and making sure everything ran smoothly – it’s a great feeling”.

“Taking photos was great and the highlight for me has to be the run of the hurlers in 2016- especially with my Daddy [Paul] helping on the coaching side and my brother playing. You got to go along on the journey and seeing bits that nobody else would have seen. You were standing outside the changing room and hearing the team cheering and the euphoria after the wins. It literally gives you goose-bumps thinking back on it and it was a really, really good journey”.

Family attending matches:

“We live for the matches and with lock-down and having no matches on you’ve sort of lost yourself. Even with the Sunday Game – you’re so used to sitting as a family and watching it and not having anything is a real loss. We all enjoy going to the matches together and it’s great for a wee catch-up and obviously supporting the club as well and cheering on the teams”.

“Mummy Mary loves going to all the big games with her pom-poms and flags and cheering the boys on. She started the first tuck-shop, I remember doing it from the boot of the car with a table and rain, hail-stones and wind. You’d be standing do tea and biscuits at matches. It grew and Jim [Ferguson] got the big container in and it moved into that and grew stronger”.

“My Daddy [Paul] loved being involved in helping out the senior hurlers, especially coming from his own hurling experience- he used to play for St Paul’s. He got back in through Sean-Paul playing and it was a great experience. Now Ethan is starting to play and everyone is excited to watch him start up and start over the journey that Sean-Paul took. Hopefully we’ll see the same success whenever he starts coming through the age groups”.

Lip-Sync:

“After months and months of watching Siobhan rehearse I think we all knew the dance moves off by heart. It was amazing and a brilliant, brilliant night, all the acts were brilliant that night- it was really well run. It was great seeing her up on stage doing it and I did all the posters for the advertising and the after party. I think she did Christine Agulera – Candyman, we all had the run throughs and practice runs of the dance and it was a superb night for the club and one all the family enjoyed”.

Funny stories:

“One that always sticks out was St Patrick’s Day, the St Patrick’s Day events at the club were always great craic. All the ladies team had arranged to meet up and when we rolled up to the club the gates were still closed but low and behold Aisling McConville was sitting on a deckchair at the front of the gates with a blow-up hammer. She said – I wanted to get here early so I could get a good seat. It must have been about 11 o’clock in the morning and it sort of summed the character that Aisling is”.

“There are some great memories, the ladies team went coasteering – it happened to be on the same day as the Antrim junior hurling final in Armoy. Because of that Siobhan and myself decided we weren’t going to go on the team-bus because we wanted to go to the match as well so we drove to the coasteering. We done the whole wet-suit thing and the sea and other things and when it was over we raced up get changed and into the car and bolted as fast as we could around the coast and to Armoy to make it in time for the match – I was going to be taking photos at the game. I was so glad we made it because the rest of the girls went into Ballycastle for something to eat and they didn’t make it in time for the match. If we had have went on the bus we would have missed the hurling”.

Ethan:

“He’s had a hurl in his hand since no-age, he’s playing U-6 and is in his last year. it’s so strange standing on the side-line as a parent but I have been roped in a few times during training with Fionnuala [Crilly] when they’ve been at the 3G and they’ve been short-handed in coaches because more kids have turned up. You’d go over and it’s like you’ve never been away – you’d go over and start giving a hand and helping with the kids”.

“It’s good to see him up and he has a love for the game too, it’s all he talks about- going and playing hurling and doing his Gaelic football. It’s good to see he has the same passion that we all share for the club as well. Even in my mummy’s house, Sean-Paul would be out with him and getting him to practice his dips and striking the ball and he loves doing it with Sean-Paul. It’s great seeing that they have that we bond of going out and practicing together. Hopefully when he is a bit bigger- Sean-Paul might be at the stage where he can be helping to coach one of his future teams”.

“Sean-Paul really loves the coaching; he was in helping Fra [McKenna] with the minor hurlers last year and is coaching hurling in school down in Red High [Downpatrick]. A few of the teams he’s helped have done really well and he loves the coaching alongside playing”.