Ladies Gaelic Football

46 | SPRING 2019 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie Una O'Brien S AIB were busy winning three-in-a-row at the LGFA Interfirms, there was also a repeat success for University Hospital, Waterford, who retained the Shield. Tyrone native Una O'Brien played a key role, and she's a big fan of the competition that saw 23 teams descend on Naomh Mearnóg for competitive and recreational football. O'Brien is domiciled in Tipperary, and she set up the Ladies Football wing of the local club, St Patrick's, covering the villages of Drangan and Cloneen. Una was club chairperson for the first three years, is the current PRO, and has served every role on the committee. She's also the current U16 and U17 coach, and is still an active player with the junior team. While playing with her daughter, Erin, Una won a county junior medal, and she reckons that she's currently lining out alongside half of the U16 that she coaches, Erin, and her niece. At 45 years of age, Una is still going strong. She played with Tyrone for three years, from 1994-1996, before heading to Boston on a J1. She played with the Tir na nÓg club in Boston, before Una's next port of call was Australia, and the Central Coast Club in Sydney. In later years, Una worked alongside former managers Sean O'Donovan (2013) and Gerry McGill (2016) with the Tipperary ladies footballers. At club level in her native Tyrone, Una was also captain in 1994 when St Macartan's won the county senior championship for the very first time. A dedicated coach, Una was also happy to help oversee the roll-out of the Gaelic4Teens Programme in St Patrick's this year, an initiative that she believes will have a long-lasting impact. "Eight coaches, including myself, took part in the programme and we worked with 40 girls from U14 to U17." The programme culminated with the annual blitz day at Abbotstown and what a trip that was for St Patrick's, who had won an U16 B Championship on the previous day. "Gaelic4Teens isn't all about winning – but it does help," smiles Una, who noticed some girls return to the fold as a result of the programme. The LGFA Interfirms is another story. Una's a nurse at University Hospital, Waterford, and has been working there for 15 years. In 2017, she noticed the call to arms for clubs wishing to take part, but UHW were too late to enter. The call went out again last year and Una was fully prepared, enlisting the services of Joe Murray from Comeragh Rangers, father of triplets Aoife, Emma and Katie, who's all worn the county colours of Waterford. Joe works in the hospital too and while he wanted to take the 2018 Interfirms seriously, there was a feeling of heading into the unknown when UHW made their competition debut last year. Una recalls: "We went up the road not knowing what we were facing, 'as long as we don't get whitewashed, we'll be grand.' "There were no expectations – we knew what the standard was going to be like and we had spotted on social media that a few new teams were coming in as well. "I put up the posters and flyers in different departments and advertised on staff email." Una drummed up enough interest to enter a team in the competitive section of the blitz, while there are plans to hopefully enter a future team in the recreational side. As it turned out, UHW won the Shield in 2018, and again this year. Captain of the team back in May was Philomena Fogarty, a former camogie star with Tipperary, while Una estimates that three of the team were still active players. "We would love to challenge AIB," says Una. "But they have serious inter-county players, and they're on a different level, to be honest. "It's a great opportunity for girls and we had serious craic. We had one radiographer, four physios, and the rest were nurses. "So, the best thing is getting to know staff in other departments, because we have 2500 staff in Waterford. I'm not sure how many are female, but there are 800 nurses for starters." To mark UHW's victory, Una plans to submit content to the HSE magazine, and we're also delighted to acknowledge the double-win on these pages. Who knows, maybe it will be three-in-a-row for UHW in the Shield next year, or can they step up to challenge for the cup? Watch this space! The Interfirms competition is the latest event in Una O'Brien's long and varied involvement in Ladies Gaelic Football A LGFA INTERFIRMS

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