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26 | SPRING 2021 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie INTERVIEW A MAGICAL ACHIEVEMENT IN THE STRANGEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES Fermanagh's Aisling Maguire recalls the moments after her TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship win in 2020 phone and it was engaged but I rang Mam's mobile and got her on that." Maura and Patrick have always been huge fans of their daughter, Aisling. There are two boys in the family also – Gerard, the eldest, is at home while Noel is in Australia. For Aisling, football was a calling ever since By Jackie Cahill I T was perhaps not surprising that the landline at home was engaged when Aisling Maguire tried to get through. It was moments after the 2020 TG4 All-Ireland Junior Final and Maguire was buzzing after receiving the player of the match award following Fermanagh's victory over Wicklow at Parnell Park. But it was then that the reality hit home for Maguire. These should have been the moments where she was celebrating with her parents, friends, clubmates, supporters. 2020, however, was a year like no other, as Maguire and Fermanagh atoned for their 2019 Final defeat to Louth at Croke Park (a game played in front of a bumper Croke Park crowd) by defeating Wicklow behind closed doors. "After my (TG4) interview for the Player of the Match, I borrowed a phone to ring home to Mam and Dad," Maguire recalls. "They were watching at home and they had a few people from the club that rang the house to talk to them about the game, and to congratulate them after I got player of the match. "That was really nice for them – it was lovely."The phone was hopping. I rang the house Above: , Aisling Maguire with her Player of the Match award v Wicklow. Below: Eimear Smyth, left, and Aisling Maguire fist-bump.