Ladies Gaelic Football

28 | SUMMER 2021 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie INTERVIEW Q: Alan, thanks for talking to us. Next September's TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Finals will mark the 21 st of the long-standing partnership between TG4 and Peil na mBan. How would you describe the journey to date? A: "Fiche bliain ag fás agus ansin fiche bliain ag teacht faoi bhláth/ Twenty years growing and then twenty years flourishing." Like the Irish proverb says, I feel that we are on the cusp of a change in the life-stage of the relationship between the LGFA and TG4. When we started working together at the start of the century, Irish language media and Ladies Football were seen to be very peripheral actors on a national stage, which took pride in its masculinity and its monolingualism. Engaged on a long march together, we have helped change that national conversation. A new, more diverse Ireland has emerged and in our next twenty years together, I am looking forward to both the LGFA and TG4 flourishing at the centre of a reimagined Ireland. and Counting... Q: Unfortunately, we had to play our 2020 Finals behind closed doors due to Covid-19, but we have had record-breaking attendances in previous years, peaking at 56,114 in 2019. How big an achievement was that for both the LGFA and TG4? A: As long as I live, I will never forget the 2018 Final and the feeling of awe, walking out to the edge of the pitch, as we accompanied Uachtarán na hÉireann. I had to gasp at the sight of the packed top tiers and the 50,000 crowd. From 2016 to 2017 we had seen a huge leap from 34,000 to 46,000 and to top that seemed impossible. The massive crowds of 2018 and 2019 would have seemed a fantasy to us as a family with young kids when we began attending the Finals in the early 2000s and are a huge testimony to the LGFA's vision and leadership. 2 1 Championships TG4 Ard-Stiúrthóir Alan Esslemont speaks to Jackie Cahill about the long standing partnership between LGFA and TG4.

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