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www.ladiesgaelic.ie | AUTUMN 2021 | 47 CLUB FOCUS Geraldine McLaughlin of Donegal during the TG4 All- Ireland Senior Ladies Football Championship Group 4 Round 3 match between Donegal and Kerry at Tuam Stadium in Galway. a run of four-in-a-row from 2012. While the 2012 and 2013 provincial campaigns were to end in heartbreak against Donaghmoyne, they got across the line in the 2014 final and eventually qualified for what was to become the club's greatest ever day – the All-Ireland club final in Tuam Stadium against Mourneabbey. McLaughlin, who scored 3-8 in the final and a ludicrous 25-35 (yes, 25 goals!) across seven championship games, says that even though they trailed by 0-10 to 1-3 at half-time, that opening 30 minutes made them realise that they were very much at home on this stage. "With the team we had, we'd got to an All-Ireland semi in 2010, but we treated it like bonus territory, saying if we lose, we lose. That year was great for the team as a bonding and as a year of development and learning, but looking back we didn't appreciate it as much at the time. "In 2014 it was different, we had finally beaten Donaghmoyne again, and even against a club like Mourneabbey, we felt we were ready for it. We knew we hadn't played and we were only behind by four points, which can turn around in an instant. We knew if we play at all, we've a great chance." And so it proved. That victory stands alone in the record books as the only All-Ireland senior club title for any Donegal club, and now the challenge has turned to trying to ensure that when that "golden generation" moves on for good, that there is another group waiting in the wings to take over. Emer Gallagher, who teaches just down the road in Letterkenny, is another player who is currently dealing with injury, having recently undergone surgery on an ACL injury. She remembers her early days with the club, and now wants to give the same experience to the younger players in the club today. "In Termon, we nearly all have the same back-story . The majority of us would have went to Termon N.S., which is just up the road from the pitch. Our principal, Christy Gillespie, loved Gaelic and he bred that in to every student. At lunch time we would be out training, after school he would have us down at the pitch for Cumann na mBunscol. We would have been successful at Cumann na mBunscol in national school. "We definitely got our competitiveness from that. We brought that in to our club football as well. We had a really good management structure with Harry McGlynn, Maire McGlynn and Teresa McGlynn, all one family. They took us for years at underage, from age six or seven to the Féile competitions, through to U16 and U18 levels. They've been with us a long time. That's so important, that you have that sense of family and community," she explained. "We were 15, 16-year-olds stepping up to senior level and we had so much to learn. There was such an important group there who took us under their wing and showed us how to be senior players. Only for those players, the likes of Maureen O'Donnell, Grainne McCafferty, Shannon McLaughlin, there were so many of them that were so important. "Therese McCafferty, who was a few years older than me, was such a tenacious defender. She taught our defenders so much about what they should be doing". Remembering that support is what inspired Emer to get involved as a coach herself. "I'm so positive about the future of Termon. A few of us coach the underage girls, I take the U-16 girls. We are taking what we were taught and just passing it on. "As a group, we all try to give back. I'm the Irish Officer. Everyone does take on all these different roles. The club have been so good to us for so many years. The men would be the exact same in that regard. I think that's why we are such a close club." "We didn't want to be a one-hit wonder that never did anything after their success." And so, with the intercounty season just completed, it's time to start it all over again. The memory of All-Ireland glory might be getting a touch more distant as time passes, and a handful of players have moved on to carry on with different chapters of their lives. Others might have been tempted to do the same, but then there's that madness that Róisín Friel referred to, and even as she talks with two damaged ankles, it bubbles up to the surface once more. "The last proper game I played, Glenfin beat us well (referring to the 2020 county final). Sure how could you go out on a note like that? Over time the rivalry with ourselves and Moville has cooled a little bit, but there'd still be something there between ourselves and Glenfin. Whatever bit of life I have left in me, I'll be sure to use it to get back out on the field for them, and then some day down the road, we can think about stepping away. There's another few pages of the story to be written yet though!" Another few pages, another few chapters, maybe even another few volumes.