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26 | SPRING 2024 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie ATU TEAM CAPTAIN ROISIN RODGERS SPOKE TO DAIRE WALSH ABOUT HER TEAM'S EMOTIONAL WEEKEND COMPETING IN THE MOYNIHAN CUP JUST DAYS AFTER THE PASSING OF DEFENDER ELLA O'NEILL. An Emotional Victory T here were emotional scenes at MTU Cork on Saturday, March 9 when ATU Sligo held off a strong challenge from Mary Immaculate College, Limerick to lift the HEC Moynihan Cup title. Just eight days before this game took place during the Ladies HEC Championship Finals weekend on the Leeside, news came through of the sad passing of ATU Sligo defender Ella O'Neill. A former underage star with her native Waterford, O'Neill had been studying teaching at the ATU St Angela's campus that is located a short distance from Sligo Town. A Drum Rangers club footballer who also excelled as a camogie player with Modeligo, O'Neill appeared as a substitute when ATU Sligo lost out narrowly to Dundalk IT in the 2023 Moynihan Cup showpiece. Team captain Róisín Rodgers acknowledged it was a very difficult lead-in to the HEC weekend for the squad, but they ultimately came together as a collective down in Cork. After getting the better of SETU Waterford on a scoreline of 4-7 to 1-6 a day earlier, Sligo finished with two points to spare (1- 10 to 1-8) over MIC, Limerick in the Moynihan Cup final. "We weren't really sure how being down in Cork would work, if we'd be able to play to our standards that we wanted to. I think the girls really stood up and we stood together. I think that was really the main message that we got out of it all. Being there for HEC FINALS each other, regardless if we'd won or lost," Rodgers explained. "Just making sure that we're there for each other and making sure that everyone was okay in their own little way. It was defi- nitely a tough tournament going into it and the competition was tough on us, but credit to the girls. They really stood tall and stood together throughout it." Before, during and after the game, ATU Sligo honoured O'Neill's memory in a number of different ways. In the programme for the HEC weekend, she was listed in the number two position in the team's line-up for the Moynihan Cup and ATU Sligo Club Chair- person Padraig McGourty believes it was only fitting that she did feature in their official squad list. "Obviously she was in everyone's thoughts throughout the week- end and the girls marked her presence within the group, in terms of the couple of little things that they did themselves as a group of players to remember Ella over the course of the weekend. It was fitting that her name was included there," McGourty said. For the game itself, Rodgers and her team-mates all wore white ribbons in their hair and had initials written on their wrists to sym- bolise that Ella was going to be there with them in spirit through- out the on-field action. Following the end of the contest - after Donegal footballer Rod- gers had accepted the Moynihan Cup title on behalf of the team