Pictured is Clare footballer Ikem Ugwueru at SuperValu’s launch of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Sponsors of the Championship for a fourteenth consecutive season, SuperValu were joined by Gaelic Games role models and advocates from across the country in Croke Park to highlight the role of GAA communities in making Ireland a more diverse, inclusive and welcoming country for all.
By Paul Keane
It was only a couple of years ago that Ikem Ugwueru started to take Gaelic football seriously yet already he is on the cusp of a historic achievement with Munster finalists Clare.
By the Ennis forward's own admission, rugby was 'always my number one' and for a while as he progressed up through the ranks in Munster's sub academy it looked as if he may even carve out a professional career in the game.
He always enjoyed Gaelic football too, however, and with former Banner midfielder Gary Brennan teaching him at St Flannan's, that interest continued to grow with each passing year.
Still, it wasn't until relatively recently that the 23-year-old, who competed for Shannon RFC in the All-Ireland League, resolved to explore his full potential as a footballer and to see just how far he could go.
That journey has already taken him to a Sigerson Cup final earlier this year with UL and to a Munster final against Kerry this weekend.
"I'd always play GAA in the summer when I was playing rugby and wouldn't take it too seriously, it just to keep fit because it did help me with the rugby," said Ugwueru who was highlighting Championship sponsor SuperValu's #CommunityIncludesEveryone campaign.
"I was a winger and a full-back, so football helped fitness wise. Then with Eire Og, the last two years were very good and I was like, 'Do you know what? I think I could do something more than just play club and test myself with the county'. Everyone was telling me to go in with the county to see how I got on, and I was like, 'Okay, yeah'. I had played Clare U-20s so I went in with the seniors to see how it would go and it's been good so far, I haven't regretted it."
Ugwueru first played for Clare in a 2021 National League game against Laois though didn't make his Championship debut until last month when he came on as a sub in the Munster semi-final defeat of Limerick.
Ikem Ugweru of Clare during the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Clare and Cork at Cusack Park in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile.
Clare are underdogs for Sunday's decider against holders and reigning All-Ireland champions Kerry though Ugwueru doesn't lack confidence.
"At the end of the day, you are always looking for the win," he said. "It would be nice for us to win a Munster title because I feel like we've been on the fringes of that for the longest time.
"If we could get one over Kerry, it would be unreal. But yeah, we are going in there all guns blazing. I am not going to say we have nothing to lose but Kerry have been up there and we would like to be the ones to knock them off that and to take that off them. That's just me being confident."
Ugwueru wasn't born in 1992 when Clare pulled off a famous win over Kerry in the provincial decider but has heard the stories.
"I have," he smiled. "Look, it would be nice to get that win over Kerry again. Winning a Munster title would be class for me. Even for the boys. Even for Colm Collins as well, doing it for Colm would be massive. I feel like we should give him one as well because he has served us a long time. He is one man that deserves something and if we can do that for him, we will try our hardest to do that for him."
The exercise and fitness student at UL was born in Dublin to Nigerian parents and admits it was a 'great honour' being the first black player to feature for Clare.
"Yeah, that kind of sunk in when I did it in 2021 in the Covid year," he said, referencing his National League debut against Laois that year. "I was like, 'Wow, I am the first one'. I take great honour in that, being the first black male to play for Clare. I use it as motivation and I want more black people to play for Clare as well, that's my aim."
His profile will be raised significantly if Clare can just get that win on Sunday.
"We're not going to fear them," said Ugwueru of Kerry. "Obviously we're going to respect them because they deserve the respect, they've been the best team in the country in the last year or two. We're going to come into the game full of confidence. We're going to leave nothing behind us. We've already played them in the McGrath Cup and we lost by a point so we know where we're at really and we're just going to keep building. So hopefully things go our way. Look, all respect to Kerry but on the day we're going to have to settle our differences!"
