Members of the Athenry Co Galway Girls U14 Camogie team celebrate winning the championship during day 2 of the Aldi Community Games August Festival 2017 at the National Sports Campus in Dublin.
By John Harrington
Sometimes you have to recall the beginning of something to fully appreciate just how far you have come.
Athenry Camogie Club will be 50 years old in 2023 and by then they’ll hope to finally have a home of their own.
Thanks to their innovative www.winahouseandcar.ie fundraiser they’re well on the way to raising the €1.2M they need to develop what will be a state of the art facility.
For Midge Pionard, the day she’ll be able to walk through those gates for the very first time will be an emotional moment.
She was one of the original trail-blazing players when the club was formed back in 1973 and has given blood, sweat, and occasional tears too in a variety of roles ever since.
Great things have been achieved along the way but the stress of relying on the kindness of others for pitches to play on has always been a tricky challenge to overcome.
To finally have a place they can call their own especially at a time when their playing numbers are increasingly rapidly at juvenile level will be a very sweet moment indeed.
“I don't think I could find the words to say what it would mean to me,” Pionard told GAA.ie “When you've been working with teams for years and you're pulling and dragging and almost begging to get pitches.
“To get grounds that you don't have to beg for and that you can actually plan and schedule for would be huge.
“We're very grateful for the slots we get from Athenry GAA club, but it would be great to be able decide ourselves when we want to train and be a bit more flexible in our approach sometimes.
“For the girls, it would be great to have that little bit of comfort you'd get from knowing you own your own facilities. A home of our own would just mean so much.”
The Athenry team that won the 1977 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Final. Back row(L to R). Ita Gannon, Ann Delaney, Marion Kindregan, Midge Poniard, Breda Coady, Gretta O Brien, Olive Coady, Helen Naughton, Bernie McDonagh.
Front Row. Ann Duane, Noreen Treacy, Mary Daly, Madge Hobbins, Teresa Duane, Ann Morris, Ann Poniard.
The day the ribbon is cut you can be sure that Fr. Martin O’Grady’s name will be mentioned.
It was he who first really lit the spark for camogie in Athenry through coaching the game in the Presentation College.
He was helped in this endeavour by another teacher in the school, Gilbert McCarthy, who in 1973 decided to give the camogie players of the area another outlet by forming the Athenry club with the help of Christy Kelly and Anthoony Poniard, a brother of Midge’s.
Success came pretty much instantly with both school and club. The Presentation College had a historic year in 1974 when they won both the Junior and Senior Colleges All-Irelands and won the Senior Final again in 1975.
“When I think back now on my life, those are the days that jump out,” says Poniard. “Those Colleges All-Irelands in Croke Park were absolutely super.
“Getting to play them in Croke Park was so wonderful back then, it was a great adventure. We had four girls playing on both teams in 1974 and Fr. O'Grady did his level best with the powers that be not to play them one after the other on the same day, but there was no succumbing to that by the powers that be.
“I always remember he used to refer to them as "the bitches with the blue hair", he was a real character!
“So we had to play them one after the other and we took home the two Cups. The captain of our Junior team, Bernie Duffy, gave her speech after lifting the first Cup and walked away from the microphone.
“But after taking five steps she turned back and pulled back the microphone and said 'We'll be back for the other Cup in an hour!' And, sure enough, we were!
“That was one of the best days of my life, I have to say. Then the following year when we won it again we beat the Downey sisters who were the kingpins of camogie back in the day, so that was most enjoyable too.
“I thought we were great and brilliant back then, but when I saw a video clip of the '75 Final recently all I could do was cringe! Honest to God, it was embarrassing looking at it. Back in those days I don’t know if we did much training and, if we did, there was no coaching really.
“Someone said to me recently that the hurley I had in that match was about three times too big for me. Sure why wouldn't it be, it was my big brother's, who was six years older!”
A year later, in 1976, the Athenry Club team made headlines of their own when they chartered two small planes from Carnmore Airport to travel to Antrim to play Creggan in the All-Ireland semi-final.
The Troubles were raging in the north at the time and driving through border check-points could be a time-costly endeavour for a bus-load of GAA players, so the decision was made to fly over the border instead.
“We were not used to flying, most of us never had,” says Poniard. “I remember Christy Kelly taking the cigarettes out of his 20 Major box and writing his will on the back of it before we boarded the plane in Carnmore!
“It was very exciting because back in those days you went nowhere, really. Being involved in camogie and the chance to go up north, go down to Kilkenny or anywhere else in the country was just huge.
“It was so exciting for us as camogie players. I remember going to a match with the school one day and Fr. O'Grady saying, 'If you look out the window to your left, now, girls, you'll see round bales. They're not just making square bales anymore, they're making round bales as well.'
“Even round bales were a novelty! It was like the dark ages really back then, even though it's not that awful long ago.”
Midge Poniard pictured for the 1977 All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie Final.
Athenry stormed to a great victory over Creggan in that All-Ireland semi-final, and a cousin of Poniard’s living in Rostrevor later posted down a cutting on the match from a local newspaper that was emblazoned with the headline, ‘Hail Athenry, the team from the sky!’
Athenry lost the All-Ireland Club Final for the second year in a row in ’76, but made it third time lucky in ’77 when they scored a big win over Portglenone to win the club’s first and, for now, only All-Ireland senior title.
Midge’s generation of players also won eight county titles in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and by the time the late nineties swung around had passed the torch on to a new generation of players.
In 1997 Athenry won an All-Ireland Feile title and many of their players were daughters of those who had played on that ’77 All-Ireland winning team 20 years previously.
“That was a smashing weekend down in Wexford,” says Poniard. "We were hosted by Buffers Alley and it was a mighty buzz.
“Another memory I will always have was coming home on the bus with the kids and they could not believe it because there were bonfires from Craughwell into Athenry.
“All along the road people had bonfires lit. I remember some of them being awful near the bus, nowadays with health and safety you wouldn't get away with it! But that was just a wonderful adventure for us.
“That 1990s group of youngsters went on then as seniors to win four county senior finals in row from 2006 to 2009 and we contested two All-Irelands but, sadly, and it still sticks in my craw, we failed to win an All-Ireland with that group.
“Things went down a little bit after that but we've a great group coming again now.”
The Athenry Camogie team that won the 1997 Féile na nGael title. Back Row(L to R). Mixie Donoghue(Manager) Sarah Mulkerrins, Moira Coen, Cara Glynn, Des Coen, Ellen Caulfield, Sarah Donoghue, Sharon Quirke, Alice Poniard, Emer Morrissey, Gina Glynn, Frank O Shea, Tracey Feeney, Sandra Laffey, Midge Glynn (Poniard).
Front Row. Rosemary Naughton, Orlaith Ryan, Emma Costello, Martina Molloy, Darelle Coen, Fiona Coffey, Mary Keogh, Gillian Murphy, Aoife Caulfield, Elaine Healy.
The club is now in great health now at all levels and getting stronger all the time. Located just 30 minutes outside of Galway with ready access to rail and motorway links, Athenry’s population has exploded in recent years and so has the membership of the camogie club in tandem.
Incredibly, 116 U-8 girls turned up for their first training session of the year after lockdown, numbers that emphasise just how badly the Camogie players need a home of their own.
Fortunately for them, the committee tasked with delivering just that is a very capable and motivated one that includes former Athenry and Galway hurlers like PJ Molloy, Brian Feeney, Joe Rabbitte, and Cathal Moran.
“The lads involved, I can't praise them enough,” says Poniard. “There's 14 that's on the committee and we're awfully lucky that these people are here in this parish at this time together.
“Like a good team, a good group of people have to come together to drive something like this. And we're really very lucky to have the people that we do have.
“We have the land more or less bought now. We're hoping to put in two pitches with a full-sized astro-turf pitch and dressing-rooms.
“For a long time we've used the two school pitches, the secondary school Presentation pitch and the Vocational Schools pitch, we've used them a lot. Which means there are no dressing-rooms, kids are on the side of the pitches trying to change with no toilet facilities. So it hasn't been easy.
“Athenry GAA club have been very good to us always, they have done what they can, but with the numbers we have now we just don't have enough ground for them all.
“Our new home will be two kilometres outside the town and it's near Athenry GAA club's new ground which will be ideal because parents are often dropping off both girls and boys.
“We'll also be making the facility available to everyone in the community. We'll have wheelchair access and a public walkway, that kind of thing.
“We'd be hoping that it will be a great resource to the wider community and that we will also be able to return some favours to the GAA club too or all they've done for us over the years.”
Athenry Camogie Club's Win a House and Car monthly draw winner for April, Kathleen Forde, pictured being presented with her cheque for €1,000.
Even before a sod is turned on the new development, it’s quite obvious that Athenry Camogie Club have built something very special in their corner of Galway.
The new facilities will be a great boon, but the real strength of a club is measured by the community spirit it fosters.
Since its foundation in 1973, Athenry Camogie Club has provided an invaluable social as well as sporting outlet for successive generations of girls and women who have formed friendships for life.
“I know it's said over and over, but it can't be said enough, the bond that's created between players in team sports, there's absolutely nothing that can come anywhere near it,” says Poniard.
“The girls that I played with way back in that club All-Ireland, we have a WhatsApp group and the craic you'd have in it is great. I love when I hear the phone ping and it's a message in that group.
“If you had a daughter or son playing somewhere or doing something, you'd can be sure you'd get supportive messages in the group and it's a great feeling.
“And now I see that my daughters and their friends who played camogie together on the senior team between 2000 and 2010, they all have kids now, but they'd meet every Saturday morning. A blast of them still all meet up and go for runs together.
Friendships for life have been formed through playing for Athenry Camogie Club.
“That kind of thing is irreplaceable. You try to tell youngsters that when you're encouraging them to get into team sport but it's only when you get older you see the value.
“It creates a unity in a parish. A bond that's absolutely wonderful and is a great support for everybody.
“If you have a problem or you're in some sort of trouble, then the people that you played with back in the day or play with now will always have your back and rally around you to help.
“The bond you make from playing team sport together is one that lasts the rest of your life.”
The foundations of Athenry Camogie Club are rock-solid. Now they’re ready to build on them.
You can read more about Athenry Camogie Club’s fundraiser for a new home HERE.