Wolfe Tones held its first Mothers and Others ladies football blitz on Friday night, hosting teams representing Fergus Rovers, Cratloe and Limerick club St Patrick’s.
Mothers and Others offers women a chance to play football, in a non-competitive environment.
“It was the first event that we hosted, we had been to one ourselves previously in Mungret,” said spokesperson Áine Nic Cormaic.
“We had ourselves and three other clubs, there were over 60 girls playing and there were six games.
“The whole ethos of Mothers and Others is that there are no scores kept, otherwise it would take away the fun and you would lose players.
Wolfe Tones will be going to the national Mothers and Others blitz, being played in Dublin on September 7.
“There will be 130 teams at that, there would have been a request to enter from about 500 teams so it was just the look of the draw,” said Áine.
“We wanted to have a few games before we go up to it. When we go there it’ll be a non-competitive fun event but it’s a massive thing within the Ladies Football Association.
She said that Wolfe Tones are hoping to play in America next year.
“Our goal is to go to New York for the blitz there in October of next year, that’s what we’re aiming at. It’s an annual event,” she said.
“Last year, when it was on the likes of Marty Morrissey, Evanne Ni Chuilinn and people like that were over with the Ladies Football Association.
“It’s on again this year. We have had it in our mind since we started that we’d go next October and the first step is going to the national blitz.”
Mothers and Others has been a great success in Shannon, she says.
“I think we have the largest squad in the club now, we have 52 girls registered, which is massive,” she said.
“Yesterday I had two more girls say they are coming on Wednesday night. They have heard about it, people tell their friends, and when they realise it is a non-competitive bit of fun, it makes it easy.
“Some of the husbands who have come to watch it have said they’d love if there was a similar thing for men, but it might be more difficult for men, and it’s something that the GAA as a whole would have to do, the same as the Ladies Football have organised this throughout the country.
“It is a wonderful thing for people to come down to every week and have a bit of fun and a bit of exercise.”
She added that the aim of the project is to encourage some women to play Gaelic Football .
“The Ladies Football rules are applied, the only difference is that no scores are kept. It’s similar to Go Games, the idea is inclusivity, to have a bit of fun, and to come back again and again and again,” she said.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.