Ballyhea camogie team celebrate county title win
IT was the turn of Ballyhea Camogie Club to celebrate their winning of the Cork County Junior ’B’ Championship at the Corbett Court Ballyhea on last Friday. The victory of the Ballyhea ladies confirmed their status as an emerging force in North Cork camogie as they won the Junior ‘C’ county final in 2015.
Their near neighbours Charleville were their opponents in that final which was played in Blarney last June, when the Ballyhea girls were victorious on a scoreline of 2-7 to 0-5, in a game which was played in very blustery conditions. Ballyhea club chairperson Frances Killeen acknowledged that the game was a tense affair with only a point separating the teams at the half-time break. “But luckily we got that all important goal through Sarah O’Keeffe and we tacked on a few more points. A second goal from Mairead Shinnick in injury time sealed it for us to give us only our second title at this level,” she said.
The club will play at Junior ‘A’ level in 2017 competition and Frances Killeen said they were looking forward to competing at the higher level.
A feature of the game was that the captain of the Ballyhea team was Niamh Killeen, one of two daughters of the club chairperson, Frances, the other being Róisín. In doing so the girls were emulating the feats of their mother who was a member of the successful St. Mary’s Secondary School Charleville camogie team that won the Junior All-Ireland Schools Final when they defeated the Wexford girls of FCJ Bunclody in Croke Park in 1986. This was the first of many All-Ireland’s won by the school in the intervening years.
The Ballyhea girls and their supporters celebrated their latest triumph well into the night at the popular Ballyhea venue. Team members were: Chloe Keogh, Rachel O’Connor, Mary Claire Carroll, Niamh Killeen, Annie Cronin, Roisin Killeen, Moira Fitzgibbon, Kate Kilcummins, Elaine Crowley, Chloe Dundon, Karen O’Shaughnessy, Norma Healy, Sarah O’Keeffe, Rachel Harty, Mairead Shinnick. Subs: Aine O’Shea, Ann Marie Rea, Julie Curtin.