Curry’s Angela to ref final
CURRY native Angela Gallagher has been appointed to referee the All-Ireland Junior championship Final between Fermanagh and Derry. Angela will be refereeing the final on Sunday, September 24th in Croke Park at 11.45am.
Angela is a primary school teacher in Lucan and a former Sligo ladies footballer. The 40-yearold told the Sligo Champion she was looking forward to refereeing Sunday’s final and it’s her first major final.
“I was playing football for Sligo and also in college here in Dublin and when I finished I started refereeing in 2010.”
She said the transition from football to refereeing took a little while to get used to but having a good knowledge of the sport helped.
“It helped a lot that I played, I suppose when I started off it was a bit difficult at first and I was refereeing a lot of the girls I played against, but I got used to it,” she explained.
Angela has refereed many games in Leinster having worked her way up and this is her first All-Ireland final.
“I’ve been on the circuit awhile now, I’ve refereed the Dublin Intermediate county final and also the Senior semi-final.
“When you start off as a ref, you begin at club level and do that initially.
“Then I got involved with the Leinster panel, so I went up to the next grade, refereeing counties at U14, U16, Minor and Senior.
“From there I joined the Accelerator Programme, it’s a step by step process.”
Her enthusiasm is extremely evident. “I’m loving refereeing. This final is the big one. I never played in Croke Park so I said I would love to ref here and that’s what I’m doing,” Angela said.
Her family back home in south Sligo is also very proud of her achievement.
“A lot of my family will be in Croke Park on Sunday. My dad’s family is very proud.”
Curry and the south Sligo region is where a lot of top-class referees emerge from, John Niland to name one such name.
“John used to be my old football manager, he’s from Curry too and has done well.”
Aside from preparing for Sunday, Angela is a primary school teacher in Lucan and she’s busy now the school term has restarted.
Are there any nerves yet? “I’m not nervous right now. We did meet in Croke Park the other evening so I was a bit nervous then, but more excited,” she added.