NORTHERN REBEL
Former Cork hero Curry spices up Orchard attack
JENNY CURRY thought this was all gone.
After her early second-half goal in the 2014 All-Ireland senior final sparked a remarkable Cork comeback, she retired from the big stage with four triumphs at the highest level and eight All-Stars.
Yet here she is, two months short of her 39th birthday, preparing to run out onto Croke Park once more on Sunday, this time for her adopted Orchard County in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Camogie Premier Junior final against Antrim (noon, RTÉ2).
From that 2014 final, only Laura Treacy, Ashling Thompson and Katrina Mackey of Cork’s starting 15 will line out in the senior final against Kilkenny, part of a triple-header that also includes Cork and Galway in the intermediate decider.
Joanne Casey, who came on for O’Leary in injury-time, is leading scorer for the Leesiders’ intermediate contingent.
On the Kilkenny side, Claire Phelan, Denise Gaule and Katie Power have survived, though Miriam Walsh was introduced and Emma Kavanagh and Leann Fennelly remain panellists.
Curry had moved north a year by then and was a Middletown player, famously topping the squad’s bleep test charts despite doing a lot of work on her own as well as a regular 500-mile, eight-hour round trips to Cork to train.
Moved
“I remember when I first moved up here, I was starting a one-year contract in a school in Carrickmacross in Monaghan.
“I finished my last game with Barryroe on the Sunday and moved all my stuff up in the back of a van with Paul.
“We were moving into our house that very evening and then the next day, I was starting my new job.
“So it was all very quick and rushed, a rollercoaster of emotions as well.
“I was saying that myself this year, ‘If you can travel up and down and do that, surely you can travel 15 minutes to training a couple of times of week and play a few games. Anything is possible.”
It was her husband “who planted the seed”.
“I don’t know do people think I’m wise or not but it’s exciting,” she says of her comeback.
“It’s great to be back there. I had a decision to make at the beginning because Tiernan was six months or so.
“It was very hard. You’re playing with your emotions and the guilt overcomes you a little bit as well but I always had in the back of my head,
“There was something told me I should do it so I’m delighted now to be this far on and where I wanted to be.”