Back to future for Greenan and Monaghan

By Daragh Ó Conchúir

Marie Greenan has pulled up outside her son’s nursery a little early to conduct the interview by phone. She celebrated her 39^th birthday on Mother’s Day and four-year-old Cian and two-year-old Emily supported her Kilkenny-born husband, James Whelan in ensuring that she got to put her feet up ahead of an even more important date.

A member of An Garda Síochána, these are busy times for the mother-of-two, who is joint-captain of the Monaghan camogie team with Eileen Cullen that have marked their return to adult fare after a 15-year hiatus by qualifying for the Centra League Division 3B final against Mayo at Mostrim GAA tomorrow (3pm, live on Camogie Association YouTube).

Monaghan might have been away from the inter-county scene, but camogie was never gone from Monaghan. And Greenan was at the epicentre of it all, not just as one of the best players with Clontibret, but as a county development officer, county secretary and currently, county registrar.

Remarkably, Monaghan disbanded after winning their second straight All-Ireland junior B title in 2011, when the retirement of a host of long-serving performers left them short on bodies.

If there is a frustration for the likes of Greenan, Mary McManus (née Meehan) and Michelle Morgan, the survivors from that team still involved, who might feel that their best years were missed out on, the co-skipper doesn’t exhibit it, 20 years after making her adult debut. She is making up for lost time, having rammed home five goals and added three points, in her side’s comeback competitive game against Donegal in the opening round, which they won by 6-6 to 4-6.

“It’s just nice,” Greenan says of being back in the county jersey. “It’s a good feeling and the vibes are really positive, it’s putting people in good form. My sister, Aisling, played in that last team that won the championship – she’s in Eglish now, in Tyrone - and we talk about those days now again. It’s just nice memories. She’s asking who’s back and all the rest of it. And my mother and father asking what’s going on and talking about a match from back then.

“And it’s great to see the new, young generation coming up. I’d say it’s raised the profile of game in the county.”

To make the decider is “a bit mental,” given the managers, Freddie Williams and Darragh Madden, and the players are still getting to know one another

“When we met in Clon for the team meeting, we wouldn’t have known Freddie or Darragh, and to be honest, we wouldn’t have known each other, because you hadn’t been playing together. You might have played against each other in a club game, but you’re still trying to learn names. When you were doing drills at the start, we were joking about putting on name labels and stuff, because there’s such a gap, from my age, and a few of us of that generation, to young ones from 17, 18. Some of them were in their nappies the last time we had a county team.

“So it was a real good, fresh feeling when we met, and a real buzz. And to have two lads in as well that didn’t know any of us, knew nothing about us, and we knew nothing about them, is good too. You have to prove yourself, which is great, I think.

“We are also very thankful to have local sponsors backing us from the start. Secure Systems of Carrickmacross sponsored our jerseys. Griptec gave us socks and Activ8 have sponsored half-zips for us. That means a lot. So does getting things like food after training. We had none of that 15 years ago!”

The Donegal team they played was the north westerners’ first time fielding an adult camogie outfit. Mayo made their return after a lengthy absence in 2021 but took a year out again last season. They are three from three, having prevailed at the Monaghan Centre of Excellence by nine points 13 days ago, when both sides were already qualified for the final, the Farney having followed up the Greenan-inspired defeat of Donegal by accounting for understrength Louth, 4-11 to 1-4.

The Camogie Association’s Táin Programme has been helpful at club level, Greenan asserts, in providing more games against different opposition but the work being done in Monaghan itself is considerable, ensuring that the numbers now exist to get back to the national stage.

“I would have been trying for a long time, but there hasn’t been competitions for us. There will be an Ulster junior championship this year because of us and Donegal being able to field, and there hasn’t been one of them in a long time. Then there were blitzes for the likes of us, Mayo and Louth, playing 9-a-side and 12-a-side, all to keep the thing going. So it’s great to have the 15… well, we have well over 30 girls fielding now. So it’s great for camogie in Monaghan, for the clubs and everyone involved.”

You play every sort of sport in Clontibret, not just Gaelic games, and Greenan was no different. Butut she excelled at camogie, with the club, at Dundalk Institute of Technology and even in the green of Ireland, when she participated in the camogie/shinty internationals against Scotland in 2006 and 2007.

With four National League medals and those two Máire Ní Chinnéide Cup triumphs, the inter-county outlet was denied her for many years, but her commitment, not just to Clontibret, but to Monaghan was relentless. But there were others before her and since and it is now paying off.

This is seen at club level, where the traditional superpowers, Clontibret and Castleblayney are now being supplemented by the likes of Inniskeen and a new team in Carrickmacross. Geraldine Clarke, the teacher at Clontibret National School who first put a hurley in her hand, is still at the coalface, as manager of the club seniors. Indeed there are few players on the current Monaghan panel that have not been influenced by Clarke, given the number of county teams she has taken over the years.

It is the talent coming through that increased the urgency for the re-establishment of a Monaghan camogie team at adult level. While they have begun well and are so close to silverware, this is about the future.

“Gavin Dooley and Sinéad Hilliard would be doing massive work with the county U14s and they’re with the 16s this year. So it was pushing to get something in place for them girls in two years’ time. I’d say the next plan is to maybe get some sort of minor team going, but it’s important that there’s a senior team for them to go to.”

The aforementioned Morgan has had more of an input in the provision of fresh blood, as she is joined on the squad by two of her daughters, Sioneen and Codi. She lines out with another daughter, Penny, alongside Greenan with Clontibret.

It all makes for a brilliant story already. Can they augment it by coming away from Edgeworthstown with the silverware?

“I suppose anyone that’s looking in are saying you’re going great in your first year to get to a final, and that’s true, for development. Of course the players and the managers are looking for the win but really it’s about putting a performance in, not going and being dead on our feet. Put a performance in and see how it goes.

“There’s a lot more in us than we showed the last day against Mayo so it’s about that coming together but we’re all still learning. We’ve played one challenge match and three matches together. That’s four matches in all. So you need to be patient too. It’s all building towards the championship, and even beyond that into next year and the year after, and in the meantime, there are still girls coming into the squad.

“But we’re really looking forward to it.”