By Ciaran Gallagher

Not only is Mags D’Arcy swelling with pride, but the St Martin’s goalkeeper reckons the recent success of her club has added a few inches to her height as they walk tall in Wexford.

Hot on the heels of a first senior camogie championship title in the Model County, the club’s hurlers kept the party going with their own final success last Sunday and there could be further celebrations this weekend as the Piercestown-based outfit contest the men’s football decider.

“I’m only 5ft 9, but I feel 6ft 8,” D’Arcy laughs following St Martin’s hurling final win over Oulart-The Ballagh last weekend.

“The club is in great form. There’s great relationships between the camogie and the hurling, and equally with the football and ladies football as well - a lot of crossed paths. So it was great to see them get over the line.”

The hurlers’ win came just one week after D’Arcy and her team-mates collected a first camogie title for the club, defeating Rathnure by five points after an awkward tussle.

D’Arcy played a key role in the win, keeping a clean sheet and making some crucial saves.

Heading into an AIB Senior Club Championship showdown with St Vincent’s of Dublin on Sunday, the goalkeeper believes her side are in bonus territory but they fully intend on tapping into the buzz surrounding the club.

“We never looked beyond county in terms of Leinster or All-Ireland – it never came into our hemisphere,” D’Arcy says.

“We were just happy to get into the final like we did last year and then the next step above that was to go win it.

“We achieved that in what was probably not the best advertisement for camogie, but at the end of the day, it’s the result that you remember. We’re in a strong position down in the Martin’s.”

The recent camogie-hurling double was particularly enjoyable for D’Arcy’s family and a few other local clans that have played a hands-on role in the club.

“It’s massive. I was just looking at some of the older people in Wexford Park yesterday after the final whistle went and I swear to God it just gave them about five more years on their life,” D’Arcy laughs.

“It’s a great injection of energy amongst the older folk in the parish – no more so than from my granddad.

“He founded the camogie section of our club 35 years ago. He’s a Kilkenny man, so it took a Kilkenny man to come down to Wexford to do it! Lo and behold we won our first senior camogie championship two weeks ago, so it was great to have him there.”

The goalkeeper puts the club’s success down to youth structures put in place over the past decade, with Wexford hurling boss Davy Fitzgerald among St Martin’s admirers.

“We have a nursery-based framework and throughout the last four-six years you’re kind of seeing the development of that come to its fruition now,” D’Arcy explains. “There’s a lot of young players on our camogie team. For instance, everyone is under 25 bar me!

“It’s very similar to the men's side. I was with Davy in the stand for the hurling final and he was licking his lips, going ‘there’s a great bit of young talent coming through’. It’s fantastic and that comes from the tradition of family.”