WATCH: Rena Buckley's Bord Gáis Energy GAA Legends Virtual Tour
The raw statistics of former Cork dual-star Rena Buckley’s inter-county career make for mind-boggling reading.
She played in 22 All-Ireland Finals in total, winning 11 All-Ireland Senior Football Championships and seven All-Ireland camogie titles.
She also won two All-Ireland senior club football championships, 10 National Football League medals, five football All-Stars, three National Camogie League medals, and five camogie All-Stars.
Buckley achieved all she did because her natural ability was complemented by a fierce desire to win.
In a very revealing interview with the GAA Museum team for her Bord Gáis Energy GAA Legends Virtual Tour, she revealed she had a burning ambition to be a successful inter-county player from a very young age.
“I’ve been really, really lucky,” said Buckley when reflecting on her sporting career.
“I could never have predicted the amount of success that we had as teams. It was phenomenal. I suppose one of my early memories of playing at home as a youngster, you would pretend to be somebody.
“My sister for some reason always picked Pat Fox from Tipperary, we could never figure it out! But I always would have picked Teddy McCarthy.
“Teddy McCarthy would have been a dual player and he would have won All-Irelands with the footballers and hurlers in 1990 for Cork.
“That was the aspiration, to be like Teddy McCarthy, that was always the dream from a young age.
“I remember we won the double in 2005 with the camogie and ladies footballers and that as the first time I think any team had done it maybe, but it was definitely the first time we had in Cork. It was a huge thing, it was really special. We were so honoured to be part of such a special double.
“But it then turned out that we would experience a double like that six times. That was unprecedented, it was phenomenal.
“I came along at the right time, in the right place, with great people around us. I could never have expected that. It has been a dream come through.”
