GAA women and girls put their best feet forward to smash world record
By Aideen O'Flaherty
THE WOMEN and girls who play GAA for Ballyboden St Enda’s will be putting their best feet forward as the club attempts to break a world record, by playing matches continuously for 13-and-a-half-hours on Saturday, August 18.
The game will be a continuous 15-a-side match involving all of St Enda’s ladies’ teams, from the Under-9s team up to Senior A Ladies’ players, with 400 women and girls taking to the pitch on the day.
Ballyboden won the U14 feile this year
Cathal O’Toole, the chairperson of Ballyboden St Enda’s Ladies Football Committee, told The Echo: “We’re trying to promote girls’ participation in sports and deepen their connection with the club.
“It’s a big challenge and we’ll be getting all the girls together, so the younger girls can see players from the ladies’ team as role models who are playing into their late 20s.”
Each of the women and girls will play two or three matches during the day, totalling 24 matches over the course of the event.
Aoibheann’s Pink Tie National Children’s Cancer Charity is also set to benefit from the world record attempt, as all of the participants have raised money through sponsorship cards and there will be collections for the charity on the day of the event.
World record
At the conclusion of the event the football players will get a jersey that says ‘I set a world record’, according to Cathal, and that this means the women and girls will “have memories of what they did and they’ll have something tangible.”
“It’s very unique, and as far as we’ve established this hasn’t been done before.”
The match will be held in Ballyboden St Enda’s Pairc Uí Mhurchú on Saturday, August 18, starting at 7am and running through until the final match ends at 8.30pm, and all are invited to come along and encourage the participants and to join in the festivities.
