Gave up as I hit puberty rejoined as I hit menopause
WHEN my neighbour, Niamh, suggested I come along with her to the Thomas Davis Social Camogie club, I was filled with trepidation and excitement.
It had been over 35 years since I last played for St Anne’s, but I decided to embrace my fears and say ‘yes’ to this new challenge. As a child I was sporty, but hormones were the bookmarks of my camogie journey.
I gave it up when I hit puberty and was now rejoining as I hit menopause.
But when I put on the helmet and picked up the hurl that first night, the long-forgotten skills came flooding back, and the sound of the hurl connecting with the sliotar was music to my ears.
I’ve had time to reflect what it meant to me as a young girl to play the game – it gave me a sense of freedom as I was able to shake off the societal norms for girls, which were to be nice, quiet and obedient, but also embrace skills such as competitiveness, ambition and determination.
Unfortunately, quitting sports is a common trend for teenage girls, as hormones wreak havoc on their brains, making them feel tired and more self-conscious of their body image. And how did the Thomas Davis social team begin?
Founding members, Caroline Dunne, Ursula Curran, Dee O’Brien and Fiona Osbourne all met when training their daughters for U11s.
Ursula and Dee used to play for Scoil Maelruan’s but gave up the sport as teenagers. Both had always wanted to return, but with such busy lives, they also wanted to have fun without the commitment of a competitive team.
Caroline and Fiona had never played, but were interested in starting and thought if they knew how to play, they could help their daughters develop their skills.
Training for the new team began on a very cold night up on the Thomas Davis astro pitch on February 9, 2024. After seven weeks, the team played their first social camogie blitz where they competed with different teams from around Dublin.
With generous sponsorship from a local company, AIC Paints, they were able to buy a set of jerseys for the occasion. I had been training with them a couple of months before the opportunity to play in my first blitz at Abbotstown in September, 2024 against teams from around the country arose.
Organised by the Camogie Association, there is a recreational programme for adults called Social Camogie which encourages more females to take part. The environment is built around fun, socialising, and physical activity and participants must be over the age of twenty-five and must not play any form of competitive sports.
A photographer was there on the day to catch the highlights, and I was fortunate enough to get a photo of me in action. I asked Caroline about the social aspect of the team.
“It’s a great way for women to make friends,” she told me.
“When you reach a certain age, your social circle may become smaller due to work, or kids getting older, so you don’t have time to talk to the other mothers anymore at the school gates, or you’re too busy at the weekend bringing kids to their matches. So, it’s nice to have the chats and the craic with others for an hour on a Friday evening.”
By word of mouth, the team has grown over time, from ten to forty women with Caroline’s husband, Mick Dunne, their coach.
There is a mixture of abilities, with some members having played in the past and many who never played before.
Every week, between 15 and 20 women make it to training on Friday at the local pitches in Aylesbury. I am now one of those women, and after a long week, I often feel too tired on a Friday, but I make myself get up and go, and always feel the better for it.
All the women have been so welcoming and as we play a short match among ourselves, there are lots of shouts – ‘nice one’ – ‘great job’- ‘well done’. Playing camogie has inspired me to become more active and to start stretching more.
As our bodies age, that is something that can only help. We’re often taught to expect less as we age and by the time we hit midlife, the beliefs we have about ourselves can become fixed and difficult to change.
This, along with societal views on aging, can make midlife challenging.
But the reality is, life’s second half can be a time when we have the greatest chance of success across many areas.
While I’ll never return to the level I played as a teenager, I’m focusing on enjoying the sport and tuning in to the pleasure it gives me along with the benefits to my physical and mental wellbeing.
But what surprised me the most returning to camogie after all this time, was the positivity and belonging I feel from being part of a team.
I’m glad I said yes to Niamh that day, as it has turned out to be one of life’s little surprises which has given me great joy and a new sense of hope for what I can achieve.