Lámh Dhearg won the Antrim Camogie Development Cup on Sunday in a keenly contested match against Loch Mór Dál gCais - a magnificent achievement considering this was only the second year the club has fielded a senior team after a 30+ year hiatus.
There was little between the two teams at half-time with Lámh Dhearg going into the break ahead by three.
After a few positional changes, the Lámhs began to assert their authority in the second half and kept the scoreboard ticking over. Yet the final score didn't reflect the intensity and competitiveness of the game and it took some resolute defending the goalposts twice to deny Loch Mór further scores.
Loch Mór never gave up and battled to the final whistle and will take heart from their gallant performance and will no doubt do well in Junior next season.
The Lámhs win was 12 years in the making. The decision to reform a Lámh Dhearg senior team last year was due to having a large number of minors coming through with the risk of having few matches for them in the minor league, so they put a call out for players to come join their young minors and the pieces of their senior team started to come together.
The Lámhs have an eclectic mix of players, their multigenerational team contains minors, G4MO, ladies footballers who had never held a hurley in their hand before, a retired ex-county player and our captain, Aedin O’Neill, an All-Ireland medal winner, retired seven years but came out of retirement to join the team.
The GAA is a big family and following through on that the Hannahstown side also have two mothers playing alongside their daughters and two different sets of sisters on the team.
Last year, the Lámhs were beaten in the Development Shield final and and although it was an achievement to have reached the final, they were devastated at the time but there was a determination amongst the players that they could possibly go further the next year and win.
The ladies worked hard in pre-season putting in the gym sessions and the pitch sessions.
They entered Division Three this season where they encountered well-seasoned, stronger teams throughout the league.
Towards the end of the league, they started to enjoy a bit a success with a few wins peppered amongst their losses and their defeats were less severe!
The Championship was ahead and the ladies were ready to hopefully overcome the loss from the previous year.
The Lámhs began to filter their skilled and experienced U16 players into the senior squad and the injection of youth alongside the steadfast minors and senior ladies added a new dimension to the team.
The 2024 semi-final was a stiff test against a strong talented and physical Larne team. It was a hard-earned victory with very little difference between the two teams at the final whistle, but they had come out victors and the final was ahead of them
The Lámhs had played Loch Mór the previous year on several occasions and were victorious in very close games, but couldn’t underestimate them as like the Lámhs had the luxury of skilled U16 players available to their panel.
On Sunday, the nervous tension in changing room was palpable but once the ladies got out on the pitch, game mode kicked in.
After 60 minutes, the Lámhs emerged victors and the demons of the previous years were banished. They had won the Division Three Development Cup and made history at Lámh Dhearg.
The future for camogie in Hannahstown is extremely bright considering their U16s won the double at all-county B and the club now field teams from U6 to senior.
Thanks to Gort na Móna for hosting the final so well.