GAA commentator, Mícheál Ó Muirchearta, doing his commentary on the Feile Parade on Friday night on seeing the Thomastown team approaching the review stand said” I see an unbelievable sight before me — a football team from Kilkenny”.
Little did he think by the end of the weekend this same team would be bringing home the cup. These uncrowned princesses of Thomastown were wonderful. Their level of fitness and skill was amazing. All brought about from months of intensive training and travelling near and far to challenge matches, particularly in the weeks leading up to the Feile. They had been there last year and had come home with more experience but none the less disappointed after New York had beaten them in the quarter final. Not so this year. New York came to Carbury in Co Kildare to play Thomastown in the semi-final this year and Thomastown were ready. New York were to get no gifts from Thomastown for July 4. It was a fast, tough, game with only one point scored in the first half, this was by Thomastown. The Thomastown players really got going in the second half and the scores started to flow. Once New York had been beaten, the final was now in reach. On the Sunday morning, Thomastown played St Joseph’s from Leitrim in Moorefield Park on the Curragh. Such was the skill of the Thomastown players that St Joseph’s did not manage to score at all. However the victory was no less sweet. The sheer joys of bringing home an All-Ireland title in football to Kilkenny was sweet for the girls, parents and supporters, but for the two men PJ Whelan and Barry Hayes who had spent so much time turning these girls into the players they had now become it was all the more gratifying. There was a victory parade in Thomastown on Sunday evening where locals and passers-by cheered on the girls.
The team were:
Maeve O’Connor, Captain, Niamh Bolger, Alice Carey, Nell Henderson, Niamh Quigley, Ciara Farrell, Claire Nolan, Megan Farrell, Ailish Butler, Sinead Whelan, Sarah Walsh, Jessie O’Carroll, Joanne O’Hanarahan, Niamh Donnelly, Miriam Holden, Niamh O’Shea, Eimear Donnelly, Aine Gannon, Orlaith Butler, Eimear Fitzpatrick, Eimear Corr, Aoife Farrell, Nessa Griffin, Aine Butler, Mary O’Connell, Emily O’Dwyer and Anna Walpole.
