On what was a monumental day for Tir Conaill Harps, the ladies team took to the field for the first time in a competitive 15 v 15 line-up. With an overcast Edinburgh skyline as the backdrop, Harps took on Dunedin Connolly’s for their first game of the championship. The fact that the ladies where able to line out at all given the fact that this team was only formed at the beginning of the year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is a testament to the hard work put in from the club, the management and most of all the players themselves.

 

The team consisted of some very well experienced players, some youngsters and for ten of the players it was their first football match of their Gaelic careers. On the day the scoreline never went Tir Conaill Harps way, but in reality the scoreboard was never the end goal for this team, who were up against a very talented and experienced Dunedin Connollys side. For the Harps this was much more about getting that much needed game experience and match fitness.

 

Connolly’s have set the bar for ladies football in Scotland and Britain for the past number of years. The Harps know the standard required to make it to the top, and if the heart and desire shown in today’s game is anything to go by they are destined to be challenging at the top level of ladies Gaelic football in the near future.

 

For much of the match Tir Conaill struggled to move the ball from their own half into the oppositions but despite the onslaught from Connollys midfield and forwards at times, Harps never gave up fighting for every single ball available. Some vital blocks and a point from play in the final quarter of the game proved that despite the result the Harps where determined not to get deflated but to play football no matter what.

 

Tir Conaill Harps can be pound of their fighting spirit and performance on display today. Even after the final whistle the girls where not downbeat and despondent, but instead where already talking about their next training session and what they had to work on. They know that this is an incredible journey they are on and this is only the start of it. They have focus, they have goals and they have ambitions. For them that’s exciting, for everyone else that’s dangerous.