Western promise takes new twist

Diane O'Hora's introduction to Gaelic football was pretty informal. At the Albert Plunkett National School in Ballina, she just started kicking around with the lads. The headmaster, Hugh Lynn, was an avid fan of the game and encouraged every youngster to play. Diane made the team and when the Community Games came round, she went for trials and made the under-10 team.

"We made it to the county final, but I wasn't able to play then because it was a boys event and you had to produce birth certificates and that kind of thing," remembers O'Hora, who will captain Mayo in tomorrow's All-Ireland women's football final.

The year after, at under-12s, she watched her contemporaries embark on an odyssey through Connacht and again she was forced to relinquish her jersey and sit on the sidelines. Life sucked.

"Ah, it was rough enough all right but the girls' game was virtually non-existent here at the time. I loved playing Gaelic, just couldn't see a way to keep on going."

By the time she graduated to secondary school, it had practically become an afterthought; she travelled to Enniscrone on the Sligo border and started to interest herself in other things. Then, when she was 15, she decided to attend trials for the Mayo women's team, astonished that such a set-up was in existence. She was even more flabbergasted when she made the squad. Coincidentally, her school set up a girls' Gaelic team the same year and her career, halted by necessity at the age of 12, experienced a dramatic upsurge.

"The sport here now is virtually unrecognisable to when I was in school," reflects O'Hora, now a 23-year-old Irish Army corporal based in Athlone.

"We played in front of TV cameras in Parnell Park in the All-Ireland semi-final, something which would have been unheard of a few years back. The media coverage helps raise the profile of the game and that in turn attracts youngsters. But there's a strong under-age programme taking root in Mayo anyway."

Mayo turned senior after 1987 by virtue of winning the junior championship. Although their semi-final appearances have been annual, this is the first year their efforts have been successful.

"We kind of suffer from the Galway hurlers syndrome here," offers Jonathan Mullin, who trains the women's team along with his father, John. "We just couldn't get enough competition, we were relying on challenge games here and there. What we decided to do was to go with a very young team and train intensively. Obviously, it is beginning to pay off."

"Some of the team are still in school, others are students and the size of the county makes training difficult," says O'Hora. "Three of the girls are from Belmullet, but they are still spread out over a wide area. So the efforts made for training have been immense."

The panel met last October and had two sessions every weekend throughout the winter. By April, that had been stepped up to three sessions a week with games at the weekend. By the time they met Meath in the All-Ireland semi-final, they had around 80 sessions behind them.

"By then, such a bond had built up that we were more like friends than anything," offers O'Hora. "The thing about this team is that they are scared of nobody. Once they get flowing, they are hard to stop. That's what happened against Meath."

Waterford, Mayo's opponents in tomorrow's showpiece, are only too aware of that tendency to thrive on adrenaline. "Of course we are worried about them," says Waterford manager Michael Ryan. "They have a lot of fine young players and they are a hungry young team and they've been knocking on the door for a while now. Much will depend on how they react to Croke Park and all that goes with the final tomorrow. It's something that we feel will give us an advantage."

The women's game has already gained a strong foothold in Waterford, with Ballymacarbry, Ryan's own club, having pioneered efforts to establish it. He recognises the importance of tomorrow's match-up.

"I'd say people will welcome a new pairing in the final, it will be good for the sport and should make for a very exciting game. I think it's a sign that the standard is improving throughout Ireland, which can only be good for the game."

Diane O'Hora has accumulated a lot of personal expense in attending weekly Mayo sessions but, unlike many of her male contemporaries, still finds reasons to revel in the drudgery of intercounty training.

"To be able to have a regular outlet is just fantastic, it's something to look forward to each week. But there is also the sense we are helping the future of the sport in Mayo and the reaction to what we are about has been fantastic."