Ladies Football's Rich History at UCD

Ladies Gaelic Football is a relatively new phenomenon as Cumann Peile Gael na mBan was only founded in 1974. Since then the sport has continued to grow and grow.
18 Universities, RTCs, VECs and Colleges entered for the 1995 Higher Education Authority Championships competing for the O’Connor Cup, the blue riband of varsity football. By 2010 all 32 counties are competing at inter county level and the Third Level sector is equally thriving. There are now over 100,000  girls playing ladies football from mini league to veteran players. The game has spread overseas with teams in location on all continents.
The UCD club was founded in 1992 by a group of students of agriculture. The club started on a non-competitive basis and so broke up mid way through the year. It was started up again in its present form the following year by Annette Harlon, Aileen Healey, Katie Liston and Ursula Walsh and soon had a membership of 50 with assistance of a grant of £200 from the  UCD AUC.

Tommy Kerr, Charlie Kerr and Fergus Foley trained the team twice weekly on a voluntary basis. Teams were entered in the League Championship, reaching the final with wins over TCD, Dundalk RTC and Inchicore VEC.
In the O’Connor Cup the club lost to Waterford, the eventual runners up, in the quarter final. The 1994 Colours against TCD was lost by a point, but in 1995 UCD won convincingly by 1-9 to 0-5.

The 1999 UCD panel

Growth 

The game continued to grow in UCD driven on primarily  by  Marcella Price of Meath and Lorraine Muckian from Louth. They transformed UCD into a formidable outlet and in to the top college team of the decade winning the championship 3 times in a row in 2001, '02 and '03.
UCD are fortunate to have people of the calibre of Gerry MC Gill, Billy Sheehan and Brendan Dardis and Gordon Weldon and Barry Curtin as managers throughout the decade. Gerry McGill is the lifeblood of the club.

The 2001 O'Connor Cup champions.

 

2003 All Ireland league winners with their management team

A decade of glory 

UCD have won five O’Connor cups this decade, a glorious era. Some of the great names of the sport played for UCD over the years including  Rena  Buckley from Cork, Nuala O’Shea from Mayo, Cliodhna O’Connor of Dublin, Marie O’Connell of Galway, Angela Casey and Tracey Lawlor of Laois, Aoife Herbert of  Kildare, Anne McGillicuddy and Aisling O hAnnaidh of Wicklow and Lisa Cafferkey of Mayo.

Former UCD star Angela Casey, All Ireland winner as Laois captain in 2001

O'Connor Cup panel 2007

The club relies on volunteers to run it and Aisling ni Ceallaigh was club person of the year in 2009 in recognition of her service. In 2010 we have five teams in action and all are welcome to join.