THE day after O’Donovan Rossa’s latest triumph Fionnuala O’Driscoll was already looking forward to returning to training midweek. To be back in with her team-mates and friends. To feel the buzz of their Munster intermediate success. There is nowhere else she would rather be right now.
‘Our captain Laura (O’Mahony) always asks if we want to be back at training during the week. I can’t think what I would do if I didn’t have training throughout the winter and get to see the girls every week,’ a delighted O’Driscoll smiled after this band of sisters reached heights no Rossas ladies’ team has ever hit before.
‘They are some of my best friends. Friends I will have for life. We train together, we win together, we have lost together, but it has all brought us closer. The mentality of the team is that we are playing for each other. The bond we have is so special and we have been through so much together.’
It’s about the journey, rather than the destination, and this adventure will become the stuff of legend in Skibbereen.
O'Donovan Rossa player Christine Fitzgerald celebrating with the O'Neill family - Katie, Shane, Seanie, Ellie and Annie - on the team's arrival back in town on Sunday night after being crowned Munster intermediate champions. (Photo: Anne Minihane)
O’Driscoll has played a starring role, and kicked two points as this sensational Skibbereen juggernaut beat Limerick club St Ailbe’s to win the Munster LGFA intermediate final in Mallow on Sunday – the Rossas have now won FIVE major trophies in the last two seasons. The Incredibles are on an incredible run, it’s the stuff of dreams and they don’t want to wake up. O’Driscoll joined the club in 2018 and has seen the Rossas rise from junior C that season to now becoming a senior club in 2025.
‘We’ll keep going for as long as we can,’ added O’Driscoll who is loving life as an O’Donovan Rossa footballer. Sharing a house with team-mate Kate O’Donovan, everywhere she turns there is a reminder of this remarkable adventure the Skibb team is on.
Since the start of the 2023 season they have won 21 of their last 22 championship games on their way to winning Cork, Munster and All-Ireland junior football titles in 2023, and conquering the Cork and Munster intermediate championships in their first season at this grade. They found their feet quicker than most on the outside imagined, but inside the camp the goal this season was to win the county intermediate title at the first attempt. Mission accomplished.
‘At the start of the year we set ourselves the goal of winning the county, even though we had moved up a grade,’ O’Driscoll explained.
‘We are quite ambitious, and James (O’Donovan) is great at setting us goals but also keeping us grounded. Our goal was to win the county, and we did that, so it’s a bonus to go on now and win Munster.
‘It all comes down to setting those goals at the start of the season and then working hard to achieve those goals. It has been absolutely incredible.’
O'Donovan Rossa supporters give their club's all-conquering ladies' football team the big thumbs up.
O’Driscoll and her team-mates are riding the wave for as long as they can, and it will take them to an All-Ireland intermediate semi-final in a few weeks’ time, away to the winner of the quarter-final between Connacht champions Annaghdown of Galway and Dunedin Connollys from Edinburgh, who meet on November 23rd. It will be another memorable moment in a journey packed full of magical memories, like in Mallow last weekend.
Even when the Skibbereen team trailed by two points at half time they didn’t panic. They’ve been in tight situations in this run, so they call on those experiences.
‘We were down two points at half time and in our talk at the break James said these are the moments that you will look back on in years to come and you will want to be back in these situations and in these moments. This is the peak of my football career and it’s amazing to be part of this,’ O’Driscoll said.
‘Even though we were down, if it was five years ago we wouldn’t have the same resilience and experience that we have now, and the mental strength too.
‘We have been in tough situations. In last year’s Munster junior final we were down two points at half time and we went on to win it by a point. It was a similar situation in the All-Ireland junior final and we won by a point. Even in the county final this year we came through another very tight game.
‘We will back ourselves all day every day. If it’s a tight game and we are behind I know we will find a way to claw it back; that comes from having those experiences in big games, then trusting that experience and trusting the process. James and the lads have instilled that in us too, to stay calm, take it one score at a time, one step at a time.’
Point by point, the Rossas reeled in St Ailbe’s in the second half and then hit the front, with Munster semi-final hero O’Driscoll leading by example again. They made their experience count. The Skibb bench made an impact too – subs Sinead Farrell and Aoife O’Driscoll both scored important points in that second half. This was a team effort. Skibb pulled together when they had to. Their supporters played their part, too.
‘Our supporters are the best in the world,’ O’Driscoll said, ‘When we heard the Rossas, Rossas chant in the second half, it really got us going. It’s so special. I don’t think our supporters realise how important they are to us in tight matches, they always get us over the line. We need to savour these moments because these are so, so special.’
Those same supporters were back at the clubhouse on Sunday night when the bus landed home, first parading the Munster champions through their hometown before reaching their home ground. Fans, young and old, there to share in the glory.
‘We did a lap of town before we went back to the pavilion, and to see people coming out of the pubs, on the streets, cheering us on, and then to see all our supporters back at the pavilion, it was great. To see all the young fans, too, the next generation of girls and boys in the club coming to matches has been special too,’ added O’Donovan, with a strong bond existing between this team and its local community.
The Skibb players are aware of it, and appreciate it. This is the group that has shortened the winter again in Skibbereen, and the locals are loving every moment of this success.
‘The town has really gotten behind us, the support is incredible and we feel that, and that’s great to know we have the town behind us,’ said O’Driscoll, and the fans will make the trip for the All-Ireland semi-final as these Skibbereen trailblazers now turn their attention to another All-Ireland title bid.
That’s the focus of training these weeks, as November gallops along and Christmas comes into view – the Rossas’ run has certainly shortened the winter and they’re not finished yet.
