BACK in 1995, Castlehaven great Niall Cahalane was named captain of the Cork senior football team. Fast forward 30 years and his daughter Méabh will captain the Cork senior camogie team. The Cahalane dynasty is still producing leaders.
Méabh learned from her club, county champions St Finbarr’s, before Christmas that she will lead Ger Manley’s team this year. It was the perfect end to another great year.
In 2024, the Barrs won their first county senior camogie championship since 2006 while Méabh – involved in the Cork senior camogie panel since 2015 – was vice-captain to Sarsfields’ Molly Lynch when Cork won the All-Ireland title as the Rebels made it back-to-back O’Duffy Cup triumphs. Now she will lead from the front, as Cork captain.
‘It’s a huge honour to represent my club, my family and I’m really looking forward to the challenge ahead,’ Méabh told the Star Sport Podcast.
‘It’s something you dream of when you’re a little girl training for camogie at U7, U8. To be named as Cork captain, it’s a huge honour and something you work really hard for but there is such a special group there at the moment that there are so many leaders on the panel. It could be any one of them.
‘Every night at training, someone else stands up and there are always people speaking and offering advice.’
So, given her father Niall’s football pedigree, will he give her some leadership tips?
‘He offers the odd bit of advice alright!’ she laughs.
‘Whether I take it now or not sometimes is another story!
‘He would always encourage you to go out, try your best, work hard and try to be as good a player as you can everyday. You obviously take that advice on board. He’s been there, done that.’
The Cahalane sisters, Orlaith, Méabh and Grainne, lift the O’Duffy Cup after Cork’s 2024 All-Ireland final win over Galway.
Méabh’s sisters, Orlaith and Grainne, are also on the Cork senior camogie panel. Her brothers Damien and Jack are with the Cork senior hurlers, while Conor has just joined up with the footballers. This is a family steeped in GAA tradition and their successes drive one another on.
‘It’s really special. We’re extremely fortunate that all of us enjoy it so much and we get so much out of it. Each one of us puts so much into it as well. You see the lads and the girls, the amount of work they put into it and the training and the hours,’ Méabh explains.
‘It was a great season for us last year (with Cork) and probably not so much the lads. Between all of us playing, there are some great days and some disappointing days but we are always there to support each other. It’s really nice to have at home and we’re just really fortunate to all be enjoying it so much.
‘When you have any sister involved or any sibling, it definitely makes it more special. It’s a really proud moment for my mom and dad as well, and our grandparents.’
Back to the pitch, Cork are looking forward to their Division 1A national camogie league campaign getting underway when they face Waterford at home on Saturday, February 22nd at 2pm. Surprisingly, Cork haven’t won the Division 1A title since 2013. Kilkenny (5), Galway (4) and Tipperary have all won the league since.
‘A league medal is a really good medal to have. It’s not a medal that a lot of people in our group would have so we are looking at it. We’ll take it game by game and it’s as good a preparation for the championship as you can get,’ the vastly-experienced Méabh explains.
‘We played Waterford away last year. A really tough game (1-6 to 0-6). We’ll be expecting nothing different this year. Ourselves and Waterford know each other really well at this stage. It’ll be interesting to see what they’ve done with their panel as well this year.’
The ultimate goal for this Cork camogie side, even so early in the year, is to win the All-Ireland for the third time in a row, a feat the Rebels haven’t achieved since 1973. The panel is there. The experience is there. The confidence is there.
‘It’s a huge opportunity having got over the line in the last few years but we can’t stay at the level we have been at in the last few years,’ Méabh said.
‘Galway really put it up to us in the final last year and it was probably our bench that came on and made the difference in the end. There is nothing between the teams so we know the pack are chasing us, we have to go another level and we have to raise the bar again if we intend on getting back there.
‘There are a lot of games to play. There is a lot of training to be done. We know how hard we have to work to get back there but I think everyone’s intention is “that’s obviously the goal.” We have a lot to do before we get there.’
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Méabh Cahalane was speaking at the launch of the 2025 Very National Camogie Leagues.
