Midleton ladies football club making huge strides with booming underage numbers and adult silverware

AS Midleton ladies football club members gather this Wednesday evening for their AGM, they will be in a buoyant mood after another season of progress, topped off with a Junior B county.

Teams wearing the famous black and white hoops have been prominent in all ages over the past few months. Midleton's minors are due to play Banteer in the county quarter-final, whilst the U16s were involved in the semi-final against Nemo Rangers. 

The U14s won the East Cork Development League Final victory over Rockbán.

It all represents steady progress for a club still tender in years. Numbers have soared at juvenile level and now the transition to the adult teams is very evident, fielding two teams competitively this season.

Club chairman is Brian Sheedy, son of the late Fred, a legendary figure with his club Kilworth and Cork GAA. Having arrived in Midleton eight years ago, he answered when the call came to become involved with the Magpies as a coach with the juniors and minors.

"I suppose it is nice to help out. I had been involved with Kilworth for many years and accepted the opportunity when the chance arrived here. One thing led to another and I've finished up as club chairman since last year.

"Winning an adult county championship made it a very special year for us. We had lost three years ago to Dohenys in the final, so it was very important that we came back to win it now. The club itself is on an upward journey overall. We are hoping to keep the numbers growing in the years ahead and also to perform well with the adult first team in the 'A' grade championship. 

We have quite a few players crossing over playing camogie, but it works well between two codes. 

"We are also fortunate that the new Midleton GAA club pitches recently developed at Park South are made available on a regular basis", concluded Brian.

The Beausang sisters, Molly and Sadbh, Deirdre Corcoran, team captain Abby Quirke and super-sub Ava McAulliffe all starred as Midleton dug deep to defeat Carrigaline in the aforementioned junior county final at Ballinspittle. Meantime, Ciara Hynes captained the U14 team to their league success.

Interestingly at a time when ladies footballers are in the headlines, Midleton GAA club has this week forged a special link with one of their football stars from the very early days of the Association.

Tuesday saw a bus-load of Midleton GAA members head to Glasnevin Cemetery, for the unveiling of a headstone to the late Timoty 'Ted' Downey who was a member of the Midleton team that won Cork's first All-Ireland football title in 1890.

Born in Ballintotis, Ted eventually moved to Dublin to work in Arnott's and went on to win another All-Ireland football medal with CJ KIckhams in 1897, becoming one of the first-ever dual All-Ireland medal winners in the history of the GAA.

Research in recent years has revealed that Ted was buried in an unmarked grave in Glasnevin. This week's Midleton's detailed research spearheaded by John Fenton and Vincent O'Neill culminated with the unveiling of a memorial at the grave. 

Amongst those who were set to be in attendance was current GAA President Larry McCarthy along with several members of Ted's Dublin club Ballymun Kickhams. The entire venture was made possible by the financial assistance of Cork GAA, Dublin GAA and Croke Park along with both Midleton and Ballymun Kickhams GAA Clubs.