Cork camogie volunteers honoured at national level

Two of Cork’s outstanding camogie volunteers were honoured at an awards ceremony at Croke Park.

Sarsfields Lilian Zinkant was presented with the Cork Camogie Volunteer of the Year Award and Glen Rovers Mary Newman was the winner of the Camogie Association 2025 Sighle Nic an Ultaigh Distinguished Service Award.

Síghle Nic an Ultaigh is credited with guiding the path of camogie for 50 years. Elected as national president in 1949, she served in many roles, including secretary of Down County Board; chairperson of the Ulster Council, and president of the All-Ireland Primary Schools and Trustee from 1985 to 2004.

In 1999 she was honoured with the title of Life President of the Camogie Association and passed away in 2004, aged 88.

The Síghle Nic an Ultaigh Award was inaugurated to acknowledge distinguished administrators of the association and Ms Newman joins the list of outstanding winners over the years.

Mary’s involvement with camogie goes back many years and she has been the driving force behind her beloved Glen Rovers for several decades.

In typical Mary fashion, her first thoughts weren’t herself when she found out about the ceremony at Croke Park last Saturday night.

Instead, it was who she was going to get to cover for her at the Glen Rovers camogie academy session on Sunday morning as she was going to be in Dublin.

That epitomises Mary and her dedication to camogie as she puts others first and herself second all the time.

Holder of junior and senior county medals it was in administration where Mary excelled. She is secretary of Glen Rovers for more than 40 years and has doubled jobbed for many of those years.

A selector with many of the successful Glen Rovers sides winning county, Munster, and All-Ireland titles, she is actively involved in the club’s academy and underage section, where she will be to the forefront of blitzes and street leagues. She is also active with the divisional Seandun’s juvenile board as well as club delegate to the Cork County camogie board.

Her commitment to camogie in Cork extends far beyond her club. She was a selector with the Cork junior camogie side that won the All-Ireland title in 1984 and from there she became PRO of the Cork camogie board for more than 25 years.

She left her role as PRO of Cork camogie a few years ago and immediately became PRO of Glen Rovers Hurling Club, a position she holds to this day.

Mary’s path into Glen Rovers and Cork was set in stone from the pram. Her mother Nora’s lifelong association with Glen Rovers was passed on to her daughter from the earliest of ages.

Ms Zinkant has also been involved in camogie all her life and has served her time in every facet of the club and county make-up.

A proud Sarsfields Camogie Club member her playing career spanned more than 25 years.

She also wore the red jersey with pride and has acted as selector/mentor on numerous inter-county teams since she stopped playing.

As a player, one of her greatest talents was her free-taking ability, and that was in an era when small goalposts were the norm. She scored four points in Sarsfields first senior county title win in 1989 from the corner forward spot.

That’s no great surprise as she used to battle against the great Teddy McCarthy out on the streets as he was a close neighbour of hers.

She started playing with her club when she was 12 in the boys team when Sars were struggling for numbers. Lilian also lined out in an U14 East Cork final at centre-field with Teddy, which unfortunately they lost, but it’s a great memory for her.

She then progressed to play with the girls as they started to get numbers and played for several years, from aged 12, at U18 level.

Indeed her first camogie game was an U18 match as a 12 year old, something that wouldn’t happen now.

As well as playing camogie Lilian also played football and was an accomplished cross-country runner.

She was on the Cork minor camogie team for three years, so was only 14 when she started playing (minor was U16 then) and she won two All-Ireland minor championships in 1978 and 79.

Lilian went on to win three All-Ireland junior championships and was also a member of the 1984 National League title-winning side.

Lilian was named the AIB Junior Camogie Player of the Year in 1983.

Her Cork junior career went on until 1996 when she won her last All-Ireland medal as sub-keeper on that team.

Lilian got involved as a selector in 1999 with the Cork junior team and she managed and coached them to All-Ireland success in 2004. The likes of Briege Corkery and Gemma O’Connor were on that team.

She was also a selector with the senior team in 2005 and 2006 and they did the double, winning All-Ireland titles in both years, but lost out in the semi in 2007 as they bid for three in a row.

But it wasn’t just at inter-county level she was a supreme coach. She also coached the Sars U14 team in 2011 that won the county championship. Lilian went on to win a second U14 title, before adding two more at U16 and repeating the double-winning feat at minor level as well as a coach.

Lilian is a member of the Cork Camogie Board and is currently their Munster Council delegate and is also involved with fixtures at this level.

Last year Lilian was the board liaison officer for the Cork intermediate team that won the All-Ireland Championship and national league title as well.

Mary and Lilian continue to be two supreme representatives for Cork camogie and no doubt will continue to do so for many years to come.