Gráinne Cahalane looking to add to family legacy in All-Ireland club camogie final replay

IT’S ALL RELATIVE, really. To most of us mere mortals, Gráinne Cahalane’s life of going to training or the gym most days to play with an elite senior club team, all while working three jobs, would be the lifestyle of a ferociously driven individual. 

In the context of one of the most remarkable families in Gaelic games however – the Cahalanes were winners of the Dermot Earley Family Award at the GAA President’s Awards in 2024 – it becomes slightly less baffling, albeit still surprising, that she might be considered an outlier in the household.. 

“My dad (Niall, two-time football All-Star and All-Ireland winner) would have said I was the free spirit of the family. Even though I would have been training nearly every night, I could see why,” Cahalane says with a smile. 

“I enjoyed my nights out and the social scene, and I’d look at (my sisters) Méabh and Orlaith, and the work and commitment they put into playing camogie for Cork and I always said that I was happy with what I was doing.”

Méabh and Orlaith weren’t alone. Her brothers Damien and Conor hurl with Cork, Jack is part of the county senior football panel, and it’s probably a matter of time before her teenage sister Kate progresses from the Barrs’ blue in order to don the Rebels’ red. It’s what they do. 

Two years ago, Cork manager Ger Manley tried to get Gráinne to raise her ambitions that little bit further. Cahalane admits that she had to have her arm twisted to go in with the county, and even after a refusal or two that didn’t deter him, the only terms that she would grudgingly accept were a six-week trial to see how she felt. 

A free spirit she may be, but the Cahalane competitive instinct came to the fore immediately. 

“Six weeks in, there was no coming away. I made such good friends and once you buy in and become part of the group, there was no question of leaving.”

She never quite nailed down a starting place but was never that far away either as her game steadily improved as a result of her involvement with the All-Ireland champions. That made it all the more heartbreaking – or devastating, to use her own description – when she ruptured her Achilles in training just two weeks out from last year’s final against Galway, which Cork won by 1-16 to 0-16.

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It’s an ailment that doesn’t get quite as much airtime as cruciate ligament injuries and so doesn’t resonate with non-athletes in the same way, but it’s no less serious. 

“Two players in our club never came back from it, so I’ve no doubt that a few people might have wondered if I was going to call it quits or if I would try to come back. Some of my siblings would have wondered if I would do everything properly while rehabbing,” she recalls.

But whether it was the spark that came from her inter-county sojourn, or perhaps it was the bittersweet success story that was St Finbarr’s winning just their second ever Cork senior title that Autumn while she watched on from the sidelines, but one way or another, the spirit was willing and the body wasn’t found wanting either. 

“I surprised myself, I was so motivated,” she says. “Watching the Barrs win the county final, I was so delighted but I felt so hard done by at the same time, and even though I grew up in a family that loved the gym and I was the one complaining when I had to go, suddenly I was utterly driven and I was blessed to have my brothers and sisters. 

“The rehab was very intense for eight or nine months, it was six weeks in a cast and 15 weeks in a boot, and from there I effectively had to teach myself how to walk again. There were days when I might do a 90 minute session in the morning and another one in the evening, and there were tough days when I might have got a setback and I was feeling down. But there was always some one of them to go to the gym with, there was always someone there with me, and even though it was a long road, I was always going to get there. 

“My physio, Declan O’Sullivan, was great and deserves a shout. He was very patient, he never gave me a timeline so that I wouldn’t be disappointed. Coming back on the field, the hardest part was all the extra niggles and strains you get because you’ve lost your fitness, but it was never a question of giving up”. 

If Gráinne is harbouring any ambitions of getting back into the Cork set-up, she doesn’t share them. She feels she’s not quite back to the player she was before the injury. Stronger, but not quite as fast, she says, “which means I don’t have the option of doing silly things!”

The fact that she has come back into a group that is an hour away from potentially being crowned the AIB All-Ireland senior champions for the first time in the club’s illustrious history is a factor too. 

“Maybe if I was in a junior or intermediate club, I’d want the county call up to push me as far as I can go. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime group of players, really talented and very driven, the training is pretty close to county standard, and I’m loving every minute of being back and being part of it.” 

That there was something special happening with this team was an open secret around the Togher area.

Retaining the Cork championship was the primary goal, but Cahalane admits that the talk in team meetings from the start was that there was the potential to take things further, and with every grinding victory – including extra, extra time against Newcastlewest and Loughgiel Shamrocks either side of a two-point Munster final win over De la Salle – confidence was rising. 

“With every game where we had to dig deep, we realised that we had pushed on from where we were in 2024, and that winning the All-Ireland was realistic.”

Failing to hold a six-point lead against Athenry wasn’t part of that script, and while team captain Stephanie Punch said after the drawn final that it was the westerners who had the momentum when the final whistle sounded, Cahalane still feels that the Barrs are a proven force in overtime and that they would have regrouped and gone again. 

“We would have had that break to reset and I’d say extra time would have suited us as we know we can get the job done and keep going for 80 or 90 minutes. But we’re just happy to have another go this weekend. 

“You could say it’s after ruining Christmas, no nights out and lots of watching what you’re eating and recovery sessions, but it’s nice to be able to meet up with all the girls so regularly too, so it’s not all bad.”

Nonetheless, the free spirit still lives on. A teacher in Coláiste Choilm during term time, Gráinne studied accountancy and works part-time as a payroll administrator for good measure, but still found her own way to get out on the town over the festive season. 

“I work in the Cork Arms on MacCurtain Street, it’s a bit of a loophole but I’m very grateful for it over the past couple of months, it means that even when you’re not going out yourself, you can still meet people and have the chats. Friends will call in, my brothers and cousins have been in, it’s very busy and it’s been great. Orlaith and Kate have started working there as well!”

Just as her sisters and brothers helped her to find her family’s trademark grit and determination, it seems like they’re learning a bit from Gráinne too.

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