Picture by BRENDAN MONAGHAN
WHEN her former school teacher, Brendan Rice, told 11 year old pupil, Clara Mulvenna, that he was taking her and a school team to a soccer tournament back in 2008, little did she know that it would kickstart her GAA career.
A year later her father Brendan took her to the home of Down football, Pairc Esler, where she joined the ranks of Newry Shamrocks.
Sometime later, after the Shamrocks team folded, young Clara was en route to St Bronagh’s, Rostrevor, where she remains to this day.
The South Down club had no minor team so 16 year old Clara went straight into the senior panel and has been a mainstay for the Reds ever since.
In 2014, her good friend and Down senior footballer, Lauren Cunningham, asked Clara to go to the County senior trials, she made the panel and on the weekend of her 17th birthday made her senior County debut.
Down went on that year to win both the Ulster and All Ireland Intermediate titles under the management of Mark Copeland and Ryan McShane.
Clara left the Down panel in 2019 to travel, and joined the Na Fianna club in Abu Dhabi, where she stayed and captained the senior ladies footballers in 2022 before returning home.
Clara got straight back to club football with St Bronagh’s and rejoined the Down panel as vice captain in 2023, under the leadership of Carryduff’s Megan Doherty.
Although they won a Junior All Ireland in 2023, the County footballers just missed out on promotion to Division 2 of the Ladies National League in 2024 and in her new role as Down Senior Ladies football captain (announced in early January), Clara Mulvenna will hope she can lead the Mourne girls to continued success in 2025.
