‘The year before we were so disappointed having lost the Leinster final, but I think winning the All-Ireland in Croke Park definitely made up for any sort of disappointment’
BY DAIRE WALSH
WHILE there is a long road ahead of them, Eimear O’Brien has acknowledged that challenging for League and Championship promotion is the ultimate goal for the Longford ladies football team in 2025.
When the Longford Slashers star first established herself as a starter back in 2018, the O’Farrell County were operating in Division 3 of the Lidl National Football League and in the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate football Championship. The Midlanders remained active participants in these competitions for a number of seasons, before eventually suffering relegation from both in 2023.
Last year saw Longford missing out on the knockout stages of the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship and Lidl NFL Division 4 – competitions they previously won in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Although challenging at the business end of the former is a major ambition for the summer time, Brian Farrell’s side will be fighting tooth and nail to book a spot in the Division 4 semi-finals at the end of March.
“There are teams that are in Intermediate Championship that are playing Division 4 or vice versa, Junior and playing Division 3. There is very little between Junior and Intermediate, and Division 3 and Division 4. The teams are nearly interchangeable, so there’s definitely no reason why we can’t be back up there playing Division 3 and Intermediate,” O’Brien said.
“We’re really targeting the Championship this year. There’s players who will come back in later on, and we’ll have even bigger numbers. We really are targeting mainly Championship, but the League semi-final is there to grab. So we’ll obviously aim for it.”
Despite losing out to Sligo at Cloonacool Community Park last Sunday, Longford remain in the reckoning for a knockout spot thanks to emphatic victories at home to Derry and Kilkenny in the opening two rounds of this year’s Division 4. Ahead of their meeting with Fermanagh at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park tomorrow afternoon (throw-in 2pm), the O’Farrell outfit occupy second place in the fourth-tier table.
Having missed out on their three games to date due to a combination of injury and being away, O’Brien is hopeful this weekend will see her playing her first competitive game since being named captain of Longford for the 2025 season. Suffice to say – after previously serving as vice-captain for several years – the experienced defender is delighted to be taking on a key leadership role in the county set-up.
“It’s a huge honour to be selected as captain. You feel like you’re really respected by the manager and the players. You also just feel like you’re obviously a good role model for younger players as well. It’s a big deal to be named county captain.
“I’m also probably one of the older players on the team. We’re quite a young team and I’ve probably been one of the longest around. It definitely will help and knowing the girls as well helps too.”
Whereas she is still striving for success at inter-county level, O’Brien has already accumulated a significant collection of medals in the club game.
A Junior county Championship winner with Longford Slashers in 2017, she played a starring role when the Farneyhoogan outfit claimed Intermediate Championship honours a year later. Slashers have continued to go from strength to strength since then and last October saw them picking up their sixth successive Droplink Senior Championship title in the O’Farrell County.
Yet undoubtedly the crowning glory for the club in modern times was their triumph over Mullinahone in the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship final of 2022. The first All-Ireland Ladies Club Final to be played at Croke Park – it was followed by a senior showdown between Kilkerrin-Clonberne and Donaghmoyne on the same day – Longford Slashers defeated their Tipperary counterparts on a score of 4-11 to 2-8 with O’Brien producing a typically committed performance in defence.
“It’s probably the biggest highlight, it was amazing. Playing in Croke Park is where every player wants to be, up on the big stage. Especially with family around you. A football team are probably some of the closest people in your life. Winning a massive thing like that is huge.
“It was very, very special. The year before we were so disappointed having lost the Leinster final, but I think winning the All-Ireland in Croke Park definitely made up for any sort of disappointment.
“It took us a while to get out of Junior. We were a very, very young team. Then when we won the Junior, at that stage we were knocking on the door for so long. We were playing division one football while playing Junior, it was nearly in our heads. Once we got over that hurdle, we knew we could push on and we did.”
Away from football, O’Brien has a busy job working as a medical scientist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin – a role she has held for the past three years.
Working and living in the capital means she has to commute up and down to inter-county training on a regular basis. However, with a number of others on the panel in the same boat, O’Brien doesn’t have any trouble striking a balance between her job and her commitments to Longford.
“There’s a good few in college who are based either in Dublin or Maynooth. There is a few in Galway as well, I think, but there’s a few of us working in Dublin. There is a good few commuting up and down,” O’Brien added.
“I love my job. I’m lucky with the lab I work in. I’m working microbiology, I work mostly routine hours. For weekend shifts, there is less staff on. It’s easier to change it, so it does work well for football. I can get off for games and training. Longford luckily is not too far away. It’s an hour and a half each way in the car.
“Thankfully James’s is on the N4. I head straight down from work if I’m working, so it’s not the worst. Luckily I’m from the town, so we normally train near enough there. I can go home and get a bit to eat before I head down to the pitch and then come back up that night. It’s not too bad. I’m close enough that I can still do that.”
Lorraine O’Shea of Mullinahone and Eimear O’Brien of Longford Slashers during the 2022 LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football Championship Final at Croke Park (Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile)
