Ciara Gaynor becomes Tipp’s latest Laochra Gael

The Ciara Gaynor episode of Laochra Gael airs this Thursday night on TG4 at 9.30pm

By Shane Brophy

2024 will be a year of many celebrations for Tipperary camogie as it marks the 25th anniversary of their first All-Ireland senior success in 1999.

A first unofficial get-together took place in Reidy’s of Newtown on Saturday night last as teammates and supporters gathered at the launch episode of Laochra Gael for former Tipperary star Ciara Gaynor.

A player who won five All-Ireland medals and was Player of the Year award in 2003, Ciara and her team inspired a generation of young Tipperary girls to follow their dreams.

A quarter of a century on from that first success, Gaynor admitted her surprise at being approached to have an episode of the popular series made about her career.

“I just presumed there were doing a programme on Deirdre Hughes, Eimear McDonnell, Una O’Dwyer or any one of fifteen or twenty players it could have been,” she said, typically downplaying her contribution to that great team.

“I really didn’t think they would be able to fill an hours programme with just me.

“I was kind of reflecting on games, and a period in my life that I hadn’t thought about in a while. It was nice to look back and remember, I rewatched a few of the games and it was nice as they were special times.

She added: “I was a very small of an amazing team and an amazing squad. There were five or six girls on the sideline every day that could have been starting and should have been starting.

“Looking back, you kind of realise how lucky you are to be part of that whole set-up because it was amazing.

Between 1999 & 2005, Gaynor was a cornerstone of Tipperary's formidable defensive unit at centre back on one of the best camogie teams of all time and explained her reasons for agreeing to take part in the show.

“It was more for my parents,” she admitted.

“My mam (Eileen) would have been in the background an awful lot and would have done so much for us growing up. She would have been the one taking me to camogie training and to a lot of the matches, For me it was a way of recognising her and everything she did for us.

“Then, also it would be nice for Charlie (son) to have to look back on because there wouldn’t be much footage of us playing, no social media back then.”

Ciara also used the show as an opportunity to give credit to those that helped her, and her teammates achieve the success they did.

“Me playing camogie would have started long before the success in 1999,” she added.

“That was another thing in looking back, you don’t appreciate those things at the time, including in Kilruane, Ann Kelly a neighbour would load us into the car and take us training, and did so much for me underage, and then I played junior with Kilruane. You kind of forget the effort they put in, but you don’t realise it when you are young.

“The likes of Gilbert Williams in Kilruane school, he did skills competitions with us, and we would be hurling every chance we get, they were huge influences on me playing camogie, including my own brother Brian, he was a huge inspiration for me, I thought he was a fantastic hurler.”

That Tipperary team also set new standards for other camogie teams around the country to follow, both on and off the field, Gaynor recalls.”

“I remember Skippy Cleary calling out the team for the 1999 All-Ireland and we were in the old, if you call them, dressing rooms in the Ragg, there were no toilets, no electricity, he was nearly in the dark trying to read it out.

“Then after that, I’m not sure what year it was, my own mother Eileen, Kitty Nealon, Jean Hayden, and few more got together and created a Supporters Club and went around looking for sponsorship, and things did change, and we were better looked after. That was going on when we were just training and playing matches but was a huge factor and did help us.”

The years of her youth, led by her father former Tipperary hurling great Len, stood with Ciara and at nineteen-years-old she already had her first All-Ireland senior medal. But after winning the third final in a row in 2001, an incident that occurred in her professional life as a Garda put the prospect of her fourth championship in a row in jeopardy, but she returned to win two more All-Ireland’s in 2003 and 2004. However, after final defeat to Cork in 2005, Ciara announced her retirement at the relatively young age of 25.

“I have no regrets of finishing up when I did,” he says.

“There is nothing as bad as looking back with regrets on what I should have done.

“We have a huge amount of hurling underneath us. I remember playing club and school and county and I could have been training five times a week and maybe a match or two, so it does take its toll and it has to in some way.

“When I finished up, I made the decision that I was done, I finished up with club and county at the same time but after Charlie was born in 2009, I went back playing camogie with Duharra, got a bit of itchy feet to get going something again, and I thoroughly enjoyed the two years with Duharra and in 2020 we won the county final which was huge and lovely to have a senior medal in the pocket.

“There is a life outside of hurling, and it is important to have that because for a lot of years you don’t have that as you are solely committed to it.”

She focused her newfound time on family life and her lifelong love of horses, which were put on the back burner with the demands of being an inter-county camogie player.

“My husband (Jeremy) hunted hounds for years and had always ridden, and Charlie has hunted since he was two, so it is lovely to go hunting together as a family, when Jeremy’s two boys are home, we go together and spend time with each other,” she said,

However, the competitive juices still flowed and following the birth of her son Charlie, she got into triathlons through the local club in Nenagh, from where it has developed into running Ironman’s where, last October, she took part in the biggest Ironman of them all in Hawaii.

“Hawaii was the dream,” she admitted.

“They are the World Championships, you can’t just go online and buy a slot, but for Kone you have to earn a slot by completing an Ironman, so I qualified for that after competing in Hamburg last June” with Ciara completing the 3.8k swim, 180k cycle plus full marathon (42k) run in 13 hours and 15 minutes.”

The Ciara Gaynor episode of Laochra Gael airs this Thursday night on TG4 at 9.30pm and will see contributions from parents Len & Eileen Gaynor; husband Jeremy and son Charlie, sister Sinead, teammate Therese Brophy; Kilkenny’s Sinéad Millea; journalist Darragh Ó Conchúir; as well as Sheila Gregan and Stephanie Dunlea.