The death occurred on Friday of Maeve Gilroy, one of Antrim and Ulster’s greatest ever camogie players.
The St Malachy’s player made her inter-county debut for the Saffrons in 1952 and scored three points in the Ulster final defeat of Down as the team went through to contest the All-Ireland final against Dublin. They lost narrowly that year, 5-1 to 4-2, but Gilroy had established in the Antrim team where she would remain for the next 17 seasons.
She was already regarded as one of the country’s best players when she scored two goals for Antrim against Dublin in the historic 1956 All Ireland semi-final, a match that prevented Dublin winning 19 All Ireland titles in a row. Antrim would go on to defeat Cork in the final and win the county’s fourth O’Duffy Cup.
Gilroy was a goal-scorer and leading player on the first ever Queen’s University Belfast team to defeat UCD, by a score of 3–1 to 3–0 in the Ashbourne Cup of 1959, but the cup went to UCD at the end of the round-robin series.
She featured in a total of eight All-Ireland senior finals in a variety of positions from full-forward through midfield and then defence in the second half of her inter-county career.
She was at centre-half back in the 1966 All-Ireland series for which she was presented with the Cúchulainn award, the equivalent of Player of the Year. Centre-half back was also her position a year later when she collected her second All-Ireland medal and later that autumn helped Ulster win the Gael Linn inter-provincial title for the first time.
Alongside her playing career Gilroy had become a top referee and took charge of the All-Ireland senior finals of 1961 and 1962 as well as numerous semi-finals. It’s likely that she would have refereed more finals had she not been playing in them!
Her last appearance for Antrim in an All-Ireland final was at centre-half back in 1969 when they lost to Wexford by a margin of two points. By then she was already an established coach at club level and with Queen’s University as well as a single figure handicapper in golf.
Maeve passed away on Friday at Park Manor Nursing Home and her funeral Mass will take place on TUESDAY at 12pmin St Matthias’ Church Belfast.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam
Attached is a picture of Antrim All Ireland Camogie champions 1956, the photograph taken in Croke Park immediately after their win over Cork. Maeve Gilroy is 5th from left on the back row.
Back L-R: Ita O Reilly, Winnie Kearns, Ethna Dougan, Deirdre O’Gorman, Maeve Gilroy, Moya Forde, Grace Connolly, Agnes Dillon.
Front L-R: Lil Forrester, Marion Cairns, Eilish Cunning, Madge Rainey capt, Chris Hughes, Margo O’Kane, Teresa Kearns.