A fine sportswoman in her earlier days Anne was a great supporter of all things Meath GAA.

Anne was a great hand at golf and squash and won many trophies at badminton.

She also excelled at Gaelic football in a time when there was very little Ladies Gaelic football teams around. In fact Anne was part of the very first Gaelic football team set up in the country. She was joined by Jennifer McGovern, Shiela Rennicks, Noleen Conaty, May Rourke, Kathleen Morgan, Mary Dardis, Attracta McGrane, Dorothy McGovern, Mary Molloy and Cepta Lynch on that history making squad who were coached by Tom Lynch. 

That team was started in the mid sixties in the Tara Shoe Factory in Kells (now Choice). The ladies used to kick football with the lads at tea break and it was from this that their team was formed. The only problem was getting games as there wasn’t any other teams about. Through time more teams came on the scene but it meant travelling. The team arrived one day to a game on the back of Dessie McGovern’s truck.

The story was making national headlines at the time and the Mirror carried this story.

The newly formed team trained on the Gaeil Colmcille pitch and called themselves Tara Royals.

The one big snag about being the only women’s Gaelic football team in Ireland is…there’s no one to play against.

So the fifteen shapely members of the history making Tara Royals advertised for opponents in their local newspaper.

Now another two regular teams are being formed so that the girls of Kells Co. Meath can have regular fixtures.

The story was making national headlines at the time and in an interview with the Mirror Mary O’Rourke the Tara Royals 19 year old chairperson said ‘when we first started playing, there were no other women’s teams, so we decided to advertise of opponents.

‘We formed this Gaelic football club because there was nothing for girls to do in Kells’. The girls thought they would run into a lot of opposition from men because Gaelic football has always been strictly a male sport, but they were wonderful. They gave us a lot of help and allowed us to use their own Gaelic football park for practice matches.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha

Funeral details

Reposing at Muldoon’s Funeral Home, Bective Sq., Kells (A82F9V4), on Friday, 26th January, from 3 pm to 6 pm, with removal to St. Colmcille’s Church, Kells, for 7 pm. Anne’s Funeral Cortege will go by her Home on Suffolk St. Anne’s Funeral Mass will take place on Saturday morning at 11 am, with burial afterwards in St. Colmcille’s Cemetery.

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