By Daire Walsh

Having previously achieved remarkable success with her native Meath at inter-county level, Niamh Gallogly is now enjoying being part of a memorable period in the history of the Dunshaughlin & Royal Gaels club.

Since first securing a Meath senior football championship crown at the expense of Dunboyne back in 2023, Gallogly and Dunshaughlin have added a brace of top-tier LGFA titles within the Royal County. After helping her side to overcome the same opposition in 2024, Gallogly contributed 1-1 at Pairc Tailteann on October 4 of this year as the Royal Gaels claimed a third consecutive Meath SFC trophy with a 4-11 to 2-8 win over the aforementioned Dunboyne.

This signalled the beginning of a hectic couple of weeks for the club on the LGFA scene with Dunshaughlin also securing the Meath Junior ‘B’ Championship with an impressive final victory over Dunsany and the club’s third team narrowly losing out to Ballivor in a Junior ‘G’ showpiece affair.

“It was an incredible achievement for the club. Getting three-in-a-row is just amazing because before we did the three-in-a-row we had never won a senior championship. To go from having none to now three-in-a-row is just indescribable really. It’s a credit to the club and all the people that have been involved over the years,” Gallogly acknowledged.

“The talent pool we have in the club is just insane and this year is the first year we actually fielded three teams and got three teams to finals at adult level. That was just an astounding achievement as well for the club and it’s just a credit to all the players that we have and the talent that is in the club.

“It’s like a conveyor belt nearly at the minute. There’s just constant talent coming through. It’s fantastic because it keeps you on your toes. You don’t know when your place will be gone on the team.”

After emerging victorious from the Royal County in the past two seasons, Dunshaughlin fell short to Kilmacud Crokes (2023) and Eadestown (2024) on their first day out in the Leinster senior club championship. Yet the Meath champions will have a chance to make amends for those defeats when they welcome Offaly’s Ballinamere/Durrow to their home patch for a provincial quarter-final clash tomorrow afternoon (throw-in 2pm).

“We were probably disappointed with our performances in the Leinster campaign the last two years. Especially last year in Dunshaughlin against Eadestown, coming up short. It’s more just trying to actually have a good go at Leinster now this year because we have a serious panel this year as well.

“Serious talent in the young girls coming through. It would just be great to have a good go with it this year and to just really show our potential. Not let our performances drop now because the county final is gone with. That’s probably what happened in the past.

“We were so focused obviously on the county, which you have to be, but we just didn’t carry those performances then onto a Leinster campaign. The hope would be this year to actually just perform on Sunday and please God once we perform, we can get the result.”

Given she first made her debut for the county in 2016, Gallogly has just completed her 10th season as a Meath senior star. During her time with the Royals, she has accumulated a brace of TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship crowns and a TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship title, as well as claiming silverware in the top three divisions of the Lidl National Football League.

Following back-to-back quarter-final losses to Kerry in 2023 and 2024, this year saw Gallogly and Meath returning to an All-Ireland SFC decider with a penultimate round victory over the same opposition at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore on July 19.

Joining her on the panel during this season’s championship were her club-mates Karla Kealy, Ella Moyles, Niamh McEntee and Sadhbh O Muiri. Another Dunshaughlin footballer – two-time All-Ireland senior winner Meadhbh Byrne - was also on the panel for their 2025 league campaign, before stepping away to go travelling during the summer.

While the All-Ireland final on August 3 ended in a 2-16 to 0-10 reversal at the hands of provincial rivals Dublin, Gallogly is generally positive about how the year unfolded for Meath.

“At the start of the year, people probably would have laughed if you’d said we’d be in the All-Ireland in August. To get to an All-Ireland final was obviously huge, but I think we kind of knew it ourselves that we had the talent and we had the potential to go on and win it.

“Obviously we didn’t get the fairytale end that we wanted on the day, but that’s sport. It’s really promising and it pushes you on now. Girls will want to get back now this year.

“Knowing we can push on now and that we have the talent and the potential there to continue to get to All-Irelands, please God, in the future. We got to the latter stages where you want to be, but the end goal is obviously to get up those steps to get the All-Ireland trophy.”

When the 2026 inter-county season begins, Gallogly and her Meath colleagues will be playing under a new manager – albeit one that is already familiar to the Royal panel. Following two years in charge of the team, Shane McCormack stepped down as Meath boss a few weeks on from their latest All-Ireland senior final appearance.

Having been part of the set-up as head coach in 2025, it was announced last Wednesday week that Wayne Freeman was to take over from his fellow Kildare man as Royals manager on a three-year term. Despite still only being 31 years of age, Freeman has enjoyed previous stints in charge of Louth and Clare – winning Division 4 and Division 3 league crowns respectively in 2021 and 2024.

“He’s been involved with Louth and Clare, but you wouldn’t even think he’s young with the way he carries himself. He has a wealth of experience behind him and that really shows out on the training pitch and when he is speaking to us. You kind of grasp onto every word he says. He has been a phenomenal asset to have,” Gallogly said of Freeman.

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