‘Guarding the Kingdom’ – The Big Interview with Kerry’s Aishling O’Connell

When it comes to achieving a suitable balance between work and sport, Kerry footballer Aishling O’Connell has a tougher task than most within the inter-county game.

By DAIRE WALSH

A Garda based in the West Cork town of Bandon – located all of 83 kilometres from her home village of Cordal – O’Connell has often found herself working 12-hour night shifts either before or after collective training sessions with the Kingdom’s senior squad. While O’Connell recognises this was always going to be part of the bargain when she decided to pursue a career with An Garda Siochána, she freely acknowledges it can take its toll even at the best of times.

“It is tough, I won’t lie! We trained last Friday week and I drove straight to work after down in West Cork. It does take its toll. It is hard enough going into nights after a tough training, but the two hour drive down hasn’t helped,” O’Connell explained.

“You start a night shift at 7pm and you finish at 7am. You could be working on a Saturday night and you’ve training on Sunday morning. There have been times that I’ve driven down to Kerry, you might get half an hour in the bed and you’re going straight to training.

“You want to train, but you’re not able to do as much as you’d like because there is obviously an injury risk factor there. In a way it’s good that I’m around this long, but it’s hard if you were trying to make an impact because you’re not going to be training as well as you should be. It’s tough, but it’s the job I signed up for!”

However, things are set to become that little bit easier for O’Connell in the long run as she is due to take up a post at Killarney Garda Station inside the next few weeks. This will leave the 2022 TG4 All Star with a much shorter commute to Kerry training and it also changes where the 27-year-old defender will be playing her club football once the Kingdom’s championship campaign reaches a conclusion.

Having represented Éire Óg in Cork for the past few years – she narrowly lost out to Mourneabbey in a senior championship decider on the Leeside in 2023 – O’Connell will soon be back in the colours of her previous club Scartaglen.

“It will take a bit of pressure off the body and less driving as well. It might make things a little bit easier. I made the decision at the end of this year that I was going to try and get home for work. That in turn did lead me to wanting to go back and play with my home club. It was a natural progression.

“I’ve had great times there at Éire Óg, but I want to go back playing for Scart. I felt like I had given everything I could to Éire Óg. My partner, he’s actually a Cork man, so once I was able to convince him to move to Kerry, it was just the next step to make!

“I started with the boys’ club in Cordal, where I’m from, but then at U14s I joined Scart and played with them up until seniors. It’s because of them that I’m wearing the Kerry jersey. They’ve gotten to the intermediate final in the last two years and following the end of the championship this year with Kerry, I’d love to be able to contribute to a win with Scart as well.”

Yet as she alludes to, O’Connell does have some unfinished business with The Kingdom before she contemplates a return to the local club championship. Having recently overcome Meath at the quarter-final stage of the competition, Kerry are now just 60 minutes away from sealing a TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship decider spot for the third year in succession.

Standing in their way at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore later this evening (throw-in 7.15pm) will be Greg McGonigle’s Armagh, who defeated the Kingdom in a Lidl National Football League Division 1 final at Croke Park last April.

Although their male compatriots losing out to the Orchard County in GAA HQ last weekend adds intrigue to tonight’s contest, it is that spring time clash (as well as an earlier league reversal to Armagh at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in March) that will have O’Connell and her Kerry colleagues on high alert. Despite losing Aimee Mackin to an anterior cruciate ligament injury since that NFL showpiece victory, the return to fitness of Mackin’s sister Blaithín has served as a welcome boost for Armagh.

“I suppose Aimee gets maybe more of the headlines, but Blaithín does some amount of unseen work. She covers from the 21 to the 21, and you saw it last week (a quarter-final win against Mayo), she’s getting on the scoreboard as well. She’s class.

“We’ve kind of followed in the footsteps of Meath in the way that we won Division Two, went to One and won Division One. Meath did it first, ourselves and Armagh have done it. That momentum really helps going into championship. They’re just playing superb football, they’re going to be tough to play.”

Whereas Kerry’s showdown with Armagh is a meeting of the top two teams in this year’s NFL Division 1, the first All-Ireland senior semi-final in Tullamore today features a brace of sides that were on the opposite end of the spectrum. After suffering relegation to Division 2 of the NFL at the end of difficult springtime campaigns, Galway and Cork will lock horns at 5pm in O’Connor Park for the right to compete in the Brendan Martin Cup decider on August 4.

Having kept a close eye on their respective developments in recent months, O’Connell is expecting a ding-dong battle between the Tribeswomen and Kerry’s long-standing provincial rivals.

“Galway and Cork, for both of them to be relegated and to be getting into an All-Ireland semi-final, it’s unbelievable really. It’s credit to them and to the management,” added O’Connell, who has already made 15 appearances for Kerry in 2024.

“It’s a huge opportunity for them as well as it is for ourselves and Armagh to get to a final. I wouldn’t be surprised if it went to extra-time. They’re the kind of teams that they seem to be playing each other a lot over the years and it’s always very close.”