{"id":192315,"date":"2025-12-15T03:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T03:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/192315\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T03:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T03:50:10","slug":"camogie-kirsten-keenan-mairead-burke-and-donnagh-mortimer-react-to-all-ireland-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/192315\/","title":{"rendered":"Camogie: Kirsten Keenan, Mairead Burke and Donnagh Mortimer react to All-Ireland success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Camross\u2019 historic All-Ireland Club Intermediate Camogie success unfolded amid a pulsating atmosphere in Croke Park, as black and amber filled the Hogan Stand and drove the Laois champions on for every minute of the final.\n<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the victory, Kirsten Keenan, Mairead Burke and Donnagh Mortimer spoke candidly about the journey, the support and the sense of disbelief that still lingered after an unforgettable day in Croke Park.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we have a big following anyway, and we have been lucky enough to have a couple of home games as well, where obviously some people didn\u2019t have to travel and that.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minute we won the Leinster final and got into the All-Ireland semi, the support behind us is unheard of, really, unless you\u2019re at one of the lads\u2019 games or something like that.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re starting to follow us now, as watching hurling rather than just following us because we\u2019re from Camross. We\u2019ve never experienced that before; we\u2019re just so happy. I can\u2019t believe it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The scale of that backing created the impression that the whole parish of Camross was inside Croke Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been a great place to rob today. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other parish like ours, especially when it\u2019s such a small place, and it\u2019s easy to say that when you come from there.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole year has kind of taken us by surprise because this was our fourth year trying to win the county final, so it wasn\u2019t a case that we just thought we\u2019d ever be here at the start of the year. So we\u2019ve just been riding the waves since the county final, so it\u2019s very surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking back on the season as a whole, the trio acknowledged that an All-Ireland run had never really featured in their thinking once the year began to unfold.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, never, to be honest. Well, I would have thought at the very, very start, because The Harps were kind of doing it back in Laois, they\u2019ve won some.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the years went on, I didn\u2019t think it would ever happen for us. If you told us at the start of the year that we\u2019d win the county final, we\u2019d have taken that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Attention then turned to a pivotal moment in the final itself, with full-forward Keenan asked about the defensive work that helped create Camross\u2019 crucial goal.\n<\/p>\n

Keenan said: \u201cWell, to be fair now, we do say everyone can play in every position.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defending starts from number 15. To be fair, the harder the backs can get out the ball, the worse of a ball they can get to their people, and it just so happened to fall lovely then for SAF, and like that, the grass out there is like a carpet, so pulling on it, the ball was flying,\u201d Keenan said.\n<\/p>\n

Despite their dominance after the break, Burke and Mortimer admitted they were unaware of just how effective Camross had been defensively as they limited Ballincollig to just three frees before discussing the challenges posed by the vast Croke Park surface.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t actually know that; it didn\u2019t feel like that. That is brilliant. It was very helter-skelter at the start, but it\u2019s just such a big pitch. It took us a while to get into it.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it wasn\u2019t, but when you\u2019re actually lining out, it is huge. I think half-time just sort of settled our nerves.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were dropping a lot of balls in the first-half that we normally wouldn\u2019t, and then we kind of just went out and said, right, 30 more minutes left now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mortimer also reflected on the novelty of sharing the field with Erin Walsh, whom she encounters regularly off it, given her role as a teacher in Mountrath Community School.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mad, I don\u2019t actually teach her in school, I see her more as a friend.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs she said in an interview about me, she sees me more as a friend, and I\u2019m the same. If I were teaching her in class, it would be a different story,\u201d Mortimer said.\n<\/p>\n

With the All-Ireland secured, thoughts quickly shifted to the celebrations awaiting the team back in Camross, with memories of recent homecomings fresh in their minds.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after our Leinster final and the All-Ireland semi-final, it was unbelievable, the people that came out. It\u2019s a fact to say that this year we\u2019ll be walking three cups over the bridge.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start of the year, we were going in nearly on a downer because we had lost a couple of county finals.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to win one of them to even be here. We were saying all we needed to do was win the county final; that was our only focus. Anything other than that then was a bonus.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The players also smiled when recalling the unusual pause in their schedule before the final, after weeks of constant games and little time to breathe.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we nearly have actually played better as the year has gone on. We\u2019ve definitely peaked since the county final.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe week-on-week really helped us, actually, rather than a couple of weeks\u2019 gaps.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had two weeks for the All-Ireland semi and two weeks for this; they kind of went fast. I know, I was like, oh my God, we don\u2019t have training for two days, what\u2019s going on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

They further highlighted the influence of county success earlier in the year, with several Camross players benefiting from the experience of Laois\u2019 All-Ireland triumph.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, yeah, it will. Like that, it was Laois\u2019 second time going for the All-Ireland, having lost by a point last year, and then to win this year, I feel like it boosted everyone.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good few girls in with the county, and I feel like it boosted us going back in. Oh yeah, it did, definitely. Usually, you\u2019re kind of used to coming in on a low and then going back to the club.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came in on such a high, and the girls were flat out training then as well. Everyone was kind of pushing everyone hard.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just met in the middle, and we all just drove on. You can see there, even the girls who came on had such an impact. We might have a small panel, but it\u2019s a serious panel at that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Burke finished by capturing what she felt lay at the heart of Camross\u2019 success, a bond within the group that strengthened as the season went on.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually feel, I\u2019d say we all feel as united as we actually are, and it doesn\u2019t always happen, but something just clicked this year. We have loads of family, but even though we\u2019re not all related, it still feels like you\u2019re one little family. It\u2019s hard to describe, it\u2019s just amazing,\u201d Burke ended.\n<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO \u2013 \u2018Jungle Joe\u2019 set for O\u2019Moore Park return following appearance with 2 Johnnies at 3 Arena Show<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Camross\u2019 historic All-Ireland Club Intermediate Camogie success unfolded amid a pulsating atmosphere in Croke Park, as black and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[93084,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-192315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-camross","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}