UPDATED 12.55PM 20/10/2026
Maeve Clince of Warrenstown, Dunboyne – aka The Back Road – will become the latest sports star from the locality to take to the International stage when she lines out under the tricolour in the Camogie/Shinty clash with Scotland in Cork on Saturday next. The game having a 4pm throw in time.
The hybrid contests are, from a GAA perspective, camogie’s equivalent of the International Rules Series played against the Australians. Shinty is best described as being very close to ground hurling with the main difference between the two being that the Shinty sticks are both longer and thinner than normal hurls here.
Maeve will make history as not only the first Dunboyne woman but the latest in a very select few cailini caman from the Royal County to line out in the shinty internationals. There is, however, a long and storied history of association by her male equivalents from both town and county representing town, county and country between both the IRS and the shinty.
However, depending on how far back you want to go, the history of Meath GAA being represented on the international stage goes back in the direction of three quarters of a century. To the early or mid 1950s when Meath – including our own Jim Reilly – played in an NFL Final in New York.
From there, you had Mick O’Brien and the men of 1967 going to Australia in the year following their All Ireland win and, perhaps of greatest relevance to today’s subject matter is the fact that it was a motion from Pat O’Neill of the St Colmcille’s club to Congress which brought about the instigation of the International Rules Series.
In the hybrid football itself, Tommy O’Connor was the first local to be ‘capped’ in the U-17 IRS, in 2001 – along with David Murtagh from Navan O’Mahonys and one J. Sheridan. Fittingly given the Mick O’Brien connection, Walterstown’s Brian McCormack was the first Meath player picked for the underage Series while it was going, in Millennium year.
Don’t ask me how in Gods name I nearly forgot to include the following, but, of course, Martin ‘Mocky’ Regan was one of those attendant to the troupe who went Down Under with Colm O’Rourke in 1999 and – even more bizarrely – I had also neglected to include the 2008 tour when Sean Boylan went global and caused quite the stir by plucking David Gallagher from relative obscurity at the time to play in goal.
Mocky was on board once again too, as was Sean’s aide de camp and my unofficial extra brother – Eoghan Lynch – or as anybody that was around a Meath football team for a span of about 30 years will know him – The Crow! Oh, and just for a bit of symmetry, he’s Maeve’s uncle as well!
I’m not actually sure how the Hurling/Shinty series came about but as with the hybrid football, Meath have been prominently represented therein from the off.
From what I think was 2007 when Kilmessan’s Nicky Horan and our own Paul Gannon lined out in Croker against the Tartan Army. As did Steven Clynch and the legend that is Mickey Burke.
As was hinted at at the outset here, Maeve is one of very few, if any, others from the Royal County to be a representative in the camogie internationals, but, she will be part of a strong ensemble assembled by Ireland manager and Cork All Ireland winning boss Ger Manley.
The side will be captained by Cork icon Ashling Thompson. A fitting honour for the greatest player of her generation to lead out the girls in green onto her own fiefdom of SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
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