Christmas came early for two of County Galway’s greatest GAA club teams who made history by claiming All-Ireland glory at Croke Park again last weekend.

Celebrations continued this week in five County Galway parishes as Kilkerrin/Clonberne toasted another All-Ireland senior ladies’ football final success on Saturday – probably their best yet – a day before the women from Bullaun, New Inn, and Woodlawn were crowned All-Ireland camogie champions.

Kilkerrin/Clonberne, led by joint captains, Sarah Gormally and Louise Ward, retained their title, and won a record four-in-a-row with a hard-earned victory over Kilmacud Crokes of Dublin. Four points from top-scorer Chloe Miskill helped the north Galway women – with five sets of sisters on the panel – to a 0-13 to 0-9 success in the decider.

Meanwhile, it was a real family affair for Sarsfield’s McGrath household as six sisters – Niamh, Siobhán, Clodagh, Orlaith, Laoise and Ciara – all featured for the winning side that was managed by their father, Galway 1980s hurling legend, Michael ‘Hopper’ McGrath.

Niamh missed last year’s decider defeat to Dicksboro, as she was expecting her son Ruadhán, but the 31-year-old chipped in with six points with a player-of-the-match performance that helped to down the Clare challengers, Truagh/Clonlara, at the Jones’ Road venue on Sunday.

Appearing in their sixth consecutive All-Ireland final, the Galway champs secured a record fourth title with a comprehensive 1-17 to 0-6 victory – Siobhan McGrath the goal-scorer, was the game’s top-scorer with 1-5.

“It’s unbelievable. Since camogie went to 15-a-side in the mid-nineties, four different teams have won three, so we are the first team to win four,” said Hopper McGrath, twelve months after the team suffered heartache at the same stage last year.

Adding a fourth national title to their seven-in-a-row provincial crowns, Kilkerrin/Clonberne manager Willie Ward was thrilled with his team’s history-making, too.

“It’s unbelievable that we have a team from a small community, and small club, that can go and win four All-Irelands in a row. It’s history in Galway, and it’s history all over the country. The team are unbelievable, what they can do and how they play.

“It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas for us . . . I think today we proved that we are the greatest. People were saying we mightn’t have beaten the greatest teams in the finals every year but today we did that. It’s an amazing achievement for the team and it will be a great Christmas,” Ward said.

Caption: Sarsfields celebrate their All-Ireland senior club camogie victory over Truagh/Clonlara.

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