THREE CLARE players who were part of the historic All-Island Cup success with Galway Utd have been the guests of honour at special homecoming events in the county over the past week.
Shannon’s Lynsey McKee was captain of the Galway Utd side which claimed the inaugural Avenir Sports All-Island Cup with a narrow 1-0 victory over Cliftonville at the Showgrounds in front of 579 spectators at the end of July.
McKee was joined was by Barefield’s Aislinn Meaney on the starting eleven with teenager Amy Madden from Newmarket-on-Fergus part of the successful squad. It was first club final for Galway Utd since the 2015 EA Sports Cup defeat for the men’s side to St Patrick’s Athletic.
Lynsey started her career with Park Rangers before going on to play for Shannon Town Utd. She was capped for her country at U17 level and then secured a scholarship to the United States of America.
Aislinn started her career playing locally with Lifford Ladies, before joining the then Galway WFC in 2017 and had an almost immediate impact, she won league player of the month in May 2018 and also made the league team of the year at the time. She joined Galway Utd at the beginning of this season following spells in both the Women’s Premier Division with previously Galway WFC and Treaty United before heading across to the United States to play with college team Akron Zips and IUP Crimson Hawks. She has also represented her country at underage level and played with many of Vera Pauw’s side that competed in the World Cup.
It was also a first season with Galway Utd for Amy. She played with the Treaty Utd U17 squad in 2021 and made the step up to the senior team in 2022 where she had sixteen league and cup appearances. In February, she signed for Galway Utd for their first season in the League of Ireland Women’s League.
A homecoming was held in Lynch Park, the grounds of Shannon Town Utd for McKee on Wednesday with the club very proud of the achievements of their former player.
On Friday evening, McDonough Memorial Park in Newmarket-on-Fergus was the venue as the trio joined in for underage girls training at Newmarket Celtic.
