*Ellie Hanrahan. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
ELLIE HANRAHAN feels St Joseph’s Spanish Point’s run to the All-Ireland Senior A ladies football final has been driven by continuity within the school’s panel.
By Gearóid Howley
It has been a rollercoaster run to the final for Spanish Point, with a last-ditch goal from Allisha Ryan sending them through to the decider and finally breaking their semi-final hoodoo after falling at that stage at B level in 2025 and C level in 2024.
“We’ve had tough games all the way up along so we know that any team we’re going to play is going to be very good, they’ve all been very tight games, so we know to win you have to be giving a performance every day. Even getting through the Munster semi-final and winning the Munster, that was massive for us to make it three Munster’s in a row. Winning the All-Ireland semi-final was massive after losing at that stage for the last two years, it’s been a great run of games. It’s just great to be in an A final,” Hanrahan said.
The Kilmurry Ibrickane sharp-shooter is one of a number of players within the group with experience of performing on the biggest stage with the school, something she feels has been key to their rise to the top tier. “I was on the team when we won the Munster C and I would have been in Leaving Cert the year after, we knew we were going to lose a lot of girls. I wouldn’t have thought we’d have even done well in Munster B and then we went onto win it and got into A. I think that having a lot of girls when we were in C that are still there now has got us to where we are now, the build-up to where we are started three years ago because we’ve had the same management and basically the same panel all the way through, that has definitely helped us get to this.
“Eimear [Considine] and Shauna [Harvey] have been massive to get us to where we are now, they were what brought ladies football in Spanish Point to where it is now. Before we got to that Munster C final, Spanish Point wasn’t doing that great in ladies football even when we had good teams and great players, we weren’t doing that well. I think the effort being put in by management even Paul [Reidy], he’s been managing teams for years and they all know what they’re doing so that’s definitely helped get us to where we are,” she told The Clare Echo
Ellie is one of a number of players on the West Clare school’s squad that is also lining out for the county, having become a mainstay for Clare’s intermediate side so far in 2026. Her player of the game performance in 2024 where she scored 2-2 helped Kilmurry Ibrickane to win a maiden senior championship. “You’ve to kind of manage girls’ workloads with trying to arrange school training around Clare under 16s training, Clare minor training, and Clare intermediate training for myself. I think that has also benefited us, girls are used to playing at a higher level, big games like an All-Ireland semi-final or final doesn’t really affect them as much with nerves and stuff because they’re playing at a high standard with Clare teams.
“Anyone I’ve met it’s all that has been talked about with the last week. People that you wouldn’t think have an interest in football would be asking about the game, even walking into a shop people are talking about the game, there is a great buzz around,” Ellie added.
