Micaela Glynn wins a lineout. Photograph: John Glynn.
MICAELA Glynn is making history this weekend as she captains Ennis RFC Ladies team in County Clare’s first-ever All Ireland League (AIL) match.
From the village of Kilmihil, Micaela is the latest in a new wave of West Clare athletes making their mark in Irish rugby. Kilmihil has already produced current Ireland Women’s captain Edel McMahon and former UL Bohemian, Munster, and Ireland player Eimear Considine.
Her sporting career began playing ladies football with Kilmihil. Before proving herself as a strong player on the rugby pitch, Micaela excelled in GAA at both club and county level.
Playing as Kilmihil’s goalkeeper, a position she still holds today she helped the senior ladies team win their first senior championship title in 2019. Micaela was also the goalkeeper for the Clare intermediate ladies footballers for four years.
Micaela took up rugby at the age of 15 with the under-16s team in Kilrush. At the time, she was also playing with Clare’s minor football team. With football as her main focus, she initially played rugby as another hobby. Over time, Micaela found herself drawn to rugby and decided to devote more time to the sport.
At 19, Micaela started playing adult rugby as part of the first Ennis/Kilrush amalgamated team when it was first established four years ago. Micaela told The Clare Echo that the atmosphere and inclusive environment of rugby is what drew her to the sport, “There’s just a certain atmosphere that kind of goes in tandem with the rugby community. There’re positions on the field for every build of player. It’s just a really welcoming environment where there’s kind of a role or responsibility for everybody, no matter your age or no matter what”.
She captained the Ennis/Kilrush team last season, which culminated in a win to qualify for this year’s AIL competition.
This year has been a landmark for Micaela. After leading Ennis/Kilrush to victory last year, earning the club its promotion to the Energia All-Ireland League, she was called up to the Munster senior women’s rugby squad for the Vodafone Interprovincial Championship in August 2025.
Micaela played alongside a number of her Ennis/Kilrush teammates on the Munster squad, including vice-captain Lyndsay Clarke. She also came up against some of her Ennis/Kilrush teammates, such as Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey, who lined out for Connacht.
Micaela says that having interprovincial players on the squad is an asset to their gameplay and has helped improve the team’s skill, “Having been involved with the Munster and the Connacht set-ups, you see what’s expected of you and getting to experience a team that is playing at the highest standards. First of all, you’re learning the expectations but also the standard that is out there.
“I think for our girls to bring that back into the club scene, for other girls who might have been involved, they’re seeing and they’re learning from them girls who have been coached at such a high level. I think player-to-player learning is one of the most important things. That’s definitely something that we’ve noticed more of this year. Because of girls getting such high-level coaching, being able to pass that on and replicate that within our club has definitely been a massive benefit”.
The Ennis ladies team, formerly Ennis/Kilrush, has quickly established itself as a force in Munster rugby, despite no adult women’s team existing in Clare four years ago. Micaela attributes this success to the team’s shared desire to keep rugby alive.
She explained that when starting the team in 2021, their aim was not to win tournaments or reach the top division, but to create a space for sport and for women in Clare to continue playing rugby as adults. “Especially in our team at the moment, I think there’s just a shared desire to keep rugby alive. And the fact that we got the senior women’s team going in the first place, I think everyone just kind of has the same motivation and the same desire. First of all, to keep being able to play rugby at an adult level, but as well as that, to have the standard that we’re able and capable of playing at”.
With the team’s first AIL match taking place on Saturday, September 27, away against Tullow, Micaela is honoured to make history for her club and her county. “It is such an honour. The whole thing of making history as the first Clare AIL team and to be captain of that. I just don’t have the words to describe it. It’s just amazing. With the group of girls that is there, it’s just so nice to be captain and to be able to lead and try and set standards across the group”.
Micaela explained that her main goals going into the competition are not about winning but supporting her team and setting the standard, not only for themselves but for the underage girls in their club. “I think that’s one thing that I do want to get across to the girls as captain this year. Even though it is a high standard of rugby that we are capable, we do have the ability. We’ve shown that the last while. I think just to instil confidence in the girls is a massive aim or target that I’d have this year. And to just make sure that they have the backing in themselves as well as in the team”.
Micaela says that beyond the Division 1 competition, she is happy to see women’s rugby growing within the county. She hopes that the club’s involvement in the top-level tournament will help pave the way for younger generations and empower underage girls to continue playing rugby as adults.
“It’s hard really when you kind of only see yourself as playing underage a couple of years ago, but now suddenly you’re in this position where our team could be the reason that a lot of girls have started playing rugby. I think knowing that makes us kind of show up that extra five or ten percent to the pitch, because you want that standard to still be there when them girls get through to senior level. You don’t want them to have to be working their way up through again. They should have that entitlement to be able to play at AIL. I think it is a massive boost knowing that we’ve heard stories from different girls that are playing and that have been following us and following our game for the last two or three years”.
