*Tara Rynne with Alex Leyden, Conor Rynne and Lawrence Healy. Photograph: John Sheridan.
TARA RYNNE has tasted success on and off the field, this weekend she’s hoping to guide her Ennistymon Community School charges to All-Ireland glory.
Captain of the first Inagh/Kilnamona side to win the Clare senior camogie championship in 2016, Tara is also the holder of an All-Ireland junior camogie championship with Inagh from 2011. Two years ago, she was the receipient of a Gradaim an Uachtaráin.
Since joining the staff of Ennistymon CBS in 2013, she has made her mark in the coaching sphere and was in charge of the talented side of 2022 that won Munster C titles in hurling and football before narrowly losing out in their respective All-Ireland campaigns.
Reflecting on the sporting success in the school since her arrival, Tara recounted, “We’ve had really good twelve years, you’d have a few breaks in between and then you get another bit of success to keep you going for another few years”.
Comparing the 2022 run with their current campaign, she said, “I feel like three years ago when we were in the two All-Irelands it was every week and I feel like this one has just popped up, it is only two weeks since we played the Munster final and we’re getting ready for an All-Ireland final, it is all happening so quickly”. She added of the 2022 adventure, “That was just after COVID so it was huge, everybody was coming to support us and they were just thrilled to get to see another day”.
Keelan Sexton, Aidan McCarthy, Cillian Rouine, Cillian McGroary and Brendy Rouine are just some of the players to have gone on to wear the county colours that Tara has trained with Ennistymon CBS. “There is always somebody on the Clare team. It makes it really worthwhile from a coaching perspective, you get to hang out with them more when you’re training them and coaching them, it is good to see them progressing with their sports after school,” she said.
Transitioning to the Community School has been positive, the maths and PE teacher believed. “It’s great because we have so much more facilities now in the school, and we have a bigger pool of people and pool of teachers to work from. It’s just really busy, you’re always going and there’s a lot to do, and there’s so many more people to meet and all that. It’s great. It’s great for the community even”.
A native of Cloounaha in North Clare, Tara pointed to the array of clubs with representatives on their panel. “We’ve never had as much a spread of players, like we have Ennistymon, Corofin, St Breckan’s, Inagh, Miltown, Clann Lir, down as far as Barefield and Kilmaley, they’re coming from everywhere but it’s great that you are in a position to put it all together and you also help them to reach their potential outside in the field”.
This campaign has been a hectic one, she acknowledged. “In Munster, we played Spanish Point and we played Doon after that, then after Christmas we had the Munster semi-final and it really got going from there, Spanish Point were an amazing team but in the semi-final Glanmire were a good Cork team so when we beat them we knew we were really in this and we had a great chance”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Ms Rynne cited the Glanmire game as their turning point. “The Glanmire game for me, once you get to the other side of Christmas you’re just keen to keep going, when we were competitive against Glanmire I knew we’d be competitive against PBC, they are tight games, we won the first by five and the second by six, I enjoyed them games, Spanish Point are the most competitive team we’ve played, if it was us two in the All-Ireland final I’d be shaking”.
On Thursday evening, the clock strikes 17:40 as the last of the panellists depart the community field in Lahinch. “They might be tired going around in school but they come out here and they’re absolutely lifting to go train so that’s great to see,” Tara observed. “I’d be trying to persuade them to behave themselves in school so that they could be playing for us like, yeah. They’re good, they’re not too bad,” she added.
Training is primarily done in Lahinch while they have also utilised facilities in Ennistymon and Inagh. “We’ve been to Ennistymon, Lahinch and Inagh Astro because we played some of our games before Christmas on the astro-turf, we were there for November, December and a bit of January”.
Support is growing for the team, she felt. “That’s the thing about the community schools, there’s people offering their support from further aside than what you’d normally be, picking from. It’s great that we have so many behind us and so many offers of support getting ready for next week”.
Heading into Saturday’s final they have a clean bill of health which is welcomed by Tara and her joint manager Lawrence Healy.
