LADIES GAA | Knockbride Ladies win the 2018 Nicola Barry Memorial Tournament
Event remembers the life of former Stabannon player Nicola who passed away in 2014
Cavan club, Knockbride Ladies GFC, were crowned 2018 Nicola Barry Memorial Tournament winners on a sunny afternoon in Stabannon on Saturday.
Twelve teams descended on mid-Louth to take part in the third edition of this annual event which is organised by Stabannon Ladies GFC in honour of their teammate and friend Nicola Barry who lost her battle with cancer at the age of just 26 in 2014.
After winning the trophy in 2017, the host club were looking to defend their title and were pitted in Group One alongside the Geraldines, St Fechin’s, Louth Development Squad A, Naomh Fionnbarra and Portobello from Dublin.
Group Two was made up of Knockbride and St Killian’s from Cavan, Dee Rangers and St Colmcilles from Meath, along with the Louth Development Squad B and Glyde Rangers. Each team had five games to play with the two teams from each group qualifying for the semi-finals.
In Group One, St Fechin’s, Stabannon and the Geraldines emerged as strong contenders for the semi final positions with four wins and one defeat in their five games. In the end, it came down to score difference with Stabannon emerging as group winners followed by St Fechin’s, with the Geraldines just missing out.
Knockbride, Dee Rangers and St Colmcilles started off strong in Group Two and not before long it was evident that these three teams would be the semi final contenders. In the end, Knockbride came out as winners of the group followed by a strong Dee Rangers team.
The semi final pairings saw Stabannon take on Dee Rangers in a repeat of the 2017 final while Knockbride met St Fechin’s and it was the hosts and the Cavan outfit who emerged victorious.
A large crowd gathered for the final which was refereed by Stabannon clubman Aidan Shevlin. Both teams gave it everything and there was only two points separating the teams — in Stabannon’s favour — at the interval.
The second-half opened with both sides trading point after point until Knockbride got a goal to edge them ahead despite being down to six players. Stabannon, though, just couldn’t capitalise and it was evident that the heat and the number of consecutive matches was having an impact on the team.
Knockbride, to their credit, continued to push ahead and tagged on enough scores to win the game by a single point and take the title in their first year at the event.
The Player of the Tournament was selected by referees during the day and the award went to Stabannon’s Anne Marie Lynch. Laura Barry, mum of Nicola, presented Anne Marie with her trophy.
John Barry, Nicola’s father, presented the Nicola Barry Memorial Cup to Tina O’Reilly, the delighted captain of Knockbride GFC. Each player on the winning team was then presented with a training top, sponsored by FanFruit, by Teresa Hanratty from the organising committee.
It was a fantastic end to a fantastic day with football being the real winner. A great mix of teams from inside and outside the county took part, ensuring that the standard of football played during the tournament was high and matches were competitive, giving teams everything to play for during the group stages.
A special tribute to Nicola was paid at the end of the tournament as the organising committee released three balloons, each one representing a decade of Nicola’s life — Nicola would have been 30 on June 7th if she was still alive.
It was a special tribute to a special player and friend who is remembered and honoured by Stabannon and the wider GAA community during this tournament.
Any surplus money raised from donations during the tournament and through sponsorship is donated to a selected charity/group. In 2016, €500 was donated to the Ballsgrove Youth Group — of which Nicola was a member — and in 2017, €500 was donated to local charity Oran’s Foundation.
The organising committee, along with Nicola’s family and sponsors FanFruit, will decide on the recipients of the 2018 donation in the coming weeks. This donation is to honour Nicola’s work with charities and groups while she was alive and through this her legacy will live on forever.
The organising committee would like to thank all the teams who took part in the tournament, those who helped get the pitch ready, those who helped on the day and everybody who gave sponsorship towards the event.
However, the biggest thank you of all goes to the Barry family for allowing the committee to run the tournament in memory of Nicola.
