Longford captain Eimear O’Brien has set league and championship promotion as this year’s targets writes Daire Walsh.
It’s now seven years since the Longford Slashers star first established herself as a starter. The O’Farrell County were operating in Lidl National Football League Division 3 and in the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate football Championship.
However, relegation to division four and the junior championship occurred in 2023.
Last year, Longford missed out on the knockout stages of the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship and Lidl NFL Division 4. Competitions they previously won in 2016 and 2017.
Although challenging at the business end of the championship is a major ambition for the summer time. Brian Farrell’s side will be fighting tooth and nail to book a spot in the Division 4 semi-finals at the end of March.
“There are teams” in the “Intermediate Championship that are playing Division 4 or vice versa, Junior and playing Division 3” explained O’Brien.
“There is very little between junior and intermediate, and Division 3 and Division 4. The teams are nearly interchangeable; so there’s definitely no reason why we can’t be back up there playing Division 3 and Intermediate,” added O’Brien.
“We’re really targeting the Championship this year” declared O’Brien. “There’s players who will come back in later on, and we’ll have even bigger numbers”.
“We really are targeting mainly Championship, but the League semi-final is there to grab. So we’ll obviously aim for it.”
Despite losing out to Sligo at Cloonacool Community Park last Sunday. Longford remain in the reckoning for a knockout spot after emphatic victories at home to Derry and Kilkenny in the league’s opening two rounds.
Ahead of their meeting with Fermanagh at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park tomorrow afternoon (throw-in 2pm), the O’Farrell outfit occupy second place in the fourth-tier table.
Longford host Fermanagh on Sunday
Having missed out on their opening three games, due to a combination of injury and being away. O’Brien is hopeful this weekend will see her playing her first competitive game since being named captain of Longford for the 2025 season.
Having previously served as vice-captain for several years, the experienced defender is delighted to be taking on a key leadership role in the county set-up.
“It’s a huge honour to be selected as captain” explained O’Brien. “You feel like you’re really respected by the manager and the players”.
“You also just feel like you’re obviously a good role model for younger players as well. It’s a big deal to be named county captain”.
“I’m also probably one of the older players on the team. We’re quite a young team and I’ve probably been one of the longest around. It definitely will help and knowing the girls as well helps too.”
Still striving for success at inter-county level, O’Brien has already accumulated a significant collection of medals in the club game.
A Junior county championship winner with Longford Slashers in 2017. O’Brien, played a starring role when the Farneyhoogan outfit claimed Intermediate Championship honours a year later.
Slashers have continued to go from strength to strength since. Last October they picked up their sixth successive Droplink Longford senior championship title in the O’Farrell County.
Yet undoubtedly the crowning glory for the club was their triumph over Mullinahone in the 2022 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship final.
The first All-Ireland ladies club final to be played at Croke Park. Longford Slashers beat their Tipperary counterparts 4-11 to 2-8 with O’Brien producing a typically committed performance in defence.
Club championship victory in Croke Park
“It’s probably the biggest highlight, it was amazing” declared O’Brien. “Playing in Croke Park is where every player wants to be, up on the big stage. Especially with family around you.
“A football team are probably some of the closest people in your life. Winning a massive thing like that is huge”.
“It was very, very special. The year before we were so disappointed having lost the Leinster final, but I think winning the All-Ireland in Croke Park definitely made up for any sort of disappointment”.
“It took us a while to get out of Junior” O’Brien explained. “We were a very, very young team. Then when we won the Junior, at that stage we were knocking on the door for so long”.
Young team looking for success
“We were playing division one football while playing junior, it was nearly in our heads. Once we got over that hurdle, we knew we could push on and we did.”
Away from football, O’Brien has a busy job working as a medical scientist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin. A role she has held for the past three years.
Working and living in the capital means a commute up and down to inter-county training on a regular basis.
However, with a number of others on the panel in the same boat; O’Brien doesn’t have any trouble striking a balance between her job and her commitments to Longford.
“There’s a good few in college who are based either in Dublin or Maynooth” explained O’Brien.
“There is a few in Galway as well, I think, but there’s a few of us working in Dublin. There is a good few commuting up and down,” O’Brien added.
“I love my job. I’m lucky with the lab I work in. I’m working microbiology, I work mostly routine hours”.
“For weekend shifts, there is less staff on. It’s easier to change it, so it does work well for football”.
“I can get off for games and training. Longford luckily is not too far away. It’s an hour and a half each way in the car”.
“Thankfully James’s is on the N4. I head straight down from work if I’m working, so it’s not the worst”. Luckily I’m from the town, so we normally train near enough there”.
