Orla Sheerin is the third generation of her family to play camogie for Truagh but the first to receive her county's Player of the Year award. Truagh's talented all-rounder Orla Sheerin has been cited as a veritable role model among the fairer sex involved in Gaelic games in Monaghan. Dedicated, a player's player and totally committed to the cause, she was a popular if unsurprising winner of the 2002 Monaghan Camogie Player of the Year award. And while in recent times she may have added to the burgeoning potency of the Gaels' ladies football squad, to most au fait with sport in Monaghan, it's Orla's camogie skills and dedication which elevates her above the rest of her peers. Meanwhile those charged with ensuring that camogie players like Orla can look forward to many more years of energetic action on the camogie fields of Monaghan and beyond are in engaged in a bit of jaw-jaw. High-brow talks are ongoing between senior officials of the Camogie Association and the GAA. The negotiations between the camogie chiefs and the mandarins at Croke Park on their prospective coming-together continues unabated. Meanwhile the games overseen by both Associations are experiencing very different fortunes on the club and county scenes as Orla knows only too well. For instance, while Colm Coyle's arrival in Monaghan has given football in Monaghan a timely injection of self-belief and ambition, camogie followers among the white and blue brigade aren't quite brimming with quite the same brio. These are torrid times for the game of camogie in Monaghan. The bluster, blarney and bunting which which seems to colour the football scene on a permanent basis is conspicuously absent in camogie circles nationwide, save, for the most part, where the game is played in traditional hurling counties. "Camogie suffers in Monaghan from having nothing like the same profile that football, mens and ladies, has in the county. "Even hurling in Monaghan has a higher profile. Camogie gets very little publicity and coverage has even gotten smaller in recent years," Orla testifies. Operating on the edge of mainstream Gaelic sports has been the way of things for camogie for a longer than even Orla can remember. But does such a pitiful state of affairs take the gloss off her 2002 Camogie Player of the Year award? Does it heck! "I was delighted to get the award, all the more so because I genuinely wasn't expecting to receive it. "It's a great honour to be chosen as the player of the year, especially with so many other good players who must have been in the running for the award." For good or for worse, Orla is a member of the quality street gang in Monaghan camogie circles, simply because camogie in the county is all about quality rather than quantity. There are a relatively small number of camogie players in the county and outside of her own club of Truagh, only Inniskeen and Castleblayney field teams at adult level in Monaghan. Despite the apparent decline in interest in camogie in her native county, Orla remains ultra committed to the sport. By her own admission, she loves camogie. Even though she began lining out with Truagh's ladies' Gaelic football team in 2003, Orla insists that camogie was her first love and remains top of the pile. Orla first experienced the joys of the game at primary level under the supervision of Fr. McManus but when he later departed the parish, Orla learned a lot about the game from Maretta Sherry and Liam Lenahan. Now 21, Orla has amassed a lot of experience on the camogie fields of Monaghan and Ulster and has honed her skills to a high degree. In 2003 Orla delighted in acting as captain of the Truagh senior camogie team, invariably plying her skills from the midfield area. "We've a good mix of youth and experience in the team right now but we didn't do too well in 2003 unfortunately," Orla laments. The youngest in a family sporting six girls, Orla acknowledges that her beloved Gaels will have to improve quite a bit though if they are to successfully unhinge long-time county kingpins Castleblayney in the coming year. Coupled with the likes of Sharon McQuillan, Siobhan McKenna, Emily McMeel and Mairead Treanor, Orla and the rest of the girls in Truagh have been that wee bit off the pace when the silverware has been handed out of late. But, she confides, playing in the Tyrone and Mid-Ulster camogie leagues has served to make Truagh a much more competitive and cohesive force over the last three or four years. "It's great experience to play against teams from outside the county and it definitely helps develop us as players and as a team. "Tyrone teams are generally good and the likes of Clonoe and Eglish have been that bit better than us for the last few years and have reached the final nearly every year. "But we seem to be able to hold our own every year although we have had a few injuries in the last year or so which haven't helped us at all." And with a panel number no more than 20 players on average, Truagh certainly can't afford to pick up a load of injuries in any given season. "Our panel is stretched at the best of times without us picking up injuries. "But when everyone's available, there's always a good buzz for the two days we train during the week and the match at the weekend. "We need to be at our best all the time, especially when playing in the Tyrone league. "It's a pity we don't have more teams in Monaghan, like we had when Killanny had a team and then there's Clontibret too." Interestingly, when asked to explain just why camogie in Monaghan has been going through what seems to be an extended difficult time, Orla unhesitatingly points to the ever-increasing interest in a sister game. "The huge growth in the popularity of ladies football has definitely effected camogie in Monaghan. Football has become very attractive to girls of all ages. That's clear to be seen even in Truagh where you'd have upwards of 40 players playing regularly for the club." But camogie is in Orla's blood and it would pain her to call it quits on the small ball game. Both her mother and grandmother played camogie for the parish and while she admits that sometimes her nerves threatens to get the better of her before a big game, Orla says she doubts she'll ever lose her passion for the native game. "The sad thing is that so many girls in the area used to play camogie when they were younger and at primary school but then lost their interest in the game. "I don't think there's any more than about six or seven girls of my age in the parish still playing camogie. But will she herself ever be tempted to call it quits as far as camogie is concerned? "I don't think so. Hopefully I will stick with it because I enjoy playing the game, meeting players from other teams and representing the club." Given the increasing number of sporting alternatives around now, one wonders though has Orla any concerns for the future health of camogie in her native county? "I am a bit concerned alright. Unless the game is promoted better and marketed better as well, I don't know whether enough girls will be interested enough in the game to see that camogie can improve in the county. "I know there is some work going on at juvenile level but the fall-off level among girls in their teenage years is very high and that's one of the reasons why things at county level haven't really been going well in recent times." Still, Orla says she will hope for the best as far as the club and county scenes are concerned. Her love of camogie and her pride in her native parish and county is destined to keep her at the forefront of the game in Truagh and Monaghan for many years to come. Of course, her undoubted skills and dedication will come in handy in that respect also. Best in Ulster St. Mellan's Park and Sports Complex, home of the Gaeil Triucha (Truagh Gaels) GAA Club, is probably one of the most perfectly situated GAA arenas, not just in Co. Monaghan, but in the entire province of Ulster. By Seamus McCluskey. Ideally placed on the right of the N2 as you travel northwards on the Dublin to Derry trunk road, just over a mile north of Emyvale village and barely short of three miles from the border at Aughnacloy and Co. Tyrone, it presents an exceptionally impressive sight for passing traffic and is a credit to the rural GAA club that has brought it to its current state of magnificence. No wonder it took the top award in Co. Monaghan for 'field presentation' by the Ulster GAA Council earlier this year - the year of that Council's Centenary. And what a change from the first playing field of this most northerly of Monaghan GAA clubs. Founded in 1957, their home grounds at that stage was on a perfectly dry field in the lawn at the front of the historic Fort Singleton House. Rented property, it was an ideal and very beautiful setting, with a perpetually dry sod, but was, unfortunately, a nightmare for strangers to locate, and visiting teams perpetually found themselves getting lost in the maze of bye-roads and lane-ways that eventually brought one to the playing pitch. For referees it was even worse and there was the very regular headache of appointed officials turning up late or occasionally not turning up at all ... and through no fault of their own. All that would change in the early 'eighties and by the Centenary Year of 1984, the club had acquired a new playing area, entirely their own property, less than quarter of a mile away and on the opposite side of the main road, that would eventually be developed into the magnificent arena that Gaeil Triucha can boast of today. From being a venue that once was impossible to find, the home of Gaeil Triucha has now become a venue that is impossible to miss. The 'Gaels' had won promotion to senior ranks for the first time at the end of 1972 and thus found themselves competing against such big names as Castleblayney Faughs, Scotstown and Clontibret. Their first ever Monaghan Senior Football Championship success came when they defeated Donaghmoyne at Clontibret in the first round of the 1973 series, but then lost by a couple of points to Castleblayney in the semi-final. All of this had helped to make the acquisition of their own ground even more urgent, hence the purchase of the stretch of ground previously mentioned, right under the shadow of the Church of the Holy Family, Ballyoisin. There had always been a great Gaelic Football tradition in Errigal Truagh parish, beginning with the famed Bragan 'Erin's Hope' club of the 1908 period. Founded by Owen Smyth, principal teacher in the local Bragan NS, they played their games on Carroll's Hill in Glenbeg or at the top of Coolbern Hill. The latter venue was a perfectly level plateau and ideal for sport, but an unmerciful place to play football if there was a strong wind blowing as was invariably the case at that height. That didn't dampen their enthusiasm, however, and they had some memorable games at the venue, especially with teams from South Tyrone. The Bragan 'Erin's Hope' had been captained by Master Smyth. His younger brother Paddy was principal teacher in Ballyoisin school and lived in Emyvale, where he organised the Emyvale 'Erin's Hope' team. It was no coincidence that the Smyth brothers had named their teams 'Erin's Hope' as that was the name of the club in their 'Alma Mater', St. Patrick's Teachers Training College, Drumcondra, Dublin and the majority of young newly-trained teachers, after they had left college, founded GAA clubs up and down the country and invariably called them 'Erin's Hope'. A not particularly well known fact is that there was a Truagh club in existence in the late nineteen-thirties and early nineteen-forties. Backboned by a great midfield pairing of Jimmy Coyle and Willie Kilroy (a Mayo man and younger brother of the great Paddy Kilroy who captained Monaghan in the ill-fated All-Ireland final of 1930), they played all their games in the 'Marsh Meadows' on the Monaghan Road just south of Emyvale village, and wore the all-white strip of later Emyvale teams. They did remarkably well in the Monaghan Junior Football League 1939-40, finishing runners up to Clones in the northern division of the Dr Ward Cup, but their most memorable achievement during that same period was a great victory over the renowned Castleblayney Faughs senior team (which included the legendary Christy Fisher) in a challenge game at Emyvale Sports in June of 1940. Their line out on that great occasion was: - John Mohan, Owen McMahon, Peter McMahon, Johnnie Gormley, Barney Treanor, John Treanor, John James Kelly, Willie Kilroy, Jimmy Coyle, Owenie McKenna, Packie Kelly, Pat McAree, John Connolly, Dan Neeson and John Sherry. Unfortunately, WW2 then intervened and that particular Truagh team went out of existence. Area teams followed in Carrickroe, Clara and Mullanmills but now with any great degree of success, and it was the arrival of Fr. Tom Breen as curate to the parish that eventually brought them all together at a meeting in Clara Hall in 1957, from which emerged the Gaeil Triucha club which exists today and who began their first ever campaign with a win over Scotstown in the Dr. Ward Cup (Junior Football League) in the early days of 1958. And so from there, it had always been the intention of Gaeil Triucha that some day they would own their own grounds, but in an area of mainly small holdings most farmers were reluctant to sell off a suitable site. Someone came up with the idea of approaching the Irish Land Commission for land at Lisseagh and the officers of the club paid a very successful visit to the local office in Cavan and made an application for eight acres. A short time later they received a letter stating that they were to be granted the amount of land they had applied for. This meant an urgent appeal for finances and, following a tremendously successful fund-raising campaign, the land in question was paid for. Then began the work of levelling, draining and re-seeding and gradually the field began to take shape. A Youth Employment Scheme was availed of for the erection of a boundary wall, fencing and dug-outs. The erection of dressing rooms quickly followed and these also included squash and handball courts, toilets, meeting rooms and catering facilities and when this was nearing completion, they began work on making a suitable embankment to cater for spectator accommodation and also a new car park, public toilets, proper entrance and pay-boxes. This was the beginning but much greater things were to come. In following years a second pitch was developed, then a third, and right now they are in the process of developing a fourth pitch as well as a covered stand at the main pitch. All of which adds up to making it one of the finest GAA stadia in the entire country. The inauguration of an Ulster Clubs "Sevens" championship also did wonders for the club and attracted a huge entry of major clubs from all over Ulster. Unfortunately, with the increasing dominance of northern teams in the National Football Leagues and All-Ireland Championship, this competition ran into some difficulties, as clubs were often reluctant to field teams while their own clubs and counties were still involved in important championship campaigns, but it is something the current Gaeil Triucha officials are working on and will surely be brought to a very satisfactory conclusion in the not too distant future. As part of their Centenary Celebrations (1903-2003) the Ulster GAA Council organised a Parks Inspection scheme throughout the province, and the presentations to the winners from all nine counties were made at a big Centenary Banquet, held in Armagh on Friday 17th October 2003. A truly gala occasion, the Council made use of the night's celebrations to pay tribute to the people who work at grass-roots level in the promotion of Gaelic Games throughout the province, and in the provision of sports facilities for the development of our National Games in their respective areas. All club grounds in the nine counties had been inspected during the late summer and early autumn and while the over-all winner was the Fintona club in Co Tyrone, the Co. Monaghan award was scooped by Gaeil Triucha, and there to accept the trophy on behalf of his club was their chairman, Genie Treanor, the man from Mullinderg, and one of the most popular personalities in the entire North Monaghan area. The presentation was made by the Ulster Council Chairman, Mr John Reilly, and in the citation for the presentation the club was lauded 'not only for the provision of the excellent facilities that they have at their three-pitch complex, but for the level of maintenance and presentation that pervades St. Mellan's Park.' How perfectly true and how perfectly well deserved. Tweet

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