St Clare's Lauren Devaney struggles to find words to describe All-Ireland victory

Finding words to describe her emotions might have been initially difficult for Lauren Devaney but the captain and goal scorer soon got the hang of it as she recounted the excitement of St Clare’s CS All-Ireland Final victory.

Lauren got the third goal in the Manorhamilton school’s 3-1 victory over Colaiste Mhuire Askeaton last Wednesday in Athlone Town Stadium and after picking up the Cup to a rapturous reception, she kindly spent a few minutes talking about the game all while shivering in the cold and rain.

Naturally enough, there was huge excitement for Lauren: “I can’t even put into words just how I feel right now, just pure emotion and excitement and happiness. Being captain is lovely but there are loads of leaders on the field.

“So I wouldn’t even call myself the only captain but collecting the Cup, representing all the girls, it really is a proud moment for me - I’m delighted.”

St Clare’s faced the wind in the first half and it made life difficult but an early goal from Aine McLaughlin settled the team: “It was not an easy day to play, the wind especially against the wind in the first half, the rain and wind but it worked out in the end for us.

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“We said before coming out that if we didn’t win the toss, we had to play against the wind, that we’d have to be strong and not take too many gambles, just hold on. Getting that first early goal helped us to settle ourselves and get the game under control and I thought we handled the wind well enough.”

As for her own goal, Lauren didn’t remember a lot about a wonderful individual score, purely relying on instinct: “I remember vaguely but I just remember getting the goal and looking up and thinking this could either go to the left of the post or into the back of the net and thankfully I got it around the corner and in, I was pure delighted afterwards, it meant a lot.”

Lauren also paid tribute to the staff and pupils of St Clare’s for the support they’ve given the team: “It means so much and you look out there when we won and up into the stand, every single teacher, the whole school was behind us from start to finish. As I said in my speech, going down the hallways for the last two weeks, everybody was really looking forward to it, it was just great, everybody was really behind us and it meant a lot.

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“So much goes into it behind the scenes that you don’t even think of, to make all these things happen, to make buses happen, food, games, everything so the school is always behind us.”