LORRAINE Lehane is a day-oner. An original. She was there from the start of the Éire Óg Gaelic4Mothers&Others adventure in 2024.

Now in their third year, this ever-growing band of women are ready to take over Manhattan at next month’s New York Ladies GAA G4M&O blitz, billed as a festival of football.

What started in Ovens will continue in New York.

‘I was one of the members that showed up from day one,’ she says.

‘Our club PRO, Reg Halligan, got the ball rolling. She had a meeting in Éire Óg around February or March that year and about 30 women showed up, and it kind of just took off from there.

‘She had lined up Tom Scally, a founder of Éire Óg Ladies Gaelic Football Club and had been coaching teams for years, but he wasn’t involved in any team. So, he came on board as our coach, and I think he’s been one of the key reasons it’s been so successful.

‘He’s a phenomenal coach, everyone gets on great with him and it just took off from there.’

When Halligan stepped back, Lehane stepped up as a co-ordinator midway through the first year.

So, she’s had a front-row seat for a journey that has grown far beyond football.

The upcoming blitz in New York has created a buzz locally, especially with the active Gaelic4Mothers&Others team involved in fundraising and heightening awareness of the trip, but the success of this story stretches much further.

‘It’s been absolutely phenomenal, and I think it really took off this year,’ Lehane says.

‘As with a lot of clubs, like with us here in Éire Óg, a lot of us are not originally from the area. I think that was the key thing for a lot of people to join, myself included. I’m a Wexford woman originally.’

Lehane has been living in Cork for almost 25 years, and in Ovens for the last eight. She saw this as an opportunity to make more friends in the area and become more involved in the community. It ticks so many boxes.

‘Having kids, you get to know people in the area, but it was nothing like a group of women coming together for something for themselves,’ she explains.

‘You knew we were going to get a bit of a workout, a bit of exercise on the training session on Monday night, but you always came away from it feeling so much better. You were always in so much better form because of the craic that you had up there.

‘The trip to Manhattan has brought us together to fundraise, we’ve come together to get our name in the community a lot more, and it really has created a phenomenal community spirit. There are so many people wanting to support us, wanting us to do well.

‘A lot of the time, mothers don’t get the chance to go on these trips and do something for themselves. Even if it is just the hour on a Monday night, that 8pm to 9pm session is locked in now. Everyone knows that’s when we train.’

Sinead Murphy and Lisa Burns getting ready for the big blitz in New York. (Photo: Martin Walsh)

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Now in its third year, and with Manhattan on the horizon, Éire Óg’s mothers and others team has momentum.

‘It has just taken on a life of its own. We’ve 50-plus active members, which is phenomenal. We have women from all backgrounds,’ Lehane says.

‘It has grown every season, and more people were hearing about it, the fun we were having.

‘There’s no pressure on anybody. That’s the ethos of Mothers & Others. You come for what you can. Show up for what you can. If you don’t want to play a match, you don’t have to. If you don’t want to go training every week, you don’t have to.

‘But a lot of people want to come for the hour regardless of how much they can put in training because, you know what, it’s mental health awareness, it puts them in better form. And that’s what’s helped grow the team.’

Mothers & Others teams are open to women aged 25 and over – you don’t have to be a mother, while current competitive club players cannot join.

‘We’ve a range, from players in their early 30s up to ladies in their mid-50s playing, which is phenomenal,’ Lehane says.

‘Some have played competitively before, some of them never have. So, there is a great mixture of ages, there’s a great mixture of skill level, which is great because it balances out for any blitzes and stuff.

‘But they all bring the same sense of attitude and the same sense of fun and the same enthusiasm when they show up for training.

‘We’ve people from different perspectives and different backgrounds who always bring a fresh bit of energy to it, a fresh insight and a different perspective, which makes it great.’

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Lorraine Forrest is a Kerry woman living in Cork.

Originally from Caherciveen, Lorraine, her husband James from Cobh and their daughter Fiadh have called Ovens home for the past three years.

In early summer of 2025, on a night out with mothers from the local national school, Lorraine, along with Sinead Griffin, Lisa Burns and Niamh Galvin, decided to join Éire Óg’s mothers and others set-up.

She hasn’t looked back since.

‘It’s fantastic to be part of a team with so many like-minded, fun, supportive people,’ she says.

‘There’s a real sense of belonging and it’s a great way to create stronger links in the local community.

‘I would strongly encourage anyone thinking about joining a M&O group to go for it, you won’t regret it.

‘Also, it’s an important message to show our kids – that you can return to sport at any age, have fun and get fitter.

‘But don’t think it’s all fun either,’ she laughs, ‘the training sessions are hard and we’re put through our paces every Monday night by Tom and Dan!’

To show how seriously Éire Óg are taking the blitz in New York, Cork ladies football legend Valerie Mulcahy took a recent training session.

Assistant coach Dan Cremin with, from left, Colette Desmond, Una Withers and Amy O'Callaghan. (Photo: Martin Walsh)

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‘The chippers in the parish will be busy that weekend in October because all the women will be gone!’ Lorraine Lehane laughs.

These Éire Óg women have New York firmly on their mind.

Lehane will never forget the day she received the confirmation email.

To be the bearer of great news like that was extra special.

‘You could feel the excitement in the air around the parish. Even though we were all in our own homes, we were buzzing off the walls for ages, so it’s been brilliant,’ she says.

The memories, they hope, will last long beyond the trip.

Twenty-seven teams from Ireland will make the journey next month – the event runs from October 8th to 11th – and Éire Óg’s band of women will fly the Cork flag. Lehane says that two more teams are on the same flight out of Shannon Airport – the fun will start early.

From a 5km run around Central Park on Friday, 9th, to the blitz itself the following day at Rockland GAA Club to the closing party, this will be the trip of a lifetime.