All Ireland titles don’t come around too often for Fermanagh in any code. When the county’s senior men won the All Ireland Junior title in 1959, Molly McGloin’s grandfather, the late Joe Pat Prunty, was playing full back against Kerry that day, in New Eltham Stadium in London.
Joe Pat won four senior championships with Roslea in the 50s and is best known in GAA circles as the founder of Prunty Pitches which can be found dotted all over Ireland.
63 years after Joe Pat’s success with Fermanagh, his grandaughter and Erne joint captain, Molly, is hoping to secure her second All Ireland medal, having been part of the 2020 team that won the title. McGloin, like her grandfather, also plays full back and is the only other member of the family, besides him, to have won a coveted All Ireland;
“Big shoes to fill, definitely” said McGloin. “He would’ve been so proud, he would’ve been following every bit of it. He was such a big supporter of the football, the Fermanagh men, he would have followed it all.
“He didn’t get to see the match in 2020,” recalls the 22 year-old, “he wasn’t well, so he never got to see that and then he passed away in 2021.
“Granda is a massive role model for me. I’ve always looked up to him, he was always a big part of the GAA for me, getting into it. Especially him making the pitches, sure even now, so many pitches I’ve played on, I can say that granda made it- it’s very special definitely.”
When McGloin leads the team out on Saturday afternoon in the Athletic Grounds, she will represent her club, Newtownbutler First Fermanagh’s, her county and her family. It is another big moment in her relatively young career;
“It is a privilege to lead the team out along with Annie [Andrea Gordon] on Saturday.
“It is every footballer’s dream to win an All-Ireland. That is why you train so hard. That is why you go out to training on those winter nights, drive all those hours because you want to win.”
The recently qualified primary school teacher knows that if they are to deliver the ‘dream’ they will need consistency over the hour;