Christina McGinty is a girl with sporting ability who loves playing Gaelic football for Thomas Davis and Dublin.
Christina McGinty from Old Bawn in Tallaght has been playing Gaelic football for Tomas Davis since the age of eight.
In 1985 she became the first girl to captain a boys' team in a primary schools' football final in Croke Park, when Naomh Maolruan were the victors. Still the only girl on her Thomas Davis team, coach Kevin Brennan has seen opponents taken aback at her high level of skills,
Sometimes they get a fright when they see her when they discover she’s a girl.
Always having played football with friends on the road, a few years ago Christina McGinty went down to Thomas Davis and played a few matches. When she then asked her parents if she could join the club. Initially her father Christy said no, but then changed his mind. As a former Gaelic footballer who is originally from Achill Island, he is delighted at his daughter’s interest in the sport,
Any girl, I would definitely tell them to keep playing sport.
Christina’s mother Mary is equally supportive of her daughter,
She enjoys herself. So she is a happy person if I tried to change it I’d spoil her outlook on life.
The boys on all the other teams are used to her now, and for Christina McGinty there is only one thing that she wants to do,
Keep playing football.
Advancing to the next level is the natural next step for this rising GAA star says Kevin Brennan,
She’s been chosen on...the Senior Dublin Ladies team.
This episode of 'Evening Extra’ was broadcast on 19 April 1988. The reporter is Vincent Wall.
'Evening Extra' was a nightly magazine programme which ran from Monday to Friday at 7 pm dealing with current issues and people in the news. The first episode was aired on Monday 13 October 1986 and it ran for 278 shows over 2 years until the final show on 29 April 1988. The programme had numerous presenters and reporters including Siobhan Cleary, Richard Crowley, Bibi Baskin, Aonghus McAnally and Shay Healy.
