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Wall-to-Wall action ahead of All-Ireland finals

Kate Wall pictured of the launch of the AIB Ladies Football and camogie All-Ireland senior club finals
Kate Wall pictured of the launch of the AIB Ladies Football and camogie All-Ireland senior club finals

These are heady days in the Wall household in Kilbrittain.

Philip is the captain of the Kilbrittain junior hurlers that claimed Munster glory recently. On the very same day, his twin sister Kate helped St Finbarr's ensure their maiden All-Ireland camogie semi-final appearance was a winning one.

The west Cork woman transferred to the city club three years when work as a nurse made the commute to Kilbrittain a huge challenge.

Having helped the Togher side to a first county title in nearly two decades last year, they have kicked on again in 2025.

All in all it means the family are clocking up the miles, but the GAA has always played a prominent role in their house. Older brother Jamie is the former Cork underage dual player who has earned his stripes as a coach following paralysis, while sister Ellen is coming back from Boston with two All-Ireland finals to look forward to.

Thankfully there is no clash for the finals, the camogie decider taking place on Sunday in Croke Park (live on RTÉ2), with Kilbrittain’s junior showpiece taking place a week later, but last time out was a different story.

With the Munster junior final in Mallow and the camogie semi-final staged in Meath, difficult choices had to be made for the proud parents.

"I should lie and say that one went to each, but Philip got them all," she tells RTÉ Sport. "That was a Munster final and ours was a semi, so we said finals had to take precedence. And he was captain.

"I was the nice twin and I let them. It happened for our graduation as well, I'm a nurse and Philip's a teacher and we had the graduation the same day, so I got mom that day and he got dad. We're used to being split."

Mary Immaculate College Fitzgibbon Cup manager Jamie Wall
Mary Immaculate College Fitzgibbon Cup manager Jamie Wall

For a family that lives and breathes GAA, these are special days indeed.

"Our family, we're obsessed with it. We all love it. It’s the heartbeat of the family," she says. "Every Sunday at home on the TV there's matches on. It's brilliant. Hopefully we'll have two good weekends."

While leaving her home club was difficult, the warm welcome from the Barr’s has meant settling in hasn’t been an issue.

Her housemate is her club and Cork team-mate Sorcha McCarton, another who has linked in with the club since work brought her away from Down.

"I have best friends on the team. I'm like an adopted sister," she says. "It makes the transition really easy and they have been really supportive to me and I'll be still supporting the Kilbrittain boys next week. I'm lucky I've got two clubs."

Athenry stand in the way of a maiden All-Ireland title – the Barrs are just the third Cork club over the past 30 years to make the decider - but whatever way it plays out on Sunday, they can’t say they haven’t been road tested along the way.

To say they have earned their stripes along the way would be putting it mildly.

In the Munster semi-final, a couple of late points against Newcastle West took the game from extra-time to extra, extra time, before prevailing. In the provincial final they came from behind to get past De La Salle, Wall’s goal on the hour the crucial score. Remarkably, extra, extra time was required again against Loughgiel Shamrocks to book their place in the decider.

"It gives huge confidence," she says, singling out the Munster semi-final epic as a huge point in the season.

"It really did stand to us mentally, probably not physically. To go through that with people, you know, like God, you can't buy that. It's brilliant, it's such grit, it's heart. There's no skill involved in winning those kind of games - it's pure work rate and heart.

"You don’t ever feel beaten, the game is so long. Even though we had a slow start against De La Salle, it only takes a few minutes to turn a game around.

"If we just keep doing what we're good at, we keep doing the simple things, it will turn around for us and we will get our purple patch."

Manager Brian O’Sullivan sat the squad down back in February, insisting that while the county title was a great achievement, the ceiling was much higher.

Wall has Cork team-mates such as McCarton, the Cahalane sisters Méabh, Orlaith and Grainne, Aoife O’Neill and a host of underage Cork players to call upon as club colleagues. With such a strong inter-county backbone, belief has been growing.

Kate Wall in action for Cork against Galway in the league earlier this year
Kate Wall, right, in action for Cork against Galway in the league earlier this year

"This has been building," she says. "There's been huge work put in by everyone involved and, you know, this year it was probably taken up another notch to try and get back-to-back counties, which is a really, really hard thing to do."

Wall has plenty of Croke Park experience, but Sunday could be right up there with the best of days. Five months after losing to Galway in the senior All-Ireland final, it’s Tribeswomen again that provide the opposition.

"There was a lot of hurt after that final as there would be for anyone," she said.

"They're going to be an excellent side. You’d know a good few of the players from playing with Galway We'll obviously do our bit of homework on them, but but we'd have to focus on ourselves as well.

And what of the sense of occasion around the club?

"It's brilliant. It's something that it's the stuff of dreams really, being in an All-Ireland club final. There's a lot of excitement and we're really looking forward to the weekend."

Watch the Camogie club finals on Sunday with RTÉ Sport. Ballingcollig v Camross from 1.55pm in the intermediate final on RTÉ Player followed by the senior final of Athenry v St Finbarr's from 4pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player

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