Caroline Forde, Kildare and Cappagh camogie winning star

Caroline Forde is an All-Ireland winner with her county and has just recently captained her club, Cappagh, to a Kildare Intermediate Camogie Championship.

That journey of excellence within the small ball game started with some ambitious recruiters that visited her primary school in Kilcock.

“There was a drive done in Cappagh by coaches and Gerry Kelly called into the school and asked if there were any girls interested in joining up. They got a few Kilcock girls to join the club and Byrne’s bus used to collect and bring us down to the pitch,” Caroline recalled.

Caroline was not without prior interest in the sports of hurling and camogie, chiefly thanks to her mother, a proud Clare woman who would rarely let a weekend go by without watching The Banner County.

“I am still at it (playing) 30 years later so I definitely enjoyed it anyways,” Caroline smiled. “If you had asked me 10 years ago would I still be playing I would have laughed.

“People have said it's something in the water in Cappagh because we have nine girls that are playing competitively that are older than me, so they are setting the bar on any retirement ages. Biddy Gorman and Trish Forde are phenomenal women and it is really inspiring for us because it shows that if you can physically play, and you have the grá for it, just keep going.”

The small North Kildare camogie club would maintain a spine of players of enormous quality over the years. Cappagh had four members on the Kildare side that won the 2013 All-Ireland Junior Championship.

“I was fortunate when I came back from Australia, after a couple of years travelling, that there was a group in Kildare that was so determined and so talented. We were all on the same page and we worked our backsides off. That’s why we experienced such success, but I was very fortunate to be with an incredibly talented bunch of girls,” Caroline explained.

Caroline shared the field with club teammates Hazel Mulligan, Regina Gorman and Orla Bambury as The Lillies secure an All-Ireland title against Laois by 2-11 to 0-5, following a blistering performance.

“It was very surreal. It was just amazing. I remember people saying after that we must have known we had it won, but you couldn’t let that into your head until the final whistle. Then it was just pure relief and joy. It was incredible. I was very lucky to play with them (Cappagh teammates) as well, it was pretty special,” Caroline said.

“Having two of my best friends from the panel there, which is just incredible, and my midfield partner too was another clubmate. What the club did to honour us then was amazing.”

Cappagh would present their All-Ireland winners with commemorative plaques and do a Q&A with their stars on a celebration-filled night.

The club would also try their hand at replicating RTÉ’s Up for the Match ahead of The Lilies' All-Ireland Intermediate final two years later.

“They had videos of people from the club wishing us well and all the underrage teams there doing the same and cheering us on. Even more special for us was to have family and friends there celebrating. The club had reached out to friends, family, people who were abroad and played it on a big screen down in the clubhouse. It was an amazing evening,” Caroline recalled.

“For us back then, a small rural club with a small catchment area, to have four on a county team and getting that kind of attention to camogie for us was really important to drive the underrage teams and ensure that they see that success. That might inspire them to plough on and stay with camogie so maybe they can experience that success too, I think that is really important for a small club.”

Kildare would come up short against Waterford in the All-Ireland Intermediate final by 2-9 to 1-5 and it would be Caroline’s last year on county duty.

“It really hurt, the panel were beyond devastated because it really wasn’t the performance that we knew we had in us. But look, that’s the nature of sport and you live with it,” Caroline said.

The Cappagh midfielder would of course taste more success as the club took aim at winning another (after 2019 success) Intermediate Championship in 2022. Cappagh would come up a point short in a thrilling final, but kicked on again last year to reach the same stage once more.

“There was a hunger there like nothing else going into that final. We were really driven and we went on to beat Leixlip in last year’s final,” Caroline said.

“They (Leixlip) were a team that was a lot younger than us. If you look at the age profile of our team, we have had five U17s come onto the panel in the last two years, but other than that we only have the odd younger player. Then it is girls around their 30s and then maybe seven or eight of us that are pushing or in their 40s. So it is great for us to have those wins coming to the end of our playing careers.”

Following years on the field with many highlights, Caroline only just checked off captaining her side to a Championship last year and is continuing to make lifelong memories as Cappagh tackle Senior camogie this time around.

“That was pretty special (to captain the team) and I’ll hold that really dear that I had the privilege of accepting that trophy on behalf of the team. We dedicated it all to Eithne Wynne who is a Mammy of one of our players and has passed during the year,” Caroline explained.

“We have a camogie development initiative now in her honour. And last week, we started the first social camogie in Kildare too. We are hoping to share the love of camogie with people who have never played before and we are now the first registered club in Kildare for that.”

The Leinster Leader will be doing a feature article from every club in Kildare over the coming weeks and months as part of the Love of the Game series. If you have a suggestion for an article on someone from your club, a legendary player, selfless volunteer or an idea of your own, send them to daragh.nolan@leinsterleader.ie