MÁIRE O’CALLAGHAN was happy to pass on the mantle of Cork captain to Sarah Leahy at the beginning of 2025 but admits it took an adjustment on her part.
When she was announced as skipper of the Leeside footballers in 2022, the Mourneabbey stalwart followed in the footsteps of her cousins Ciara and Doireann O’Sullivan — both of whom lifted national silverware during their stints wearing the armband.
While O’Callaghan did not get this opportunity, she did help guide Cork to a TG4 Munster SFC crown during her debut campaign as team leader before unfortunately missing the defence of their title through injury in 2023.
She continued in the role until the end of the 2024 season, but it was defensive lynchpin Leahy — from county senior champions Aghada — who was tasked with leading Cork into battle this year.
O’Callaghan explained: “I suppose it was a slight adjustment, but nothing too crazy.
“We would have always said that there wasn’t too much difference between any of the leaders on the team and the captain. It has been a slight bit of a change.
“The three years was a huge honour. To be honest, that was great for me and I’m happy to see someone else take the reins. Sarah has been a fantastic captain, so you couldn’t have asked for a better person to step in after me.
“It was great to see Ciara and Doireann captain Cork before, especially also to represent Mourneabbey at that level as well with taking over the captaincy and the three of us being there.
“It is really nice definitely and it’s a huge honour.”
First introduced to the panel in 2013, O’Callaghan spent the next decade training and playing alongside Ciara and Doireann in the Cork set-up.
That all changed in 2024, however, when the O’Sullivan sisters officially announced their retirements in March.
They had initially indicated a desire to take a break from inter-county football — Ciara for the 2024 Lidl National Football League and Doireann for the entire year — around the same time that it was revealed their sibling Meabh was also stepping away from the Leeside panel to go travelling.
Given how close she is to the O’Sullivans — as well as their sister Roisín, another former Cork player — there was a certain void when this influential triumvirate brought an end to their respective inter-county journeys.
Yet O’Callaghan is one of a number of established figures Cork boss Joe Carroll can rely upon as the squad seek to remain a force in ladies football.
O’Callaghan said: “There was a lot of my Mourneabbey club-mates that stepped away at the end of 2023. Definitely there was an adjustment period there with that.
“When you’re used to playing with a lot of the girls that you play with at club level as well . . . but everyone can make their decisions on whatever time they are ready to step away.
“It definitely was strange not seeing them three times a week for Cork training, but I get to see them still at Mourneabbey training anyway.
“We have plenty of players that have been around for a long time . . . Melissa Duggan . . . Áine Terry O’Sullivan is back, she has plenty of experience at inter-county level as well. Shauna Kelly, who I know is injured, would have brought a lot of continuity to that leadership, which is great.”
PUSHED TO THE LIMIT
Kelly was withdrawn through injury 25 minutes into Cork’s TG4 All-Ireland Group 2 clash with Mayo at MacHale Park a fortnight ago.
Before that, O’Callaghan had given the Leesiders a dream start to the action when she rattled the opposition net with just 17 seconds on the clock. Had Cork failed to win this game, they would have found themselves entering into an All-Ireland SFC relegation play-off along with Donegal, Armagh and Leitrim.
In the end, the visitors came through with a 3-8 to 1-10 victory and will instead face Dublin in a quarter-final at Parnell Park today.
O’Callaghan recalled: “Mayo pushed us to the very last minute. A draw would have been enough to see them through to the next stage of the competition.
“You could really see that fight in them all throughout the game. We were really happy with how we responded to that and how we responded to a lot of things that went wrong in the game.
“We still were able to respond to all of those things. I think that is something that we’ll take away — really happy with how we dealt with it going forward into our next game against Dublin.”
While Cork would normally have played the Dubs at least once in advance of previous All-Ireland Championships, this year was different.
After suffering relegation from the top tier in 2024, the Munster side featured in Division 2, while the Jackies stayed a tier above.
This means O’Callaghan and the Rebels have not faced Dublin at all this season.
But having viewed a number of their games, she is aware of the challenge that awaits them in Donnycarney this afternoon.
O’Callaghan added: “They have fantastic strength in depth and they’ve a lot of new girls pushing through. A lot of pace and energy.
“You can see that in how they played against Meath firstly in their Leinster final. They were able to pull that back and finish really strongly, which also shows their experience.
“It’s definitely a challenge, but it’s something we’re looking forward to. I think it’s hard to keep an eye on every team in the championship because it’s quite wide open this year.
“There have been a lot of surprises, even in the group stages, with teams bowing out and teams pushing through and things like that, which is a really good sign of a championship, how unpredictable it is. It is really anyone’s opportunity to take.”
