St. Brigids Goes Global
By Abigail and Ethan Carleton
Our holiday started with my brothers arguing about who got the window seat on the plane, my mum panicking thinking the plane was going to crash and daddy calmly reading Gaelic Life pretending not to be with us! Dad then drew my attention to an article in the paper advertising the Marbella Gaelic Summer Camp about five minutes away from where we were staying.
We arrived at the camp on the first day where we had the privilege of meeting Peter Canavan and Benny Tierney who were going to be our main coaches for the week. When we registered all the participants went on to the pitch where we saw two familiar faces, Aoife and Caitriona Montague!!
We were split into groups with a different coach each day, (I was in the middle group) where we were coached on our skills throughout the week. I got one to one coaching from Peter Canavan and I soon improved.
On Thursday Peter Canavan announced to us that there would be a skills test the next day and the best girl and boy from each group would win a prize. Our group worked on the skill of catching first, and everyone did really well. Next we did blocking, and both Ethan and I got 4 out of 4. After a brief water break we swiftly moved on to the accuracy kicking skill. In this Ethan was the only one to get 5 out of 5. Finally we moved on to the distance kicking where we all performed well.
Once the skills test was over everyone walked over for a well deserved water break. Afterwards we were gathered in the middle of the pitch for the prize ceremony. They started off with the younger group and much to Peter’s disappointment they both came from Armagh! Next they moved on to the middle group and many hopes were high. They announced the boy’s winner before moving onto the girls. Much to my delight I won in my group! Last but not least the big group, where there was even more celebration because Aoife Montague won that category against some stiff competition, and Caitriona gave her sister the biggest cheer. Peter Canavan concluded the week by emphasising the improvement in girl’s Gaelic football. In fact much to the boy’s embarrassment, the girls won every match against the boys, with 2 less players! This was in no small way due to the skills of Aoife and Catriona.
After many autograph signings the camp came to an end, with us feeling so proud St Brigids had performed so well, and we all vowed to return next year!
Abigail and Ethan Carleton
