Mulvenna Happy To Be Back Playing For Down

One of the few survivors left in the Down squad from their 2014 Intermediate win, Clara Mulvenna is happy to be back in the squad having spent time abroad recently.

Mulvenna who has an interesting backstory when it comes to Ladies Gaelic Football, was 16 when Down won the All Ireland in 2014, her first year on the panel, flash forward now and the 26 year old is back to help the side return to the Intermediate grade.

The Rostrevor player has quite the sporting background, playing soccer at international level for Northern Ireland, while also playing Inter-County with Down, her journey has been long and eventful, all starting when her dad tricked her into thinking he was taking her to a local soccer tournament.

“Mine is probably a bit of a funny story, I grew up and I was more from a soccer background, soccer would have been my main priority, my main sport, my dad was sort of a big soccer head and so I would have played soccer first. 

A primary school teacher, he’s actually a referee now in Down, he sort of tricked me into going to a Gaelic tournament, he told me it was a soccer tournament and I rocked up when it was Gaelic and had no clue rules and I didn’t have a notion that was probably 11 years age maybe, then I sorta just took it in my stride from their played when I transitioned to high school, I underage for a club not too far from me.

I was probably about 15 and that club actually folded and there was no underage clubs near me, so at 15 I joined Rostrevor the club I’m with now and just went straight into their senior squad and then the following year, 16 years of age I was asked to go onto the Down county panel. 

Didn’t play any underage for Down and only really played minor, when I played senior, I was playing senior first then the minors realised I was young enough to still play for them, so I had to sort of go down and play with the minors to be allowed to play with the seniors, it was great, you know getting to play with those older girls and having the likes of Kyla Trainor and Eliza Downey and train alongside them. 

I thought this is class you know so I think that was my first year playing 2014 and obviously you don’t come across an All Ireland you know everyday so when I came in I was very lucky my first year I got an All Ireland medal.”

Having spent time away, Mulvenna now has full focus on being back in the panel as they gear up for Sunday’s Junior Semi-Final, she has found a nice balance coming home, it was always the plan to return to Down football, but now having just the one sport to worry about has been refreshing.

“To be honest, there was no real doubt in my mind anyway that I wanted to come back into the squad, I don’t know if it was may be having the time away from it felt when I was coming back and say okay I need to be as fit as I can, I wanna be in that squad. 

The team has been going places even last year, there’s some good performances despite sort of getting relegated this team has stuck together, so there’s something I definitely wanted to get involved with when I came home. 

Balancing work and that, you know, I think you’re sort of used it as such, it’s probably one of the first years I’ve actually played county and not been with a soccer club or not representing Northern Ireland or whatever it may be, so it’s actually the first year I’ve had one sport to focus on, which has been really nice and refreshing actually.”

Coming back into the squad came as a bit of a shock for Mulvenna, who had to reacclimatise herself to the pre season weather elements, wind and rain not familiar to those in Dubai, but having been away from a while, she says the professionalism of the squad has really improved since the last time she was in the county setup.

“I think since coming back there’s definitely been change over the last number of years, I think the professionalism now in the squad has really amped up  from the last time I definitely done a full season, I think everything is just a lot more professional the training and setup, everything like that, preseason was probably a wee bit of a shock to the system, after being in 30 degree heat, you don’t get the wind and the rain, but it was great to be back in with the squad a lot of the girls have been in that squad 6-7 years and as you said only I think there’s only two or three of us from 2014, but the majority of us have been there five or six years so it was nice to transition back in because a lot of familiar faces but it was definitely a good step.”

Coming into 2023 Down had the task of being back in the Junior ranks, having been relegated last year, while also managing the minefield of Division 3, they did well in the league, but score difference saw them miss a Final, but they recorded silverware in Ulster.

Having lost out on one Final, they did not want to miss out in the Championship, they got the results as that score difference still lingered on the mind, Mulvenna says the focus of the squad was to win games and get back up to Intermediate.

“It leaves a bit of a sour taste in your mouth, you know when you are relegated and you know coming down competing in Division 3, we are competing with those intermediate teams, when we sort of came back in, it was that hunger to sort of play the best of our ability no matter if it was a junior team, an intermediate team, but I think the focus this year was definitely too try and win and you know go through all the games that we can and get back up to intermediate, as I said before this squad has been together now a good few years so everyone was sort of on the same wavelength in terms of winning and pushing on and trying to get out of this junior section.

Probably so you know at the time obviously you’re not thinking as far ahead as championship but playing the likes of Clare and Kildare and Wexford you know and getting good results against them, some of the results were only one or two away, we missed out on score difference so we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen when it came to Championship. 

We didn’t really want to put anything to rest in terms of score difference, you know it’s sort of a grim way not to be in a league final, you know it was a great test and you set high standards and you play at a high standard and we just wanted to keep that through the league and through the championship, no matter sort of who we were playing, you know look at Antrim, you know they’re flying it now in Intermediate championship and there they were playing in Division 4, so it sorta comes in both ways I suppose.”

With the chance at a return to Croke Park 60 minutes away, Carlow, a side they have not faced, stand in the way, Down have the unbeaten record in the Championship, but the Rostrevor native says you cannot underestimate anybody, especially heading into Sunday’s Semi-Final.

“I think you can’t really underestimate anybody when it comes to Championship football. You know, you never really know what’s around the corner. We prepare just as well as we can. We’ve done exactly the same as what we’ve done every other game. We’ve trained well, everybody’s feeling fit, feeling good and we just look ahead to the challenge on Sunday, just think about what’s in front of us and no further really.”

Full Interview with Clara below: