Karen’s legacy: Ulster’s bridge from minor to senior football

Karen Jackson passed away in 2018 as a giant in ladies’ football in Cavan and beyond. U-20 footballers from across Ulster will compete for her cup. Michael McMullan writes

FEARGHAL Harney knows plenty about football and how it all works. The Pearse Óg native has been around enough corners.

A Sigerson Cup winner with UUJ, he knows about breakthroughs too.

When Ulster LGFA were looking for advice on how a new u-20 competition ticks, he was the man Cavan’s delegate Martin Brady touched base with.

Harney jetted across the Atlantic in 1998 for a summer of football in Boston and met an Ashbourne woman.

The rest is history. He ended up in Meath, just outside Navan, with Simonstown Gaels.

“I actually didn’t get back into football until probably 2013,” he said. “I took a ladies’ team in Simonstown and, from that, I got the bug back.”

By 2016, Meath LGFA was in need of direction. Nobody was putting their hand up when nominations were sought for the chairperson.

Aishling Sheridan: Embracing Cavan’s rise

With nobody biting, Harney said he’d do it. He was in situ for five years, a spell when Eamonn Murray came on board as senior manager.

The Royals landed an All-Ireland Intermediate title, on the way to becoming back-to-back senior champions and they now remain at the top end of the game.

“My whole mantra was, ‘it’s only a game of football’, that’s it,” he said.

“We’re not here for anything else. We’re not here to change people’s lives. We’re not here to make loads of money or anything. It’s just a game of football.”

Brick by brick, they began to build the around round them. The basics mattered. Enough of them would add up to something much bigger.

“We went from 3,000 members to something like, I think at the minute we have about 11,500,” Harney said of the growth of ladies’ football in Meath.

“You’re looking at 10 per cent of that being the volunteers. It went from 24 clubs in 2016 up to now, I think we’ve 46 clubs.”

From a coaching point of view, football needed to be fun. Engaged kids will enjoy it and keep turning up. Then you have them.

ROYAL ROLE…Fearghal Harney is the current Meath u-20 manager, pictured with Meath All-Star Niamh O’Sullivan. Photo: Pascal’s Pics

Harney also believes in competition. The endless swathe of shields and plates for teams who drop out of the main competitions lead players into a false sense of achievement.

Players must learn how to lose as well as how to win. And they need to know the difference and be made aware of the extra stepping stones needed to made it to the winners’ enclosure.

“Everything’s not rosy in the world,” he added. “When you come out of college with your degree, you go for a job. You could have 2,000 people going for the same job and you have to be able to accept that.”

Six Ulster counties will compete for the Karen Jackson Cup that was officially launched at the Ulster GAA press night in Fermanagh, to signal the start of the championship season.

Two years ago, Leinster set out on their own u-20 journey and Harney stepped back into coaching to lead the Meath team.

“A number of counties had brought it up at different provincial meetings,” he said of the beginning.

There had been an initial u-21 competition that had fallen off the shelf.

Meath, Dublin and Kildare entered the new u-20 competition when it began in 2024.

“I had obviously stepped away from chairperson,” Harney said. “I wanted to get back into managing teams and took over as Meath’s manager.

“It wasn’t about winning Leinster titles. We won the both years (2024 and 2025) but our aim was to develop players for the senior team.”

It was about getting structures in place. Physio support. Advice on nutrition. A sports psychologist to tap into. A range of coaches, for goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards. Every base was covered.

“Even though some of them have been county minors and u-16s,” Harney points out, “there was still a lot of players in the squads over the past few years that had never made underage county teams.”

The Meath u-20 environment gave them a chance to see what life as an inter-county footballer looked like.

Their sports psychologist would be Mary-Kate Lynch, Meath All-Star and All-Ireland winner.

“Our forwards coach last year was Niamh O’Sullivan,” Harney said of another Meath star giving something back.

Offaly entered a team in 2025 but the chairperson mindset in Harney can understand why other counties don’t jump on board.

Finance is one. Secondly, there are counties at different levels of the spectrum, senior, intermediate and junior.

Some counties are taking senior players from minor without the important transition period u-20 offers.

“Out of the past two years, ‘24 and ‘25, 10 of our squads are now up in the county senior level,” Harney points out.

Half may have made the jump without the halfway house of u-20. The other half – a third of a team – are players gained.

“Without the u-20 competition, that would have taken our county management to go out and watch lower division games, to spot these players,” Harney pointed out.

The u-20 management and their trial process dipped deeper into anyone that could make the step up. Some had never pulled on a Meath jersey before but have stepped into the senior camp.

“We had two in that first year, the 2004 group, who didn’t play county,” Harney said.

“We had one from last year who didn’t play county football at all and one this year already who never played county. I should be on the phone to the senior manager to get her in.”

When the Leinster u-20 foundations were being laid, Sinead Reel passed Harney’s number on to Cavan’s Ulster LGFA delegate Daly.

Conversations started and the benefits were rolled out. Getting players from minor to senior was the number one gain.

Away from that, representing the county opened doors towards university scholarships.

A Sigerson winner himself, Harney also saw the footballing value of playing third level sport.

“The last 40 we had for trials, there’s so many different facets of this,” he said, as Meath look into the new season.

“It’s the potential to be a part of an adult county team, which is great for an individual.

“There is the opportunity of putting yourself in the shop window for the senior management.

“It’s growing and growing,” Harney added. “I think the LGFA stop competitions when they don’t see a big return of them or they see that a number of counties are pulling out.

“They tend to just stop rather than knuckling down and making it a better competition.”

There is also the friendship element too. At the Meath presentation evenings, Harney recalls some of the messages of thanks from players’ families. The theme was more than about the medal.

“Parents were coming up to you and saying their kid was a very reserved character,” he said.

“They were saying that they didn’t have a lot of friends, even in school but she was a committed decent footballer.

“We brought her onto the panel and now she’d a load of friends, she’s been out with them socially at weekends. Those are the type of things that matter.”

*****

DRUNG and Kill are in the same parish. Two small clubs in Cavan. For underage and in ladies’ football, they merge to form St Finbarr’s.

Karen Jackson had a love of football and poured herself into every facet of club life.

Her father Thomas speaks with pride of how her daughter embraced football and the esteem in which she was held.

As a man who coached at all levels himself, including Cavan minors, u-21s and seniors, he knows the value Ulster having a ladies’ u-20 competition.

Karen was born with a liver condition she managed for all of her 22 years.

It was always going to need the transplant she received in 2018. Unfortunately, she passed away in the days that followed, from a haemorrhage.

She was just 22. The second oldest of Thomas and Veron’s four children. Tomás is older, Karen was next, followed by Cian and Emmett.

“Emmett would have also suffered from the same condition as Karen,” Thomas added.

“Fortunately for him, he had a liver transplant done almost five years ago and happily, touch wood, it’s all going very well for him since.”

Karen had a massive interest in football. It was everywhere. Veron’s uncle Jim McDonnell was one of Cavan’s all-time greats.

“Karen played a little bit but because of her condition, her playing time was limited,” Thomas said.

“She would have done a lot of coaching with underage teams and would have represented the senior club at county board meetings.

“She was always out with the senior ladies and I have to say they were always very supportive of her.

“Since her passing as well in 2018, the ladies club have always kept her memory alive in any way they could.

“She always trained with the ladies and had a massive network of friends within the club, within the county from other clubs as well. She was very popular in that regard.”

Thomas spent many evenings coaching underage and senior teams in Drung, as well as his Cavan involvement. Karen was never far away.

“She was always going to football matches, even from a very young age,” he said.

“It was a massive part of her life, everything that she done really revolved around the football.

“She went to all the Drung men’s matches here, which is the local club, and a lot of Cavan matches as well. She was a great supporter of all those teams.”

Since Karen’s passing, St Finbarr’s have ran a blitz in her memory with the family deciding where the funds raised would go towards.

“It would usually go to the hospitals that supported Karen and Emmett over the years or to the local cancer group here in Cootehill,” Thomas added.

“There has also been a very strong promotion of organ donation since Karen’s transplant.

“We would have pushed that. St Finbarr’s, the year after Karen’s passing, they brought out a jersey with KJ written on the jersey and organ donation across the back.

“With our association with liver transplants, we’ve always really, and people around us, been promoting the importance of organ donation.”

The Karen Jackson jersey is one aspect of her legacy. The fact her name is always spoken is another.

In recent months, the wheels began to turn on an inaugural Ulster U-20 Championship having her name on the cup.

“When it was put to us that there was a possibility of this competition coming up, we were asked would we be interested and the club here were very interested,” Thomas said.

The family were fully in favour of the cup being named in honour of Karen.

“We knew that it would have gone to Ulster Council and we were aware that there could be other scenarios where somebody else might be in the same boat,” he added.

“Thankfully, they came back to us and we were delighted to get the cup.

“We presented that cup to Ulster President Gerry Doherty at the recent St Finbarr’s dinner dance, which was a very proud night for us, our family and our club.”

Karen’s name. Karen’s cup. Karen’s legacy. A moment celebrated among her own people, those who loved her dearest and knew her better than anyone.

The club and Karen’s circle of friends wrapped their arms around the family in their hour of need. That bond remains.

“That was very touching and that was a very important night for us,” Thomas added, highlighting the pride of knowing the esteem in which Karen is held.

“Despite having lots of bouts of illness over her 22 years, she never let it faze her,” he said.

“She got to her football; she got to all her social events as best she could and it was a great example from that point of view.

LEGACY…Veron Jackson presents the Ulster u-20 Cup, named after her daughter Karen, to Ulster LGFA President gerry Doherty. Photo; St Finbarr’s LGFA

“We were made aware, probably when she was about four or five months old, that she had a rare liver condition,” Thomas added.

“We would have been told that she was going to need a liver transplant at some stage down the line, possibly sooner than she did.”

Emmett is still playing with the local u-16 team. Tomás and Cian played football too and Veron is back on board with the newly formed Mothers and Others’ team.

“That’s another great link to the club and a link to the same people who would have a big interest in Karen’s memory as well,” Thomas said, further highlighting the importance of Gaelic games in their family circle.

He also looks at why Ulster’s new u-20 ladies’ championship is important.

“I know myself; I see it at local level, I see it in men’s football as well over the years,” he said.

“Those years, 18 to 19 is the time when you lose players, those at minor level are not ready to make the step up into senior football, especially at county level.

“I think the u-20 competition is a great bridge to keep them playing and to develop them that little bit further,” he added, something that resonated with Fearghal Harney when he was getting Meath u-20s up and running.

“By the time they come to 20, a lot of them, at that stage, will be able to go on and play senior football.”

Cavan senior ladies’ recent win over Tyrone secured Division One football for the county next season.

It has been years in the making. The county have invested time and energy in the future. The underage teams have been winning titles with a deep level of success at school level, typified by Loreto College.

“There’s a great foundation there because of the underage work and I think we will see Cavan at a prominent level over the next couple of years,” Thomas said, adding how many of the players were in Karen’s footballing circles.

“She would have known a lot of those. A few of the younger ones coming now that might have been just that little bit behind her, but definitely a lot of the girls she would have known.”

Like father, like daughter, Karen got involved in coaching. That emits pride too.

“I’m delighted that she got so much enjoyment out of it and that she built such a core of friends,” Thomas said.

“They are friends who will never let our memory pass, that’s major for us.”

Regardless of her illness, the weather or any other reason that could have been an obstacle, football always came first for Karen.

She’d be the first to training and the last to leave, either as a player or a coach.

“Even up to a week before she was admitted for transplant, that’s how important the game was to her,” Thomas added.

“In the last week or two before the transplant, she was really getting unwell and we could even see it.

“It never dampened her spirit towards the game. It probably was a crutch that she held on to do, it kept her motivated, it kept her driving on.”

On Monday night, the Manor House Hotel in Enniskillen was a hive of footballing activity – men and women.

It was the sort of environment Karen would’ve loved. Football and chat, all at the same time.

The Anglo Celt Cup was there, a piece of silverware with its origins in Cavan.

Thanks to Martin Brady, to Ulster LGFA and to the input of Fearghal Harney, there was another Cavan cup. The shiniest of all, the Karen Jackson Cup.

For 22 years, she typified sport and it’s importance. Now, her legacy is there forever.