Donegal’s Tara Geoghegan excelling on another front

By Daire Walsh

AFTER previously shining in the underage ranks of one county, Tara Geoghegan has been enjoying life as a key senior panellist with another in the past 12 months.

Back on August 5, 2023 at Coralstown/Kinnegad GAA in Westmeath, Geoghegan scored four points as Donegal defeated Waterford to secure an All-Ireland U18 ‘C’ Football Championship title. A member of the Dungloe club at local level back then, she is currently midway through a four-year course in PE and English teaching at the University of Limerick.

Her move to the Munster county saw her completing a transfer from Dungloe to Mungret St Paul’s in late March of last year – just a few short months after the latter had secured an AIB All-Ireland junior club football championship crown. An inter-county switch from Donegal to Limerick was to follow just a couple of weeks later and Geoghegan subsequently made her bow for the Treaty in a successful Munster Senior ‘B’ Championship campaign.

While outings for her adopted county were initially fleeting, she was on board from the very beginning of the current season and has been a regular presence in the green and white thus far in 2026.

McHugh making his Mark

“I’m originally from Donegal and I would have played all my underage football in Donegal. I missed out on the league last year because the transfer took a little while to come through. Just ever since then I’ve been playing. I feel like I’m having a very different year this year compared to last year,” Geoghegan recalled.

“I was training with the squad where I could, but I obviously wasn’t able to play. I feel like missing out on all those games at the start had an impact towards the Munster championship and the All-Ireland series.

“I picked up a knock as well in the first game against Kilkenny [in the All-Ireland championship], so I feel like I didn’t get a proper run at the season last year. I felt just being there from the start this year and doing all the pre-season training, and being available to play all the games this year, it has made it more enjoyable.”

Geoghegan’s importance to the Limerick cause was certainly underlined in a Munster Senior ‘B’ Football Championship clash with Kerry in Castleisland at the start of this month when she registered a magnificent tally of 1-13 in an eventual 5-14 to 1-7 victory for the Treaty women.

It is perhaps unsurprising that Geoghegan is now finding her feet to such a large degree, given she already had a connection to Limerick and Mungret St Paul’s before joining forces with both last year.

“My Dad [David Geoghegan], he was born and bred in Limerick. He grew up on O’Connell Avenue. Actually, he was President of Garryowen Rugby Club this year. My family are sort of a big rugby family, I’m kind of the odd one out with the GAA. I suppose that’s from being born in Donegal.

“He met my Mum and then they actually lived in Limerick for I think five or six years before they moved up to Donegal. I still have my aunties and uncles and my cousins and everything down here. Two of my brothers are actually down in Limerick with me as well.

“It’s sort of like a home away from home, so I was delighted then whenever I was able to play for Limerick as well. Even Mungret St Paul’s, it would be my auntie’s club and my cousins would have played for it. It was kind of like it was already there. It wasn’t as if I was coming into a completely strange place or strange teams.”

Embracing the local area

Even away from the sporting field, Geoghegan has become extremely invested in the local area around Mungret St Paul’s. For a recent teaching placement as part of her UL course, she found herself based at Mungret Community College – located less than a mile from the GAA club that she now lines out for.

“It was just pure chance that I got the school that is right beside the pitch. That was my first time teaching. Before that I was just full-time college, but I love it. It was really, really good and I feel like it’s a nice career to have as well with football because my evenings then I can just go to training.

“Leave whatever school work I had. Just park it there at four o’clock and I was able to get to training out in Rathkeale.”

Winners of the competition back in 2010 and 2018 – in addition to being runners-up in 2009 and 2023 – Limerick will be entering the TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship in 2026 with high ambitions.

The Treaty will kick-start their Group B campaign in the All-Ireland JFC tomorrow afternoon with a visit to Netwatch Cullen Park for an enticing duel against Carlow (throw-in 2pm). Following on from that, John Lynch’s side will also face London and Sligo in home encounters on June 14 and June 28 respectively.

Geoghegan and Limerick will have their sights set on accumulating enough points from these fixtures to secure a top-two spot in the group and – by extension – progress to the semi-final stage of the TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship. Yet for the time being, their focus will be on a tough encounter against a Carlow team that have been enjoying an excellent 2026 to date.

Whereas Limerick unfortunately suffered relegation from Division 3 of the Lidl National Football League this year, the Barrowsiders emerged as winners of NFL Division 4 and were also recently crowned TG4 Leinster junior football champions.

“We know it will be a tough game because obviously Carlow have had a good run of it. They will have a good bit of confidence going into the game. We started off with a tough league. We were up against a lot of intermediate teams, but towards the end of the league we were definitely on an upward trajectory,” Geoghegan added.

“We felt like we were improving game after game and then we started seeing some of the results there towards the end of the Munster championship. We feel like we’re at a good place and we actually are excited for the Carlow game. Excited to get stuck into the All-Ireland championship.”