Former Down star Emma Mulhern challenging for All-Ireland honours on a different front

By Daire Walsh

SHE is now in the middle of an 11th season with the side and as she prepares herself for an All-Ireland club showdown this weekend, Emma Mulhern is still enjoying every minute of her time with London outfit Holloway Gaels.

A former Down footballer who won a Lidl National Football League Division 2 crown with the Mourne County in 2009, Mulhern first moved over to the English capital three years later. She continued to play two more seasons with her home club of Bredagh, before officially transferring to Holloway in October 2014.

She had already been training with the North London side prior to this switch and aside from a two-year stint in the United Arab Emirates, she has lived in the city ever since.

While she is employed as a full-time PE teacher at a school in Queen’s Park, Mulhern – who is set to feature for Holloway in their AIB All-Ireland intermediate club championship quarter-final against St Fechin’s of Louth at Integral GAA Grounds in Drogheda tomorrow – admitted her adopted club is one of the main reasons she has remained in London for so long.

“I moved over to London in 2012. I was still playing at home at that stage, so I played with my club team in Down for two seasons. Made the decision that I was staying in London and then I trained with Holloway. I’d already linked up with them through connections at home and was able to come out and train with them a few times,” Mulhern said.

“That made the decision quite easy when I had gotten my teaching job in London and that I was staying. They’re such a fantastic club, very welcoming. Great set up and great people around them. To be honest, probably the reason I’ve stayed in London as long as I have.

“We’re not a huge club. We don’t have loads of parents and people outside to get involved in the committee, so it’s very much a club run by players and a few other willing volunteers. That has kept the club running over the last number of years. We’re starting to see all that hard work pay off now.”

Also the club’s treasurer, Mulhern captained Holloway to a second consecutive London intermediate championship title on October 11 at McGovern Park in Ruislip before also leading the capital side to victory over Dunedin Connollys of Edinburgh in the All-Britain Championship decider at Páirc na hEireann in Birmingham a fortnight ago.

This was Holloway’s second triumph in the latter, following a previous win at the expense of fellow Londoners Parnell’s in 2021. In the wake of that success, Holloway came up against Dublin and Leinster representatives St Sylvester’s in an AIB All-Ireland intermediate club football championship quarter-final – losing out to the eventual winners in a clash that took place in January 2022.

Having seen their preparations for that previous sojourn in the second-tier national competition being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mulhern believes Holloway are in a much better position heading into their aforementioned quarter-final tussle with Leinster champions St Fechin’s in Drogheda tomorrow.

“I think we feel going through this time we’re in a much better position as the travelling team coming over from Britain. Going into it with our full panel and things not being against us a little bit, like they were back in 2021.

“They [Fechin’s] are on a great run, Louth champions for the first time and then going on to win a Leinster. It makes for a really, really exciting quarter-final with two teams that maybe have nothing necessarily to lose. Because maybe people are not expecting them to be there.”

While Kilmacud Crokes will embark on their own campaign in the All-Ireland senior club championship next weekend with a home semi-final encounter against St Ergnat’s Moneyglass, three of their former players are in line to see action in Drogheda tomorrow.

Joining a host of players from counties such as Louth, Longford, Armagh, Limerick, Cork, Laois and Down, former Ireland women’s hockey international Deirdre Duke, Cassie Sultan and Robyn Kos all officially transferred to Holloway from Crokes this year.

Yet while this triumvirate are all part of the intermediate panel for the current year, Holloway have also been fielding a second team since 2021. This is a sign of the progress that has been made at a club that was first founded by student nurses Joan McEvoy (Laois) and Ann Dunning (Westmeath) in 1993 and with their junior team making significant strides in 2025, the future appears to be bright for Holloway Gaels at the moment.

“I think post Covid we had insane numbers. To the point where, as a club, we could not believe how many people we were getting down to training.

“I think when you have a second team, your committee needs to work a little bit more together in terms of making sure obviously you’ve two management panels to deal with. You’ve more logistical channels, but I think over the last couple of years we’ve managed to make sure that we’ve gotten it right.”

Although they are a club of their own, Holloway Gaels also have a strong link to the nearby North London Shamrocks GFC. Such is the connection between the two that three members of the Holloway intermediate management team – Oran Hilley (manager), Liam Kelly and John McDyre (assistant managers) – also play for North London Shamrocks.

Interestingly, the same day Holloway were playing their All-Britain Championship showpiece in Birmingham, Shamrocks were facing Mayo’s Ballina Stephenites in a Connacht club senior football championship quarter-final in Bekan. Whilst injury ensured Hilley and Kelly were able to take their places on the Holloway sideline, McDyre appeared as a substitute for Shamrocks in their eventual defeat to Ballina.

“It might have been a really difficult predicament had they not been injured because decisions would have had to be made. Fair play to the lads, they’ve put in a massive amount of effort. John travelled with the team that gave Ballina a bit of a fright,” Mulhern added.

“Oran himself, he was out with London this year as well. Just picked up an injury and unfortunately has not been able to finish out the season with the Shamrocks, but very much still involved with the lads.”