St Ailbe's Gaelic 4Mothers and Others gearing up for trip to the USA

St Ailbe's Gaelic4Mothers and Others are getting set for a once in a lifetime trip to New York this October. 

The Caherelly club will be taking part in the 'Festival of Football' hosted by New York Ladies GAA. The tournament will be held over the course of a weekend where 27 Irish-based clubs and three New York-based clubs will come together, with over 700 players expected to play, and 200-300 expected to support.

READ MORE: Clinical Limerick put Derry to the sword in All-Ireland junior ladies championship clash 

St Ailbe's Gaelic4Mothers and Others player Sinéad Kiely talks about the club's journey, from starting out late last year to now travelling overseas as a squad. 

"It was just luck of the draw really as to how we got selected to go over. The three girls that set the team up, Eileen Liston, Stacey Cross and Chloe Haigney, they put our name forward and low and behold we were chosen to go over. 

The team is still very much in its infancy with their first training having taken place in September of last year. The club have 30 registered players and the majority of them will be heading stateside this autumn. 

"We were quite surprised by how quickly the whole thing got going, over 20 ladies came to the first session and from there it has just grown and grown through things like word of mouth and school collections and things like that, it's been great."

"To be honest I had never heard of Galeic4Mothers and Others until the one in St Ailbes started up and it's been brilliant. I think maybe not a lot of people would know about it unless they're fully immersed in all things GAA. I couldn't recommend it enough, going down to you local club and getting started."

"From our point of view, we train every Sunday morning and it's brilliant just to have that hour to get away from everything, have an hour for yourself and getting to spend an hour with the girls, it's not that serious, it's a real recreational style sport and it's great for your mental health as well. 

When you're a mother of kids and when you're running and racing, you don't have time to commit a full-time sport or team, that one hour a weak is really enjoyable because you're staying fit and active and it does an awful lot for you," she added.

Bringing a squad abroad can come with its financial complications but St Ailbes are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to fundraising for their trip. From bucket collections to fun runs to table quizes, the club has many events planned over the course of the next few months. 

"The cost of going over is pretty high so we're just trying to do as much as we can, we've been contacting a lot of the local businesses and we're very grateful that a lot of them have come back and are helping us out so it's been all positive so far," Sinéad said. 

Even though the trip is still over four months away, Sinéad says the tournament can't come quick enough. 

We're so excited, the minute we found out that the trip would be happening, I think it brought the group a lot closer. We would have been together as a group for over a year by the time the trip comes around and just things like going over together, staying in the hotel together, doing the fundraising together, it has just brought us all a lot closer. We just can't wait to get going now and we hope to do Limerick proud," she said.