Moate woman ‘thrilled’ to become Leinster LGFA president
Moate’s Trina Murray was elected as the new Leinster LGFA president last Sunday, and is the first person from Westmeath to hold the position.
Having served as vice-president for three years and president-elect for the past year, Trina now replaces Dominic Leech in the chief role in Leinster.
Speaking to the Westmeath Independent, Trina said she was “absolutely thrilled” with her new position, describing it as “a great honour”.
Trina is a daughter of Mary and the late Tommie Broder, who was a stalwart of Moate All Whites GAA club for many years. Trina’s brother Michael was a prominent footballer for Moate and was part of the Westmeath team which claimed a famous win over then All-Ireland champions Derry in 1994.
When Trina first started playing football, there was no ladies club in Moate and she played for nearby Tubber for a couple of years.
“My father was a huge influence on me and Michael was playing with the county at the time, so I was really big into Gaelic football,” Trina recalled.
Trina was a central figure in getting ladies football in Moate off the ground and was one of the founders of the club. In 2019, Moate celebrated 25 years of existence as a club.
As a player Trina gave many years of service to both Moate and Westmeath. She was on the Westmeath squad which won the 1995 All-Ireland senior ‘B’ title (this competition later became the intermediate championship). Westmeath defeated Dublin in the final which was played at Páirc Chiaráin, Athlone; a very different scenario to these days when the All-Ireland finals are played at Croke Park.
Indeed, Trina is delighted with the way ladies football has developed in recent years.
“We have got a lot of backing from Lidl coming on board as a sponsor and of course the coverage on TG4 has done so much to promote the game,” she said.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a very negative impact on sport last year and ladies football was no different. The Moate CS ladies team was one of the main sporting victims locally as they qualified for the All-Ireland senior final but the planned decider against Loreto CS, Clonmel was never played. Trina admitted that it was “very disappointing” that Moate CS didn’t get to play their All-Ireland final.
“Finals like that don’t come around too often and of course it was very disappointing for the players and everyone involved. But decisions were taken to protect players and others as the coronavirus was very serious then and it still is. It wasn’t just Moate who were affected. A lot of competitions were scrapped, such as the leagues for county teams. I suppose the top table made tough decisions in the best interests of everyone across the board,” she said.
Trina is pleased with the numbers taking up LGFA coaching programmes, and she completed the LGFA ‘Learn to Lead’ female leadership programme (administration strand) in 2019/2020.
The Moate woman feels the LGFA can learn lessons from controversial episodes like the manner in which last year’s All-Ireland semi-final between Galway and Cork was staged.
Trina believes the LGFA is likely to come under “the one umbrella” as the GAA in the future. But she is keenly aware of the danger of the LGFA losing its identity if this scenario comes to pass.
As part of her position as Leinster president, Trina will be on the LGFA’s management committee at national level, and she was already on the national fixtures committee.
Trina is married to Jack from Tubber and the couple’s daughter Emma (16) plays for Moate. Retired from the Defence Forces, with whom he was based in Athlone, Jack is a major fitness enthusiast and he has trained a number of teams.