Along with several teams from across Ireland – as well as a number of Stateside outfits – the Templeogue-based Jude’s are set to participate in a Gaelic4Mothers&Others blitz that is being hosted by LGFA New York in Gaelic Park tomorrow week (Sunday, November 12).

This intriguing odyssey follows the recent one-year anniversary of their current Gaelic4Mothers&Others team being established. After an initial degree of hesitancy about joining the travelling party, McLoughlin is glad to be making the journey over to the US.

“This is the first opportunity really within the year to go anywhere and do anything. When Marie Crowe (RTÉ journalist and one of McLoughlin’s team-mates) introduced the idea about it, I thought she was joking. Then suddenly we were having meetings in the bar, in the clubhouse after training on Wednesdays about the trip,” McLoughlin explained.

​“It did seem like a massive thing, to ask a group of women to get away and spend that kind of money on themselves to do something. It was just an amazing idea and a fantastic opportunity. The numbers started to grow and I wasn’t sure, I was on the fence about it.

“Then my friend who I joined Gaelic4Mothers&Others with, Eimear, she said she was going and then I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to do.’ I rang my husband and he said, ‘Oh my God, of course you’ll go’. So I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going, that’s it, I’m coming too!’ It’s the location, it’s the venue. It’s just such a big deal. The idea that it’s the mammies and others that are going, it’s almost outrageous!”

First introduced by the LGFA in 2008, the G4M&O initiative is a recreational and innovative programme for women who have never played football before or who have not played in a very long time.

Even though her siblings were steeped in Gaelic games while growing up in Templeogue – her brother Seán won an All-Ireland intermediate club hurling championship with Robert Emmetts from London in 2007 – the now 52-year-old McLoughlin fell into the former category when she joined the St Jude’s G4M&O team last year.

Her three children have also represented the club and having done a huge amount of volunteer work off the pitch, the time finally came for Caitriona to try her hand at some on-field action.

“Even now my mother laughs going, ‘Who would have thought it was Caitriona that was going to end up playing GAA in her 50s!?’ Not the boys, who have played it all their lives, not my sister, who had all been involved in the club. So I came to it very late. The idea that I’m going to Gaelic Park is just kind of outrageous. It’s funny.

“When I was in school, there wasn’t teams for girls. I was just a little bit too old for that. It just wasn’t there for me. When I moved back to Templeogue 18 years ago, my kids got involved in the club and I was known as my brother’s sister. Nobody knew who I was in the club.

“I think that is the big thing about Mothers&Others. It’s the sense of connection with all these women that you’d never know otherwise. It’s just a real equaliser, everybody is equal. It doesn’t matter what age you are, we’re all part of the same team and we’re all out for a laugh. It’s the thing we have in common.”

When McLoughlin signed up to the G4M&O initiative, it came off the back of a difficult period in her own personal life. In 2021, McLoughlin – who works as a deputy principal at Muckross Park College in Donnybrook – was diagnosed with Stage One, Grade Three breast cancer.

In addition to requiring surgery for what was fortunately an early diagnosis, she also had to go through both chemotherapy and radiotherapy as part of her road to recovery.

After she completed her treatment, McLoughlin was looking for a way to boost her fitness levels and she initially spent six months working with a personal trainer. However, this proved to be quite costly and she then began looking for a less expensive way to keep herself active.

That is when St Jude’s and their G4M&O team came into play.

“At the end of the radiotherapy, I was delighted that my treatment was over, but I felt terrible. I was so tired and Covid was still kind of happening while I was going to my treatment, so I had to do it all on my own in terms of going in and out. Even though I had amazing support at home and from my friends.

“I had been with a personal trainer doing the one-to-one. I loved it, but I couldn’t sustain it, it was so expensive. This (G4M&O) is kind of an affordable and fun way to get fit. You don’t know you’re exercising. The time just flies and after Covid, and after being through my treatment, you start thinking about, ‘What positive things can I do for me?’

“This is just a great opportunity to be with other people and, for me, I exercise more and have more fun when I’m with other people than I am just going to the gym. I rely on them and they rely on me. It’s that connectedness. It’s unbeatable, it’s a brilliant feeling.”

Now fully recovered from breast cancer – though she will continue to be on a course of drug treatment over the next few years – McLoughlin is eager to maintain her involvement in the St Jude’s Gaelic4Mothers&Others team. The numbers for the side are increasing all the time and with another overseas trip potentially in the pipeline for 2024, there is no sign of this stopping just yet.

“There is well over a hundred women on our WhatsApp group and they don’t all come all the time, but every week there is another one joining and a new face arrives. It’s the kind of thing that you can drop in and out of. You’re always on the list, you’re always welcome,” McLoughlin added.

“Next year I think there might be a Blitz in Barcelona apparently. It might be a bit more affordable for more people. There’s 43 of us, I think, travelling to New York. Which is a lot. There’s players, supporters and coaches.”