‘Hungry’ Donaghmoyne back on top of Ulster

By Maitiú Monaghan

Donaghmoyne's Sharon Courtney has seen and won it all in a Fontenoys jersey.

The south Monaghan club won back 'their' Ulster Ladies Senior Club Football crown on Sunday, beating the reigning champions St. Ergnat's Moneyglass 1-8 to 1-3 in an enthralling encounter at St. Mary's Park, Killyclogher.

Since 2004 Donaghmoyne have built a dynasty in Ulster club football, winning 14 provincial titles over an 18-year period, with four defeats in the final.

Sharon is one of four Courtney sisters who played on Sunday. She lined out at centre-back, with Fiona at full-back, Rosemary in midfield, and Cora at centre-forward.

"That was a tough game," she said at full-time. "I'm absolutely delighted, it is sheer relief. From minute one to the last minute, we couldn’t let up.

"We were coming in as underdogs, and we just knew it was going to be a tough task. We knew everybody was going to have to work and, by God, we worked."

Unusually for Donaghmoyne, they were slight underdogs going into the final. Antrim champions St. Ergnat's made history winning their first Ulster title last season, before losing out in the All-Ireland final.

Meanwhile, the Monaghan side hadn't won the county title since 2023, after shock upsets to Magheracloone in the 2024 semi-final, and to Emmett Óg in the 2025 decider.

According to Courtney, Donaghmoyne haven't been underdogs in "20-odd years".

"Maybe the first year of it we might have been underdogs," she explained. "Then the second year we won it. We’ve probably been going in as favourites ever since.

"We’ve obviously had a blip the last couple of years. The big let down, maybe, was that the work, or the want, or the hunger wasn’t there. It was there this year, and we needed every ounce of it.

"Moneyglass had sailed through Ulster, we knew that. We also knew they weren't going to have met anybody like us."

Sunday's final was a game like no other. Immensely physical, neither side scored until the 17th minute, when St. Ergnat's broke the deadlock with a well taken goal through Leah Stewart.

Donaghmoyne didn't score until Cathríona Murnaghan pointed 27 minutes in. The dam broke, and by half-time, the Monaghan side led 1-4 to 1-1.

" I don’t know if it was overly defensive," Courtney says. "As in everyone behind the ball."

"The turnovers and the pressure all over the field — that was the defensive aspect.

"It was very, very physical, and the ref let a lot go. Whether it added to the game or not, I don’t know, but it was seriously physical. Super turnovers by both teams, and that’s why it took a long time to get a score.

"Every score, every shot then was precious. You kind of knew that from the word go."

That physicality carried through to the second-half, and Courtney herself was sin-binned in the 35th minute. In the 43rd minute, the Fontenoy's were briefly down to 13 players, when midfielder Maeve Smith was shown a straight red-card.

However, in the 10 minutes Courtney was off the field, Donaghmoyne only conceded two-points, and led 1-7 to 1-3 when she came back on the field.

Moneyglass didn't score again after that, which shouldn't be mistaken for Donaghmoyne cruising to the finish line.

In injury time, the referee awarded St. Ergnat's a penalty- which was struck just wide of the post.

"Yeah, God. I don’t even think it was a penalty," Courtney sighs when asked about it.

"I actually thought there was another one after that. We got a free out and I thought that one might have been a penalty, more than the one before it.

Look, it finished at five [points in the difference]. I think maybe it was the fourth or fifth minute [of injury time] when they got the penalty. I think there was still five in it, so we had that wee bit of a cushion even if it had gone in.

"It’s not easy to stand facing up at Linda [Martin] in the goals there. It actually was a nice penalty – it just went wide of the post."

Donaghmoyne will now turn their attention to the All-Ireland semi-final in a couple of weeks' time.

Courtney insists the Ulster Champions aren't thinking about that just yet.

"It is always one step at a time. If we get the thing going right and get the work rate and everything else, we’ll go places."