It’s going to be a crazy few weeks in the Mackin household as Aimee, Blaithin, Ciaran and Connaire all have Ulster finals to prepare for and both their Armagh teams take on Donegal in the decider.
Armagh and Donegal are the top two Ulster teams in Ladies Football at the minute and the pair advanced straight to the final, which will be a repeat of the last four provincial deciders. Armagh have won two of those, but Donegal are the reigning champions.
For the men, Kieran McGeeney’s side are back in the showpiece for the second successive season and are hoping to capture the Anglo Celt Cup for the first time since 2008 when they come up against Jim McGuiness’ side.
The Orchard County overcame Down by the slightest of margins last weekend to book their spot in the Ulster final, with Aimee’s youngest brother Ciaran playing his part at centre half back while Connaire was an unused sub.
“It's a good position to be in, it’s exciting,” said Mackin, who was awarded the PWC GPA Women’s Player of the Month for March after her starring role in helping Armagh win the Division One league for the very first time.
If you can't enjoy it, there's something wrong. These are all the games that you would have gone to watch when you were younger and to be part of it and to have the boys part of it all within the space of two weeks is brilliant. It's just something we look forward to.
30 April 2024; PwC GPA Player of the Month for March in ladies’ football, Aimee Mackin of Armagh, with her award at PwC’s offices in Dublin today. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
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You can just imagine the Mackin kitchen table. Anything other than football chat would be quickly put the to back burner. The Mackin’s, from the Shane O’Neill’s club in Camlough, south Armagh, live and breathe football.
There can be advice or there can be criticism sometimes as well, which is good too, I think naturally enough, we all go to each other's games. You talk about it after the game and it's good, it's what we enjoy because we watch Gaelic all the time.
We're just talking generally like everyone else probably. We do probably bounce off each other at times, you don't really think too much about it either, but it's great for the house. I'm sure it'll be busy now over the next few weeks.
Mackin was signed up by Australian club Melbourne Demons in March of 2023 and heading down under, along with her sister Blaithin, once the All-Ireland championships had concluded last season.
Coming home again this year, Mackin admits it was tricky to get back into the swing of things, but she soon found her groove. “I think it was difficult to adjust back to winter again,” she added.
When I left it was maybe 25 degrees, so the pre-season was tough when you're coming back and it's freezing cold. It wasn’t natural, but we're used to kicking a round ball, so it wasn't so much adjustment in terms of the training.
It was just about getting back into it. It was pre-season at that point still, so it was just about knuckling down and training hard. The pitches are a big difference too, with the soft ground, but it was brilliant to get back in with the girls.
We knew they had started pre-season when we were in Australia, so it was great just to get back and get involved with them as well. It was a brilliant experience. Obviously, the football side of it didn't go as well as we'd planned, but it was a great experience.
Sinead Goldrick was there as well from Dublin, so having her on the team helped a lot and sort of helped bounce off if you ever needed someone as well. She's been through it all in the transition, so she was great to have there as well.
It's great to see Mackin back on the GAA pitch and playing at her best. Hopefully for Armagh it means more success come the end of the season after already securing the National League Division 1 title last month.
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