Bailey dreaming of lifting All-Ireland title for Carlow at Croke Park

“As a group we want to be the first team to play with a Carlow jersey on our back in Croke Park and to walk up the steps to the Hogan Stand.” 

The words of Róisín Bailey as she spoke to The Carlow Nationalist at the Launch of the TG4 LGFA Championships in Croke Park this week. The Carlow captain joined representatives of the other counties the for the Launch in GAA Headquarters when it was also announced that TG4 had extended their sponsorship of the LGFA Championships for a further five years.

With record temperatures recorded in Carlow in the past week Carlow midfielder and her teammates are hoping to create another record by adding the TG4 All Ireland Junior Championship to the Lidl LGFA Division 4 and TG4 LGFA Junior Championship in 2026.

Carlow have been included in Group B of the Junior Championship along with Limerick, Carlow and London. They begin their campaign with a home game against Limerick in Netwatch Cullen Park at 2pm on this Sunday 31 May with Cavan’s Maggie Farrelly as Referee. They will also host Sligo on 14 June before travelling to face London on Saturday 20 June.

Reflecting on the year-to-date Róisín, now in her fifth year with Carlow, told us, “It's been a great start to the year and we've been delighted to go into two competitions and come away with two trophies. It's unbelievable for us as a county and probably something that we're not that overly used to. I suppose now, like a bit of a cliched answer, but it's the truth, we are just focusing on the next couple of weeks ahead and those two Cups might not mean as much to us if we don't kind of achieve our next goal.” 

The St Anne’s player feels that there has been shift in the mood, the determination and the drive that the Carlow players have this year after the disappointment of semi-final losses in previous years. “This year it really feels like everyone is buying into that and I suppose that's as a result of winning. Winning breeds that environment and those habits,” she believed. 

“The work that's been put in on the training field, outside the training field in the gym, is probably to a standard that's never been done before in Carlow. That's thanks to the management and it's also thanks to that want and determination of the girls as well and to me that would probably be something that's driving us even more than those losses,” she added. 

After the disappointment for returning to Division 4 after one year in Division 3 in 2024 Róisín Bailey felt it was important to win Division 4 this year when they defeated Leitrim after extra time in the Final. “We probably had a lot of girls going traveling, girls being away, stepping away from the panel last year so it was always going to be a difficult year,” she explained. 

“Still, I suppose that a core group of us believed that we could still have stayed up in Division 3 and it was devastating to come straight back down. At the beginning of this year, it was our main focus, that was our job, to get out of Division 4. Winning the League then was just a bonus as was winning the Leinster Junior Championship.

Carlow won the TG4 Leinster Junior Championship by defeating Longford 2-12 to 0-8 in the Final last month. Looking forward to the All-Ireland Championship and Sunday’s opponents, Róisín had this to say. 

“I don't know a lot about Limerick. Obviously, they were playing in Division 3 this year so they were playing at that higher standard of football. They play in the Munster League against the likes of Cork’s second team so they're playing at quite a high level.” 

She is sure her management team will have everything covered for this game and the following ones against Sligo and London. 

“I'm sure the lads will have some video footage and stuff for us over the week now. I know from playing them in previous years they're a good side, the same as Sligo. We played them at the very beginning of the year in SETU in Carlow and they were great that day. It's two really big tough tests before we go to London,” she continued.

Bailey is full of praise for manager, Ed Burke. The Moyle Rovers man returned Barrowside this year after stepping away in 2025. 

“We know how much we mean to him and he means so much to us as well,” she tells us. “He just wants us to succeed so badly and he will do everything he can for us to achieve our goals. It's been great having them back in this year. Last year was a really, really tough year and you never want to disrespect the lads that were in there because they had a very tough task coming in with girls going traveling which was probably unexpected for them,” she added. 

“A lot of those girls came back in this year but Ed just has a brain for football and we've complete trust and confidence in what he wants us to do. It's been working so far, so long may that live,” Roisin says proudly.

Concluding Róisín Bailey tells us of her reasons for continuing to play with Carlow.

"I just love it so much and the group of girls that are in with Carlow this year and in the last couple of years, they're an unbelievable bunch. I love them all so much and it makes it all worth it when you go training with them. You have the craic with them but we all have that common goal and that belief that you know Carlow can succeed.”