Trailblazing referee Maggie Farrelly to achieve another first in the New Year

Pre-season Gaelic football tournaments in early January are for die-hards fans and fringe players, but Brewster Park on January 3rd will witness something historic.

Cavan referee Maggie Farrelly will become the first woman to officiate a senior intercounty match when she throws the ball up between Fermanagh and St Mary's in Group B of the Dr McKenna Cup. This is the next logical step for an official who has been challenging the status quo for years. Back in 2012 she ran the line at Brewster Park for an Ulster club Championship match between St Gall's and Tempo Maguires. At the same Enniskillen venue in 2014 she became the first woman to referee an male intercounty match - the Ulster minor championship clash of Fermanagh and Antrim. Brian Crowe, the 2006 All-Ireland final referee and a current referees advisor, told the Belfast Telegraph that Farrelly fully deserves the recognition. "In fairness, she has been appointed to quarter-finals and semi-finals of the senior Championship, along with a number of other senior games in the All-County League. So it wouldn't be anything new to her," said the Cavan official. "It's not a job that everybody wants to take on. I have a tendency to believe that, at times, she gets more respect from players than what some male counterparts get when they are officiating. "I have never heard of any abuse hurled at her - good, bad or indifferent," said Crowe. "In fairness, she has to make the big calls, the big judgment calls, and she is not afraid to make them." Only refereeing since 2008, Farrelly's progression is a big boost for the GAA, who always need an injection of young blood into refereeing, which is not viewed as a terribly enticing job by most people.