VIDEO: WGPA highlights dual commitment of some of Ireland’s top female sportspeople

They're in every community.

Teachers, nurses, guards, shopkeepers, chemists. People. Camogie and Ladies football people. The GAA may all be about community, but at the heart of it is those individuals who sacrifice their time and lives for sport, and we're damn glad of it. In a week that saw the disgraceful abuse of the a Meath footballer, the Womens Gaelic Players Association has unveiled a new campaign that aims to show the wider public that sports people have lives outside of the white lines too. The Behind the Player initiative aims to highlight the oft forgotten dual commitment in maintaining a working life with sporting passions. Aoife Barry, chairperson of the WGPA, explains the thinking behind the the initiative, which was launched in association with the players body announcing its new partnership with PwC,

“Our new ‘Behind the Player’ campaign aims to show players as athletes and individuals to help the sporting public to connect with them, and also places the WGPA as supporters of players as they work to be their best on and off the field.”

Some of the players involved include Lorna Joyce, Shannon Quinn and Mary Ryan, while our colleagues at Her.ie caught up with Annette Clarke to track her committment to her sport and how she juggles life as a guard with being a Galway senior footballer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTxPrK2qA7o H/t to Her.ie