Losing Kate hit us all so hard.. she will be with us in spirit

BEING part of a club is to belong, to curse together in defeat, to cheer together in victory.

- BY GARRY DOYLE

It is to train on sodden pitches before the world wakes, and to lift each other off them when the world is unkind.

And yet, belonging is fragile.

On Sunday, Dervla Higgins and the Athenry camogie team will step onto the Croke Park turf for the All-Ireland final against Cork’s St Finbarr's.

The triumph is there — and so is the absence.

Kate Moran, who should have been beside them, is not. Three years ago Kate was injured in a club match against Ardrahan and died in University Hospital Galway shortly afterwards.

Her shadow lingers over every heartbeat of this final and for Higgins, the journey to this moment has been stitched with both light and shadow, the last few years demanding resilience.

"We went through tough patches," she says, "as individuals, as players, as a team, as a club.