By Daire Walsh

There will be an interesting family dynamic at play tomorrow when Rebecca Lambe Fagan takes her place between the sticks for title holders St Patrick’s against Geraldines in a tantalising Louth senior football championship semi-final.

Back on August 3 of this year, Lambe Fagan was the starting goalkeeper on a Louth side that claimed a record-breaking fourth TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship with a final success over Antrim at Croke Park. Joining her at right half-back for the Wee County’s 0-13 to 1-8 triumph at the expense of the Saffrons was her cousin Holly Lambe Sally.

Yet while this duo count themselves as team-mates on the inter-county scene, it is a completely different scenario when it comes to club football. Lambe Sally is a key member of the Geraldines side that will be aiming to prevent Patrick’s from taking their latest step towards a third consecutive Louth SFC crown and Lambe Fagan acknowledged family loyalties will be put to one side for the duration of their last-four clash.

“There won’t be much chat out of her for the week, but we’ll wait and see how it goes on Sunday! We might get back talking, but it’s going to be a brilliant game. They were in the league final and they could have won that,” Lambe Fagan said.

“Even just looking at the result in the quarter-final, they’re obviously playing good, strong football. It will be good to see how it goes on Sunday. With the county we’d be really close and the girls all know the relation between us.

“Then it comes to club and despite being cousins, we’d nearly act like we’re not cousins for the sake of the game. Then afterwards it’s all back to normal. She’s a bit older than me, so being up with her on the panel this year and winning the All-Ireland with her and all our family was there, it was brilliant.”

Although she is now a pivotal figure within a Patrick’s team that have established themselves as one of the top outfits in the county, Lambe Fagan wasn’t always a member of the Lordship-based club. She originally lined out for Dowdallshill on the Newry Road in Dundalk, before their adult ladies team unfortunately folded.

This meant Lambe Fagan needed to find a new home for club football and the prospect of playing in her neighbouring county of Armagh was raised. However as she was already part of the Louth senior panel at this point (and had previously won an All-Ireland U16 ‘C’ title with them in 2019), she felt she’d be best served remaining on the club scene in the Wee County.

“I was with Dowdallshill. They had underage girls teams and then we had a ladies team for a year, when I was able to play ladies. Then they folded. I joined Pat’s in I think it was their second year in senior and we made a semi-final that year.

“Where I live, I’m just on the border. I would have had the choice of either playing my football in Armagh or playing my football in Louth. Dromintee would have been the club in Armagh. Pat’s are the closest to me in Louth and I wanted to stick with the Louth football, so I chose Pat’s.

“I think at the time when I had to make the transfer, I was up with the [Louth] seniors and I was getting a bit of game time with them in the league. I kind of just wanted to keep that going. I was getting the game time I needed at the time with Louth and I wanted to build on that.”

Despite now being primarily focused on Gaelic football, Lambe Fagan has excelled in both soccer and kickboxing in the recent past. In addition to still lining out for Bellurgan United, she has also represented Dundalk and Rock Celtic in association football and even trained with Women’s Premier Division side Peamount United for a short spell.

Even though she isn’t currently active in kickboxing, she feels this discipline – as well as soccer - helped her significantly when it came to honing her skills as a goalkeeper in Gaelic football.

“I didn’t actually start Gaelic until I was 11. I would have started out with the soccer, just playing with my brother out in the back garden. Then when I was able to join a boys’ team [in Rock Celtic], I did. The few weeks I was there with Peamount, it was brilliant. The stuff I learnt just from the few weeks there at a higher level of soccer, it was unbelievable.

“The kickboxing, I’ve done that since I think I was four. I got my black belt there just after Covid and I kind of called it quits on that just because I didn’t have the time, but I had plenty years of it. I’ve a few medals from representing Ireland.

“I kind of think it helps with the agility and the flexibility in the goals. Because you’ve got to be quick and light on your feet doing that. I do think the two sports there, they kind of both contributed to where I am today.”

Given how much she has enjoyed playing soccer down through the years, Lambe Fagan acknowledged it wasn’t easy to choose Gaelic football as the sport she was going to pursue to the largest degree. Yet featuring in two successive All-Ireland junior championship deciders with Louth (a final defeat to Fermanagh in 2024 and this year’s win against Antrim) has certainly made it all worthwhile.

As an added bonus, Lambe Fagan was also recently selected as the goalkeeper on the TG4 Junior Team of the Championship for the second season running.

“Looking back on it, it was a hard decision to make. Some days I’d think ‘oh, could I have just stuck with the soccer and maybe be in England’, but playing in two All-Ireland finals back-to-back with Louth and winning it this year,” Lambe Fagan added.

“The whole experience of getting to Croke Park and playing and just even the support you get from your county, it makes me realise that I probably made the right choice back then. It all did work out in the end, which is kind of what I wanted.”

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