Kathleen Cody is a former

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

player, one of the leading players of her generation and one of the game’s most accomplished goalscorers.

Family background and career

The daughter of a Kilkenny father and Tipperary mother, she was a cousin of the Kilkenny All Ireland hurling medalist Jimmy Langton. She was a promising singer on the concert circuit in 1940s Dublin.

Scoring achievements

She scored 6-7 of Dublin’s 8-7 total in the 1949 All Ireland final, won by a CIÉ club team who represented Dublin en masse, as the county board was in dispute with the

Camogie Association The Camogie Association ( ga, An Cumann Camógaíochta, formerly ga, Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael) organises and promotes the sport of camogie in Ireland and around the world. The association has close ties with the Gaelic Athletic Associati ...

. She won seven All Ireland senior medals in all.

Career

She played her first senior match for Dublin on 3 July 1938, at the age of 13, an exhibition match on the

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. She was described as the "star player" in the exhibition game. She played schools camogie for Loreto Convent Crumlin and

Mercy Convent Goldenbridge Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French ''merci'', from Medieval Latin ''merced-'', ''merces'', from Latin, "price paid, wages", from ''merc-'', ''merxi'' "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, rel ...

. She affiliated to three Dublin clubs during her career, winning three championships in two spells with Great Southern Railway club, in 1938-42 and 1945-49 with CIÉ, as they became known and another championship with the Dublin

Optimists Camogie Club An optimist is a person with a positive outlook on life. Optimist, (The) Optimist(s), or ''similar'' may also refer to: Albums and songs * '' The Optimist LP'' and ''The Optimist Live'', albums by Turin Brakes * ''The Optimist'' (Anathema album ...

with whom she played in 1942-45. Eventually she captained the Dublin

Celtic Camogie Club Celtic is a camogie club, winner of the Dublin Championship on 12 occasions and the inaugural winner of the All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie Championship in 1964.. Dublin did not send a representative in 1965, so they did not defend their title ...

to the Dublin championship in 1950, having scored 4-4 in her first match for them against UCD in November 1949. The report of the 1941 All Ireland final, her first, described her as "the most spectacular player on the field" despite the fact Dublin were beaten. She starred again in the 1942 drawn final, and having missed the 1943 her "all round brilliance" was praised in the report of the 1944 final. She did not play in 1945-6 because of a dispute which tore apart the

but when her club broke with Dublin county board she played again in the 1947 final at the end of which she saw her would-be equaliser, which appeared to cross the line, disallowed in the fading light. She scored three of Dublin’s eleven goals in the 1948 All Ireland final against Down and was the star again at centre field in 1950 and remained the play-maker as she won her sixth and seventh All Ireland medals in 1951 and 1952, at which stage her club-mate

Sophie Brack Sophie Brack is a former camogie player who was selected on the camogie team of the century in 2004, and winner of All Ireland medals in 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954 and 1955. Background and career She won eight All Ireland medals ...

had taken over goal scoring duties.

Administration

While still a player she was elected chair of Dublin camogie board.

Retirement

Having won seven All Ireland medals and eleven Leinster championship medals and at the age of just 24, Kathleen Cody announced she was retiring and joining the Holy Faith order convent in

Glasnevin Glasnevin (, also known as ''Glas Naedhe'', meaning "stream of O'Naeidhe" after a local stream and an ancient chieftain) is a neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland, situated on the River Tolka. While primarily residential, Glasnevin is also home t ...

in January 1952.Irish Times: Camogie Player to enter convent, 5 Jan 1952 She later went to live in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and was awarded a medal for heroism when she helped rescue five people from a fire in a flat in April 1975.

References

External links

Camogie.ie
Official Camogie Association Website * Wikipedia List of Camogie players {{DEFAULTSORT:Cody, Kathleen (camogie) Dublin camogie players 1925 births Possibly living people