Wheeler sisters are doing it for themselves, Larries and Kildare
Wheeler sisters - Emma, Gillian and Ciara after the recent National League game against Armagh in Manguard Park
Ask the three Wheeler sisters of St Laurence’s and Kildare LGFA fame for an interview and you’re sure of an hour of fun, laughs and intense discussion. That’s what happened when yours truly met with Emma, Ciara and Gillian on an icy cold Saturday morning in the Osprey Hotel. They three talented daughters of Eoin and Anne from Kilgowan soon thawed out the frost as we followed their journey through sport and life where they now have the unique distinction of playing together for Kildare senior ladies team for the first time in 2026.
Their selection for Pat Sullivan’s Kildare side came as a result of an outstanding Kildare LGFA senior club championship which saw the Larries pip defending champions, Eadestown, to the county title last October.
Emma, Ciara and Gillian grew up in a real sporting family where Dad, Eoin, a Wexford native and former teacher in CPC Kilcullen for 42 years, played and coached soccer while Mam, Anne, from the famed Ryan GAA family of St Laurence’s, played basketball and hockey. The girls were bound to take to sport so.
The girls’ side of St Laurence’s was set up when we were U10s or U11s and we were very lucky that we had a quite a successful underage. We played basketball all the way through with the school as Daddy was heavily involved. Ciara and I started off playing with Gliders in Newbridge and then the two girls played National League and Super League level as well.
I played with Liffey Celtics and Portlaoise and our recent club was Dublin Lions in Clondalkin.
When did your involvement with Kildare LGFA start?
I would have played U12, U14, U16 and minor and then last January was my debut with senior team. This is the first time that all three of us started on the team at the same time.
I was playing Basketball last year so I came in late to the set up and then Emma got injured so we never got to play together last year.
So, what was it like for the three of you lining out together for the first time for Kildare in the first round of the Lidl League against Cork?
We're so used to playing together with the club now. Emma and I have always played together but Gillian came up when we were senior six or seven years ago now. We’re so used to playing together we probably just take it for granted.
We don't really think about it that much unless when people say it and then you're kind of saying, Oh yeah!
How much did it mean to you all to win the county championship last year?
I never won senior championship with the club until last year. The last time we won it, I was not allowed play. I think I was 12 or 13 and the two girls were playing and Daddy was coaching. I had to watch that win from the sidelines. It was unreal to be part of it.
I hope you take this the right way but you played like players possessed that night.
I think we were. We had chased Eadestown for so long and we had some awful bad runs off them including the previous Final. We knew that day that we didn't show up so this year we wanted to perform. We were like, if we perform, we know we're able to compete with them. It had been a time of transition from when we won it in 2016 and we lost the Leahys and Louise Keatley. We had then a very young panel. It was ten years of building to try to get back to that.
We knew that the previous year, when we got hammered, we knew that they (Eadestown) played so well, they're such a good team but we were just so disappointed that we didn't even come out to play.
That stuck with us. I wasn't able to watch that final back and I still I haven't watched it. I think there was just a feeling amongst the team. When we went back into the team after playing with Kildare the girls are just so lovely.
It's a real family affair in that Larries team because apart from yourselves there's the Mileys, the O’Sullivan’s and others?
There are five or six sets of sisters and then we have our cousins as well, Miah and Joanna Ryan. We have a family photo of the ten of us and it's so special. I would have always said there was four of us on that panel who had won it in 2016 so it was a brand new panel, basically. You're saying to them all the time, like, how good it will be to win a championship but you can't actually tell people what the feeling is like until you do it.
Even our celebrations after were really the team and our families and it was just so, so special. Even now when we're thinking back about it, it brings back such happy memories. I've watched back the final like, twice, but every time I watch it, I'm so nervous.
As one of the younger girls, seeing how hungry the older girls were that pushed us to be like that too.
Your keeper, Chloe Wright, was outstanding on the night too.
Yeah Chloe, she was only 16 and she really stood up this year. For Eadestown, it’s hard being that top team because everyone wants to beat you, everyone wants to see that.
Even the whistle went I think I had the ball and I was like, is it okay to give it away?
We were saying that the system that James (Ferris) had been drilling into us for the year only clicked that night. We have been trying to get it right and we really felt against Eadestown whatever he was preaching we all got into it. We probably did save our best performance till that.
So, were there great celebrations when you went back to the club?
Yeah, we all went back. It was late enough but our friends and family came back. We are very lucky to have the clubhouse.
When were you all called up for Kildare?
I came through after minor. We actually missed our last year minor with Covid. So, it was the year after under Sean Finnegan. I obviously came in naïve but I was lucky that Ciara was there. I just tucked in under her wing. All the girls came through from minor like Laoise (Lenehan) and Aoife (Rattigan).
When the call came from Pat Sullivan late last year that must have been something special?
We’re just kind of so used to playing together like with the club and like with basketball over the years that we kind of just got on with it.
How tough the preseason?
Yeah, it was tough but to be honest I was injured (shoulder) for a lot last year, so I was just looking forward to it. All through my injury I was literally, you know, like, when I get back, I will never moan about running again but you obviously do! We were involved with Lawrence's right up till the end of October. We missed a good chunk of preseason but the girls were working hard. We got a few weeks of a break.
We were back in December and the girls were like, this is the first time we touched a ball!
What was it like coming back into the squad then this year, Ciara, because so many of the players you might have known had stepped away or weren't included or gone to Australia like Grace, like Róisín, Neasa, Claire, Ellen, Fiona. So, you had the younger players maybe looking up to you?
I joined in 2019 so I've had a few years with Claire, Ellen, Grace, Fiona, Róisín. Róisín actually did her ACL so I didn't get to play with her that year or the year after either. Last year was probably my first year playing with Róisín and it was so good to play with her. We've experienced playing against her with Sarsfields which is a nightmare so playing with her was very special. With the other girls as well, we played in school with Ellen because she was in Kilcullen as well. We won the All-Ireland in school that year and she was captain.
I can’t believe Ruth (Sargent) is only 21. It feels like she's been there for ages and she's been involved for as long as I was there. It is good. I look around to all them as well, even though they're younger, even Aoife Rattigan, they've all been around the panel so long. We all encourage each other. There is a big gap since the girls have gone but everyone just has to step up. The younger girls coming through have no fear of the opposition and they have a winning mentality as they have been winning with Kildare at underage and stuff. I suppose it's a good kind of rhythm to be in coming up to senior.
That first match against Cork, you nearly won. Could have won, maybe?
Should have won! We had played Cork last year in challenge games before the League. They’re serious so going down we knew this was going to be a tough, tough game. Every game in Division One is tough but this was a tough opening one, especially away with the new rules even though they had lost a few as well to the AFL and stuff. For a first game I actually thought that we all played so well together and at least we came out of it with one point so we have to take the positives and it was a good start.
There was great expectation then for the Armagh game and several times you had the chance to win, especially early in the second half when you two goal chances A big disappointment that you didn't win?
Yeah. We went to Armagh last year and it was kind of a do or die. If we won, we were in a quarter final, or if we lost, we're in relegation. The three of us all speak of that game so much because it clicked for us in Armagh last year and we had an unbelievable game. We really stunned, probably everyone. So, we had confidence going into this League game even though we knew they'd be coming back for a bit of revenge as well. I suppose it was just a horrible day. They're strong women and it was such a physical game with the new rules. That is a little bit up and down with the physicality as some refs are blowing some things and some are letting it get more physical.
They (Armagh) are up senior for a good few years and have six or seven years of strength and conditioning that we're trying to get up to now. I think like for us to walk away against Armagh only losing by four and being really disappointed with the result shows the direction we're going and the direction that Kildare football is going as well, which is great.
A couple of big games coming up now against Dublin and Meath, are you looking forward to those two?
Yeah, it's always fun against Dublin and Meath. We have to win them really and put ourselves in a good position. We’ve been saying, like, obviously, we got beaten last week but it's so good to be playing against the best and be up and trying to compete with the best.
Do you get much support around Lawrence's and in the family; do they travel to the matches?
Friends, everyone's so good. Yeah, Mammy and Daddy are at every game but they’re at opposite ends of the stand!
What’s it like around the breakfast or dinner table at home in the Wheeler household, is football discussed or is it the Winter Olympics?
You have to thread carefully. You could open a can of worms. Mammy would say that when Daddy was involved, when he was coach, it would sometimes be a bit more intense at home. It's not as intense now when he's not the manager.
Mammy actually banned us talking about football at one stage because everyone would start fighting!
Our family and friends are all very supportive. We’re always getting messages of good luck before games and the club are very good too.
What’s it like for each of you to have a work/life/sport balance? Emma, you’re a teacher in Halverstown, Ciara, you own your own Beauty Salon and Gillian, you’re a Veterinary Nurse?
Yeah, St Joseph's Halverstown. That probably would have been the biggest challenge that I found last year because I hadn't been involved before in the in a setup like that. Even though we always would have had training multiple times a week anyway, but the group chat is always going, like, you're kind of always on. If you've an away game it's the whole day so it's just to try and be organised. But that element of balance is so important because it can consume everything. I teach junior and senior infants in school as well so sometimes, you'd be dreading going training initially but you do need that headspace as well. It can be good for your head to kind of come down to. The social side of seeing your friends and everything that's just as important to spending time with our family.
Yeah, I own a Beauty Studio. I started just after Covid so probably five years now. Part of the reason of going out on my own was to be able to work my own schedule, go training and take time off for matches and luckily it has worked well and I’m delighted with how it’s going. I am taking time off work for training but I love going training.
I’m a Veterinary Nurse based in Baltinglass so it can be hard but I’m lucky that my boss and my co-workers are all so understanding when I come in like a zombie or I’m running out the door trying to get to training. It can be hard sometimes during spring and doing the odd TB test. The day after the Cork game I was starting at half six.
I’ve been with my boyfriend, Mark, for a few years and he’s very supportive. He would have played football and he understands. He’s from a very sporty family. Emma and I are at a stage when a lot of our friends are starting to get married so you have to sacrifice missing weddings and big days but people do understand and we’re lucky that a lot of our friends are sporty so they understand our commitments.
My boyfriend, Cathal, plays for Kilcullen so he understands football and training.
What motivates you to keep going?
I just want to try and go for as long as I can. Last year was my first time in with a Kildare senior panel. The girls had played National League and League Basketball at a very high level so they had been involved in that kind of set up before. Last year I got a flavour of it so. At the start it was very overwhelming but when you’re playing against the big names you kind of put them on a pedestal nearly. When we were playing Dublin in the League when Carla Rowe came on, I think she’s the same age as me, but she’s such a talented footballer, I was nearly saying, ‘Oh God’, but you have to quickly say we’re both doing the same thing here. Ciara and I are so close in age and if I was doing anything Ciara was doing it with me. I think Daddy dreads the day when we wouldn’t be playing.
There’s five years between us and it’s in the last few years that I have grown up to be able to play with them and I always wanted to do what they were doing when growing up. It’s good to be able to do it with them now. I would have grown up admiring Edel Thornton the Irish Basketball player.
I just love sport. I love going training, the craic with the girls. It’s only a short window so you have to enjoy it, not just the big days, but the dirty days too. We took the year out of Basketball this year because it’s hard to do both.
Finally, when asked about their hopes for the future, Emma, Ciara and Gillian each wished to stay fit and after waiting nine years to win a second county title they are hoping for “that special day” again. They are looking forward “to playing against the best players in lovely stadiums”.
Kildare will be lucky to have them.
