The following article was written by Joe Saunders, a Dingle native who is studying journalism at the University of Limerick.

In this day and age, everyone has been affected by the virus, but few more so than Fiadhna Tangney. The 20-year-old footballer from the Black Valley has seen first-hand what the virus can do, with her father Gene (56) being hospitalised for months with one of the first severe cases in Ireland last March.

A fit and healthy man who loves nothing more than being outdoors was bed-bound for three months in an induced coma in University Hospital Kerry (UHK). Thankfully, he has returned home since and is on the mend. The work done by all those who looked after him didn’t go unnoticed by Gene’s loved ones; they raised €27,000 for the hospital through the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle.

Those few months were a difficult time for the family. Fiadhna went from studying sport science at UL one week, to being in lockdown and worrying about her father, whom she couldn’t even visit, the next.

“Thinking back on it, it was a really tough time - like a nightmare,” Fiadhna says. “Sometimes I look back on it and think, ‘did that really happen?’ We couldn’t go into the hospital because of COVID so we were just having phone calls to see how he was getting on.

“There was one time where we got a call and they told us that he mightn’t make it through the night. That was the harsh reality of it.”

As Fiadhna spoke over the Zoom interview, you could feel her sense of relief that they have overcome the worst of this whole situation, and she spoke of how much of a crutch the messages of support and love she received from the football community as a whole was.

“I was getting messages from big players that I didn’t even know, it was unreal. We were all completely blown away. I was getting jerseys in the post and all, my room was like the O’Neills shop. The likes of Aishling Moloney from Tipperary and Grace Kelly from Mayo checking in to see how I was doing… It was just class.”

“Getting those messages from players that I idolised myself was something else. I used to tell Dad who was asking for him and all that and he’d be like, ‘Jeez that’s great, do they know I’m sick?’ That’s his line now these days. If it wasn’t for the GAA community, I don’t know how I would’ve coped.”

Football has been a huge part of Fiadhna’s life, lacing up her boots in the famous green and gold of Kerry from a young age. Her footballing talents were evident early on and she made her Kerry senior debut at the age of 16. Her passion for the game shone throughout the interview, and she spoke out on many important subjects surrounding the ladies’ game.

“I think that it’s time now that the GAA and the LGFA came together under one umbrella. If I’m going to training and so is my brother, at the same time in the local club, we’re both playing for two different associations and it doesn’t really make any sense at all. We’re not living in the dark ages anymore. We’re all playing the same game and putting in the same effort.”

With the turmoil of 2020, Fiadhna has decided to give the Kerry jersey up for the time being but remains open to returning in the future. Instead, she’s focusing on running her own coffee trailer business near the Gap of Dunloe for the summer, once the college semester ends.

“It’s stuff like that I have realised I’d just love to do. I want to travel around Ireland a bit too and who knows what the world will be like after I graduate next year.”