By Damian Dolan
A ladies Gaelic football club in London refused to allow Covid-19 to prevent them paying tribute last weekend to its founding member, who passed away in 2006, and instead held a virtual gathering on social media to remember her.
Holloway Gaels founder Ann McCann (nee Dunning) – affectionately known as ‘Stunning Dunning’ – died in November 2006. She was just 34.
Each year since 2009 the club has held a Gaelic football tournament in her honour, The Ann Dunning Memorial.
The year’s tournament should have taken place last Saturday, but with all GAA activity suspended until 19 April (inclusive) was postponed.
But instead of allowing the date to just pass by, as many as 60 current and former members of Holloway Gaels from across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, went online to swap stories of Ann, and of playing Gaelic football in London for the club.
“At 7pm on Saturday we all agreed to wear some piece of Holloway kit, to have a glass ready and to be ready with a story,” Holloway Gaels chairperson Aisling Clifford told the Irish World.
“Everyone went around and told an anecdote, and took some time to pause, reconnect and have drink together, because we’re so isolated. And some of our folk live alone.
“Lots of Ann’s former colleagues chipped in and told a story, which they might not otherwise have done.”
The 45-minute gathering, held via Zoom, was chaired by the club’s underage coach Ciara Holland, who’d suggested the idea.
“One woman posted a picture of the first-ever piece of Holloway merchandise from 1993!,” added Aisling.
From Co Kerry, Aisling joined Holloway Gaels in 2007, having arrived in London in 1999.
While there are few left who played with or against Ann, it’s important to the club to keep the tournament going.
“There was something about Ann’s personality and the energy she brought to people which connected them,” said Aisling.
Since 2009 the tournament has become a permanent fixture in the London ladies calendar and a “fulcrum not only to remember Ann but to acknowledge people who set up clubs that we all benefit from”.
“That’s become the theme of the tournament – that’s why we set it up. To reconnect people, and to take the time to consider the folk that came before us and to acknowledge Ann, in particular, but also all of her friends as well,” said Aisling.
“To the players who didn’t know her, Ann has become a symbol of what we’re all about, and a reminder that as well as a football club we’re very much a family in London, and no more so than Saturday when it felt like a family reunion. It was quite moving.
“Our club, as many clubs are in London, turns into a family away from home.
“Ann is symbolic of the atmosphere we like to create at the club, which is welcoming and friendly.”
Last year, the tournament became The Ann Dunning Memorial and Chloe Cup, after Chloe Quilleck, a member of the club’s underage team who passed away in 2018.
It’s now a joint adult and underage tournament and this year’s was set to be the biggest yet.
“We hope to have it later in the year, but we can’t make any plans yet,” said Aisling.
In December 2006, one month after Ann’s passing, her teammate and friend Bridget Browne penned a touching tribute in the Irish World. She wrote of Ann’s “continually smiley face and happy demeanour”.
She said Ann “could light up a room with that mischievous twinkle in her eye, her smile and her sharp wit…..she loved life and lived every second to the full”.
From Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Ann first came to London on March 1993 along with her very good friend Joan McEvoy to begin their nursing training at the Whittington Hospital in Archway, North London.
After completing her training in 1996, Ann worked her way up the grades to become the Day Surgery Ward Manager.
Missing the Gaelic football scene at home, they formed Holloway Gaels in 1993. Ann captained the team to its first championship success in 1998, when they won junior, and was selected on the London panel the following year.
She went on to win two further junior championships in 2000 and 2004.
Ann passed away in 2006 after being diagnosed with Choriocarcinoma, an extremely rare and aggressive pregnancy-related cancer.
As a tribute, her husband Denver has set up a charity in her memory to help raise awareness and to aid research into the disease. They had one son, Jarrod.
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