Ciara O'Sullivan comfortable with calling time on her legendary Cork career

A little over three weeks ago - on 8 March, to be exact - news came through that one of the great inter-county careers had been brought to a close.

After initially indicating at the start of the year that she was going to be taking a break for the Lidl National Football League - at which point she was 99% sure she had played her last game for the side - Cork's Ciara O’Sullivan officially announced her retirement from the elite level of ladies football.

An eight-time winner of the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, including two as team captain in 2015 and 2016, O’Sullivan also picked up five TG4 All-Stars during a glittering 16-year spell with her native county.

The most recent of those individual awards came at the end of the 2023 season, which she describes as one of her most enjoyable in the colours of the Rebels - despite their semi-final exit to Dublin in the All-Ireland SFC.

Yet having contemplated the idea of stepping away from inter-county duty before ultimately opting to line out last year, O’Sullivan believes the time is now right to draw the curtain on her time with Cork.

"Going back last year I would have thought about it maybe for the first time. More so because of age rather than anything else. Then ironically last year was probably one of the most enjoyable years with Cork, which made the decision that bit harder when it came to it then," O’Sullivan explained.

"It was nice to finish the year then with the All-Star, but I’m very mindful that they’re very subjective and it’s a panel picking them. Plenty of people thought maybe I didn’t deserve it, but it was a nice way to end it and go out on a high.

"When it came to the start of this year, I knew that the time was right for me to hang up the