Home is where the heart - and hurley - is for Aoife McGrath

Aoife McGrath and her sister Eimear grew up in a family with a rich GAA pedigree where hurleys, sliotars and footballs were household staples.

During a conversation regularly punctuated by laughter, the description of the matches played when siblings and relatives got together elicits plenty of hearty chuckling.

"It's all we’ve known," says McGrath. "The whole family tree has just been immersed in it all my life and the lives before that. It’s what we do and what we’ve done for years. Any family gatherings usually involved a game of hurling out the back, which were pretty intense and vicious at times! There was no inch given or taken.

"We love it. You make friends for life and it’s a really special thing to be involved in it. I’ve been immersed in it since I could walk. Being hauled along to matches and training, to stand on the sideline, hail, rain or snow or sun or whatever.

"We love it. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t so we’re so lucky to have so many family members to have been involved."

A long-serving former Tipperary skipper and an All-Ireland winner at minor level with the county in 2011, McGrath and her 21-year-old sister will be important cogs in Denis Kelly’s Premier squad taking on Antrim in today’s Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship quarter-final, which takes place at Croke Park today (3.30pm) as part of a double-header with the heavyweight hurling semi-final between Limerick and Galway.

Their cousin, Miriam Campion was a member of the panel until last year. Other cousins, all with All-Ireland medals at senior, U20/U21 and/or minor level, include hurling legends John and Noel McGrath, their brother Brian, as well as Liam McGrath, Michelle Shortt and Campion’s two brother Pauric and John.

Clearly