New mother Caoimhe Harvey enjoying swift return to the field

Less than two weeks after giving birth to her first child, Caoimhe Harvey was back on the field, training, and three days later she returned to competitive action.

The Clare star is a competitor by nature but even though she missed a TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship where the Banner reached the final four, before a narrow loss to the eventual champions, she wouldn't change it for the world.

Many of us will remember 13 August 2022 as one of the hottest days of the year but Caoimhe and her partner, Cormac Murray, will never forget it for different reasons.

"Rían was born at 5.46pm," said Harvey. "The last month was surreal, so surreal. You can’t even put it into words, imagining it. Rían entered our lives and it was so strange.

"It’s full on but 12 days after having him, I was able to return back to training so that was definitely an experience for myself, to just be able to get going on the football field again.

"Then on Sunday, which would have been 15 days, I got to play 30 minutes of championship football. So that was definitely something I am delighted to be able to be back doing.

"Both of us play football and we wouldn’t be able to do it without the support from either of our families so that is just amazing."

The 23-year-old who plays with West Clare Gaels was due to captain her county this year before she stepped away from the panel in February.

Harvey was ever-present in the saffron and blue since joining the intermediate panel in 2016 and watching on from the terraces for an entire season was a huge shock to the system.

She made a conscious effort to step away completely and let the new joint-captains Orla Devitt and Niamh O’Dea take up the main leadership roles. It was a difficult call but Harvey needed to