One of Andrea Trill’s earliest memories is of kicking a ball outside her home in Claregalway. She was four years old and her father was training her older brother, Colm, who played for the local team. She enthusiastically joined in and there began a love affair with Gaelic football which would shape the direction of her life.

Little did the Junior Infants pupil realise then that 20 years later her childhood passion would culminate in her playing for Galway in the All-Ireland Senior Ladies Football Final and in the semi-final this year.

Sport has opened up other doors for her, too. In November, she, and four other members of the Galway Ladies Senior Team, will be part of a 50-strong contingent of Irish GAA stars heading to Africa as part of a “Warriors for Humanity” campaign in aid of Self Help Africa.

They will participate in the charity’s annual “Plant the Planet” initiative from November 21 to 28 which involves tree-planting and conservation efforts. The goal is to plant one million trees which will provide food, income, shelter, and tools for communities affected by climate change, she says.

Each tree that is planted will represent a livelihood for an African family and an integral part of the project is to train farmers how to manage their trees for this purpose. The organisation is keen that the impact of its work is felt for many years to come, benefitting future generations and leaving behind an important legacy. The initiative will also result in 31,250 tonnes of carbon dioxide being removed from the atmosphere.

The GAA group will also take part in the fourth All-Star men’s and women’s match there, according to Andrea who works as a quantity engineer at Boston Scientific and who has been a member of the Galway Senior Ladies Team since 2019. She says she is fortunate that her sporting career has given her, and indeed her four teammates, who are going to Africa with her – Kate Geraghty and Aoife O’Rourke from Tuam, Aoife Ní Cheallaigh from Caltra, and Olivia Divilly from Kilkerrin/Clonberne GAA Club – an opportunity to go to Uganda and help people. A landlocked country in eastern Africa with a population of more than 50 million people, it is the 31st largest country in the world.

Each person in the group must raise €10,000 before travelling and Andrea is more than half way towards meeting this target. She held a table quiz at Crowe’s Bar recently which generated €1,500 and collected a further €400 at her workplace in Boston Scientific. The five Galway players also organised a collective fundraiser by holding an elite skill camp for girls at the Galway Centre in Loughgeorge at the end of July. They will hold a spinathon on Sunday (21st ) from 11am to 7pm at the Loughrea Plaza (M6 ) and are asking the public to support them. Andrea Trill is also raffling signed jerseys from Galway Ladies and Men’s football teams, and Galway United. She hopes these events will help get her fundraising “over the line”.

Life-changing

When she was offered the opportunity to travel to Uganda, she said “yes” instantly. “I’ve always helped out with charities, at work, etc, so I am looking forward to doing this. The experience will be an eye-opener and it will be life-changing.

“The funds we raise will support tree-planting projects that transform communities: providing shade, shelter, and food, preventing soil erosion, restoring degraded land, and creating long-term sources of income and nutrition for families. These trees will also play a crucial role in the fight against climate change.

“The intention is to leave a collective legacy and make a huge difference to the planet, hundreds of thousands of families will live off these trees long into the future.”

This is the third year that Self-Help Africa and the Warriors for Humanity [founded by former Galway hurler and footballer, Alan Kerins from Clarinbridge, who won three All-Ireland medals, five Connacht titles, and two All-Star awards during his playing career] have run this project.

“The first two years they went to Kenya. A couple of the girls from the Galway team went there last year to plant trees. Alan Kerins had reached out to them and one of them put my name forward for this year’s initiative.

“We will be planting trees and helping complete a handball alley [the project also focuses on building and equipping one-wall handball courts to support the growth of the sport] as well as visiting schools and hospitals and seeing what supports they need. On the Sunday we’ll be playing a game between us all. They have a recognised Gaelic football team over there as well as a rugby team.

Form friendships

“We will also be training the children in Gaelic sports, we will be giving them pointers. At the moment, they are trying to get more schools playing GAA. We hope to be positive role models for women. I’ll be trying to show them that it’s good to be a woman, to be strong and independent.”

Taking part in sport not only benefits your health and wellbeing, it helps you to form friendships and develop character, says Andrea, who plays as a corner-forward and is recognised for her skill, speed, and agility and sharp eye for goal scoring. She trains five days a week and spends two hours in the gym each week.

“I love it [playing Gaelic football] so much. It becomes part of your life, I am very grateful to be able to do it, a lot of people can’t. It’s a great way to forget about everything else going on. The team are like another family to me, I could call any of them up. Most of the girls have been through everything with you.”

A knee injury that put Andrea out of sporting action for almost a year in 2022, and her team losing out to Dublin in the All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Semi-Final championship in July, were two major disappointments that she experienced. But sport has given her much more than a platform to showcase her sporting prowess. She says it has helped her develop valuable coping skills.

“I have learned a lot from sport. It teaches you how to deal with disappointment a lot better. Sometimes, life isn’t easy, there are always ups and downs. But sport helps you deal with stuff that is going on.

“I tore my ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] in 2022 and I went through reconstruction. I was out for 11/12 months. That was tough, those were very lonely months. I’m back playing three years now and I’m flying! I think we put so much effort and of our life into training and all that hard work pays off. We lost the semi-final against Dublin in July and that was disappointing. But we have such a great group of girls and we worked through the disappointment.”

Being part of something bigger than yourself is important, too, she believes. “Sport has taught me that being committed to, and being part of something, is very important. It’s always bigger than just playing. And it’s not always about winning, sport is character building. You learn a lot about yourself and you learn you can handle a lot more than you think you can. And it’s the friendships you make and the support you receive. Sport has made me a really outgoing person and very driven – you have to be, the rewards you get are spectacular. When young girls come up to me after a game and ask for my signature, I feel so good. It makes me want to do better.”

To support Andrea Trill or any of her four teammates – Kate Geraghty, Aoife O’Rourke, Aoife Ní Cheallaigh, and Olivia Divilly – who are volunteering in Africa in November log on to their individual iDonate pages.