Talented Bronagh McGuinness isn’t happy being good at just one sport.
Instead she’s excelled in both soccer and Gaelic football - and she’s represented Liverpool Hope University with distinction, too.
Bronagh, 21, is in the final year of a Sport & Exercise Science degree at Hope.
She’s somehow found time to train up to six days a week for her twin sporting passions while also keeping up with her studies.
Before arriving in Liverpool, Bronagh played soccer as a left-back for Derry City Women, who ply their trade in the top flight Northern Irish Women’s Premiership.
But she also just happens to be an accomplished Gaelic football player, too, representing John Mitchel’s GAA Liverpool and Moville GAA Club back in Ireland.
Astonishingly, at one point she represented both Moville GAA and Derry City Women FC at the same time.
Her achievements have not gone unnoticed.
She was rewarded with a unique sports-related Performance Scholarship at Hope, which entitles her to £1,000 per year for each academic year.
Bronagh, from Donegal, reveals: “It might sound like it’s the wrong way around, but when I’m in Ireland I play soccer, and when I’m in Liverpool I play Gaelic.
“Being part of the thriving GAA scene here in Liverpool is a way for me to connect with home, and I’m grateful for being able to switch between the two sports depending on my location.”
Bronagh, who played for the Hope soccer team in her first year, started playing soccer competitively for Moville Celtic FC when she was 13 years old.
A year later she then joined the Inishowen Girls Academy
The left-footed winger, or full-back joined Derry FC - her current club - aged 17. And it was while playing for Derry FC that she was scouted for Northern Ireland Under-19s.
(Bronagh, above, playing for Derry. Image copyright JPJP Photography)
She made her international debut in October 2018, against Estonia.
Yet she moved to Liverpool and committed to GAA instead.
Bronagh, President of the Women’s Gaelic football team at Hope, explains: “I’ve always played GAA and soccer at the same time. Some weeks I’d be training six days a week.
“When I moved to Liverpool I knew that I had to slow down on one of the sports. I just didn’t have enough time to do both while also being in full-time education.
“And I focused on the Gaelic because I’d be lost without the support of the Irish community here in Liverpool.”
Despite her obvious talents, Bronagh says she can’t see herself playing either of her chose sports professionally.
Instead, she says: “I want to become a special needs teacher - that’s the career I want to pursue. And I want to develop exercises for children around sensory equipment.
“It’s about taking my knowledge and applying it to someone else, rather than applying it to myself.
“I’ll always play sports to keep fit, and I’ll always be competitive on the pitch, but I’ve got different dreams and priorities besides football or GAA when it comes to my professional development.”
To make those ambitions a reality, Bronagh plans to complete PGCE once she’s finished her undergraduate degree, which will qualify her to teach.
And she’s already racking-up hours of industry experience, working as a teaching assistant with a Liverpool-based agency and going into primary schools across the city.
Bronagh states: “Working as a teaching assistant has definitely been challenging, but it’s also extremely rewarding and hopefully it’ll provide great experience for life as a teacher.”
Speaking about her time at Hope, Bronagh adds: “I’ve had such a good experience, and the GAA community here at the University is so special to be a part of.”