Young Kilkenny referee carries on grandfather's legacy

A young camogie player is following in the footsteps of her grandfather — the late great refereeing legend Paschal Long.

Sixteen-year-old Kate Long has played camogie for the Blacks and Whites of Skeoghvosteen since she was 12. Like Paschal before her, she starts in goal and became a qualified referee after completing the first whistler course with the club.

“I never realised until I started playing how much my grandfather reffed,” says Kate. “I was aware that he refereed, but I didn’t know that he was so well-known.

“When I found out, I thought it would be nice to do the course when it came up. And when I have a camogie match, nine times out of ten it’s going to be a male referee, so I thought it would be nice — especially for the younger girls — to have a female referee.”

Paschal is remembered for being a proud Carrickshock man with an illustrious 16-year refereeing career. He refereed no less than 32 finals in his time, including the 1984 All-Ireland Centenary in Semple Stadium.

Paschal was honoured for his lifelong commitment to the GAA when he was inducted into the GAA Hall of Fame. Kate’s mother and Paschal’s daughter-in-law, Catherine Long, describes it as ‘his proudest moment’.

Paschal was delighted when Kate did the first whistler course,” says Catherine. “Unfortunately, by the time Kate began refereeing, his health had declined to such an extent that he never got to see her referee. But he loved to hear the stories.”

The family has framed a jersey that Paschal wore to referee a final in 1989, and Kate has wore this same jersey while refereeing a match.

Last year, Kate entered a draw and was chosen to referee at the half-time matches during the camogie semi-finals in Nowlan Park. Last month, she refereed at Camán to Leinster in Carlow, and having refereed at a provincial blitz, she became eligible to enter the draw to referee the half-time matches at the All-Ireland Camogie Championships in Croke Park.

Kate was chosen, and earlier this month, she refereed a half-time match during the All-Ireland Premier Junior Camogie Championship. She brought along with her the whistle that Paschal used to referee the Centenary All-Ireland Final.

“I thought I would be nervous walking out, but I wasn’t really,” says Kate. “I was more excited — I just wanted to get out and do it. It was 12 minutes, and it went really quick. The time just flew when we were out there.”

Kate shares some words of wisdom that Paschal gave her about refereeing. “The number one thing was never take any aggro from the sideline. He said the biggest compliment anyone ever paid him was when Michael O’Hehir said he never noticed that he was on the pitch. He just let the play go on, and I’m kind of similar. I let the play go on; I don’t think there’s any point in stopping and starting all the time.”