Laura and Caislin pushing each other towards the pinnacle

THERE’S a car leaving Greencastle several times a week and driving to Loughmacrory where the young female driver picks up two more passengers and heads on to Garvaghy or Cookstown for Tyrone minor ladies training.

Travelling in this car are three members of the county minor football panel but there’s a lot more to this carpool than simply three young girls going to football training.

This trio happen to be world champions in another sport and have been competing alongside and against each other at the top end of their sport from a young age.

Caislin Tracey, Laura Duff and Lucy McCullagh have become three of the most decorated teenage dual stars that Tyrone GAA has ever produced, although Caislin is also an adept camogie player which means she’s excelled in three codes.

It’s unlikely that you could put three young prodigies into a car in Tyrone with as many provincial, national and international GAA honours as this trio have accumulated.

These girls have scooped dozens of really valuable prizes in handball in recent times and their achievements couldn’t be overstated.

Caislin and Laura have always had an amicable relationship off the court and have even lifted a few national titles playing together, including the All Ireland minor 60×30 doubles title in July 2024.

But it’s the head to head meetings between this pair on the court that have created the most captivating rivalry in Tyrone for years.

Since the early days when they were meeting regularly in county trials, U12 county finals, Cumann na mbunscol and Lough Showdown finals, the two girls have continually driven each other on to become better players.

Hundreds of hours have been spent on the court to develop and polish their skills, making sure they’re ready for the next local derby showdown between Greencastle and Loughmacrory.

And whenever they’ve crossed swords in an important fixture, there’s always been a huge sense of anticipation among spectators that another epic encounter is about to unfold.

Laura and Caislin are quick to acknowledge the importance of all the personal battles they’ve had in their own memorable journeys to world championship glory.

“ Laura has definitely pushed me to be a better handballer,” says Caislin, “as I have constantly had to keep practicing and improving in order to be able to compete with her.

“ Laura’s a fantastic player who has a brilliant attacking game and displays great power and accuracy with her shots, especially with her serving and roof shots.

“ Her style of play is very exciting to watch and play against as her speed around the court makes her very difficult to put away. And if you leave any set-ups it’s nearly always guaranteed to be a flat kill!

“ Laura brings a lot of great attributes to the game and is certainly a brilliant all rounder in all codes of handball,” insisted the Greencastle star.

“ Caislin is such an athletic and skilful handballer,” acknowledged Laura, “which is why we always end up in tight battles.

“ Her movement, footwork and agility around the court are outstanding and there’s no such thing as a lost cause as she always goes for everything and usually finds a way to return the ball,” explained Laura.

“ Caislin rarely misses a shot and will relentlessly return the ball with great power and accuracy, making her such a difficult opponent to beat,” stated Laura.

The two girls have certainly developed a strong mutual respect and admiration for one another and rarely have their personal clashes failed to deliver.

In 2024 they met in Ulster minor singles championship deciders across the three handball codes.

Laura lifted the Ulster 40×20 and 60×30 titles and went all the way in stunning fashion to All Ireland glory in both spheres.

Caislin turned things around in the Ulster minor wallball final and impressively became All Ireland champion in the one wall code.

The All Ireland 40×20 and wallball championships were regarded as a good guide to what might happen in the 2024 World championships for these two codes, which were being staged in Ireland for the first time in twelve years, attracting a combined entry list of more than two and a half thousand.

Caislin went into the World wallball championships in the University of Limerick in August as All Ireland champion but she bowed out at the semi final stage and it was her local rival Laura who stepped up to be crowned 17&U world one wall singles champion.

Meanwhile Laura’s clubmate Lucy was to complete a famous double for the Loughmacrory girls in Limerick by lifting the 15&U world wallball singles title, strongly justifying her place on Team Ireland in the process.

Two months later, the World 4-wall (40×20) championships were being staged in Leinster.

As All Ireland minor 40×20 champion, Laura was fancied to secure the gold medal in Kilkenny at the beginning of November but this time it was Caislin’s turn to take home the gold in the 17&U girls singles division as she proudly wore the colours of Team Ireland to clinch a glorious world title.

Laura lost out to Cork’s Carmel Kelleher at the semi final stage and Caislin then saw off Carmel in the world decider, winning 11-7 in a nailbiting tiebreaker.

In the earlier one wall championships, the same Cork girl had ended Caislin’s hopes in the semi final but found Laura impossible to crack in the decider.

The 17&U girls category, regarded by many as the toughest grade to win, was packed with contenders in 2024 but the two world titles for one wall and 40×20 made their way back to Loughmacrory and Greencastle, claimed by those two young girls who grew up simply trying to be better than each other.

As 2024 ended, the seven elite singles titles available to U18 girls at national and international level across the three handball codes were all residing in Tyrone.

While Laura has the All Ireland minor singles titles for 40×20 and 60×30 in her possession, along with her World and Irish Nationals 17&U wallball titles, Caislin has the All Ireland minor wallball title, Irish 40×20 nationals trophy and World 40×20 singles gold medal proudly on display in her Greencastle home.

Not surprisingly the pair were recently recognised as the handballer and young handballer of the year at the prestigious Teamtalk Tyrone GAA awards for 2024.

It was previously unthinkable that two Tyrone girls could dominate the U18 girls division to such an extent, especially with so many formidable challengers to overcome in this age group.

And 2025 will be even more interesting as Laura and Caislin are eligible to play minor handball again, while Lucy has just turned 16 and steps up to minor, plus other big hitters such as Carmel Kelleher (Cork), Katie Jordan (Kilkenny) and Claire Minogue (Clare) are once again aiming to plot the downfall of the Tyrone girls. Whoever prevails in the All Ireland minor girls championships in 2025 will have absolutely earned it.

That car journey to county football training will start to get very interesting in a couple of months when Caislin, Laura and Lucy are fighting it out for the Ulster 40×20 minor singles championship.

It promises to be the best Ulster minor championship in history with three world gold medalists trying to outdo one another, including the current All Ireland title holder.

Whoever survives the provincial series will automatically be a tough nut to crack again on the national stage.

Tyrone handball has been spoiled by the unprecedented success achieved by these three girls in recent years and is blessed to have another young girl of similar quality emerging at under 14 in the form of Greencastle’s Emma Conway, already a world champion at 13&U level and an All Ireland U14 singles winner. It goes without saying that Emma is also a county U14 footballer and a skillful camogie player.

It’s an incredible feat for Greencastle to be producing rare handball talents like Caislin and Emma without the same tradition and history behind them as clubs like Loughmacrory.

Their meteoric rise is undoubtedly one of the greatest accomplishments by any handball club in Ireland in modern times.

Greencastle and Loughmacrory brought a sensational combined tally of 12 gold medals back to Tyrone from the two world handball championships in 2024, capturing six apiece. And they also won six silver medals between them, with Loughmacrory claiming four and Greencastle two.

That’s a mind-boggling 18 gold and silver medals between the two neighbouring Tyrone clubs, putting both at the very top of the Worlds medals table for 2024.

For Loughmacrory, the conveyor belt continues and in Laura Duff and Lucy McCullagh they’ve unearthed two gems who’ve kept their club firmly on the Irish handball map with their glittering exploits.

Laura has now collected 15 grade one national titles inside the last three years along with her prestigious world gold medal and is officially the most successful underage handballer in Ireland during this period.

Caislin and Lucy aren’t far behind with their amazing conquests and have been among the standout figures in national underage handball circles over the last three years in particular.

The sky is the limit for players like Caislin, Laura, Lucy and Emma and the day when Tyrone finally produces an All Ireland ladies senior singles champion in 40×20 and 60×30, and hopefully a ladies open world champion, has to be edging closer.

The younger generation are pushing each other on towards the ultimate goal and are dreaming of reaching the pinnacle one day.

“ Caislin and myself wouldn’t be playing at the high standard we’re at now if it wasn’t for all the meetings we’ve had in Tyrone,” reflected Laura, “so I’m glad I’ve had those opportunities to play her as it has motivated me to keep improving my game to compete at the highest level.

“ I believe that neither Caislin nor myself would have won the world and national titles we’ve won if it wasn’t for us both pushing each other on all the time,” concluded Laura.

“ I have no doubt that our matches have made us both better players,” agreed Caislin, “as our games always go right down to the wire and have helped us to reach the high level we are playing at today.”

Eilise McCrory historically lifted the wallball senior singles title for Tyrone in 2023 and has been flying the flag high for the county in the senior grade in the other two codes.

It looks like she will have help on the way very soon.