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Hockey Career
Sheelagh Murnaghan had a career in hockey. She studied law at Queen’s University in Belfast in Northern Ireland, where she played for the Irish National Women’s Hockey team or also known as Irish Ladies’ Hockey team. She also played hockey for Ulster, a province in the north of Ireland.



In 1948, she participated in the Irish Touring Team and went to Amsterdam, where her team won three matches, lost one and drew one.



The 1948 Irish team is represented in this photograph (left to right): S. Murnaghan, P. Coakley, G. Jackson, S. Bateman, N. Liuzzi, J. McCarroll. Front: B. Kyle, M. Barnwell, N. Whiteside (captain), M. Shankey and A. Docherty.

Then, during the late 1950s, she continued to play international field hockey with the Irish international women's hockey team. She had a reputation as “a diminutive but ferocious fullback”. At this time, she travelled with her hockey team to South Africa in 1950, to the United States in 1954   and to Australia. Indeed, in 1956 she went to the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Association (IFWHA) Conference and Tournament in Australia, where the team won three matches and lost one. The hockey team in 1956 was Mrs. W. Templeton, S. Murnaghan, J. Channing, M. Hopkins, D. Ferguson, C. Bolger, A. Docherty, S. Burrowes, J. Horne, J. Lambert, M. Shankey, and B. Henderson. According to the Irish Ladies’ book by the Hockey Union: “With Lillian Moran as captain and Martha Hayes as manager, they won three and lost three matches at the tournament. They played eighteen matches on tour, winning twelve, losing five and drawing one. This was a wonderful experience for the party which gave a creditable performance despite the considerable distance travelled by land and sea”.

Moreover, Sheelagh Murnaghan captained the Irish National Hockey team from 1955 to 1956 and from 1957 to 1958.