The dedication and patience required for the early days of a camogie team by their mentors is more easily imagined than described, and it was in those early days that the three ladies, Bernadette, Alice and Margaret, proved to have a super abundance of those qualities. Together they created order out of chaos, so that their team won their first every trophy- The Dunleer St. Vincent de Paul trophy in 1982. 

Sadly, this was the only trophy Bernadette was destined to see being won by the team she had played such a major part in founding. Her death in April 1982 was, naturally, the cause of trauma and distress to the club. As Margaret and Alice wrote in the ten year booklet- “it was unbelieveable. She had been an inspiration to us all.What would we do now? How could we cope without her? The loss of Bernadette as an organiser was on us all as we lost a good friend”

It was only fitting, then, that the team she had nurtured were first to win “The Bernadette McCabe Cup”, the minor championship trophy presented by Nicky in her memory. The advice given by Bernadette all those years ago still holds good. She would say “one hour in the fresh air can be as good as one hour in study” and “success is not always measured by the number of trophies won rather in the confidence acquired and friends made.”