Sporting-mad Slevin family basking in Emma’s exploits
IF there is one thing the Slevin household does not lack, it’s energy. What’s more, whenever they focus this energy in a particular sporting direction, success tends to follow.
While it is Emma (17) who is making headlines this week on the back of becoming the first Irish female to reach an All-Around final at the European Gymnastics Championships in Basel, Switzerland, the Slevin name regularly appears in the sports pages.
For one, Emma’s twin Kate is a talented soccer and Gaelic ladies footballer, representing Galway in both codes, while, secondly, their older brother Mark (20) created a little bit of history himself when lining out at wing-back on the Carnmore side that won a first-ever Galway minor ‘A’ hurling championship in 2019.
“Sometimes, I don’t know where I got them out of; I reckon I might have taken the wrong ones from the hospital,” laughs their mother Deirdre. “Ah, no, we would have been very encouraging when they were small and, when they were small, they tried everything. Then, we just let them decide what they were happiest doing.”
Deirdre and her husband Liam also came from a sporting background and, given both hail from Kilkenny, she notes that there was only one sport they ever played.
“Liam was a good hurler in his day – he played in goals – and I played camogie, although not at this (high) level. I’m from St. Martin’s in North Kilkenny and Liam is from arch rivals next door, Erin’s Own. When we were growing up, there wasn’t anything else, maybe a bit of basketball, so hurling and camogie were the only sports around.”
With the GAA gene strong, all of their children gravitated in that direction while also trying out other sports such as soccer and gymnastics, which Emma took up when she was almost eight years old.
“Gymnastics starts when they are very young and, so, Emma was late coming into it,” says Deirdre. “I really hated the fact, though, that she was giving up everything else. Coming very much from a GAA background, I was saying, ‘you can’t give up football!’
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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