1981 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship
| Championship Details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dates | Oct 4 | |
| Counties | ||
| Sponsor | ||
| All Ireland Champions | ||
| Winners | Kilkenny (4th title) | |
| Captain | Liz Neary | |
| Manager | ||
| All-Ireland Runners-up | ||
| Runners-up | Cork | |
| Captain | Claire Cronin | |
| Manager | ||
| Matches played | 2 | |
The 1981 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship was the high point of the 1981 season. The championship was won by Killkenny who defeated Cork by a five-point margin in a replayed final. The match drew an attendance of 3,000.
Surprise of the quarter-final stage was Down’s 2-6 to 1-8 victory over Wexford, Marian McGarvey scoring 1-6 of their total. Before their quarter-final with Dublin, Cork dropped three Killeavy players, Pat Moloney, Marian Sweeney and Cathy Landers for playing in a challenge match on the eve of the League final. Dublin led by 4-2 to 1-5 at half time but Cork came storming back to equalise 11 minutes into the second half and win by five points, as Dublin sent over a total of eight wide in the second half and scored just one point. Angela Downey scored 3-4 for Kilkenny against Tipperary, for whom Deirdre Lane scored 1-5.
Remarkably Galway led Cork by 1-5 to 1-3 at half time in the All Ireland semi-final before being swept aside by 2-4 in the first ten minutes of the second half. Down appearing in their first semi-final since 1949, never got to grips with Kilkenny and trailed by 2-3 to 0-2 after 13 minutes of their semi-final in Nowlan Park.
Kilkenny got a reprieve in the see-saw final when Cork had led by nine points five minutes into the second half but when Liz Neary snatched a goal from a rebound 25 minutes into the second half they trailed by just a point. In what was described by the Irish Independent as a truly memorable four-minute period of extra time. Kilkenny fought hard for the equaliser and it was Margaret Farrell who saved the day with a point from play. The five point margin in the replay flattered Kilkenny after Angela Downey scored a breakaway goal in the last movement of the match. Mary O'Leary’s attempt to score an equalising goal from a free a few minutes earlier had been deflected over the bar.Agnes Hourigan wrote in the Irish Press:
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