Vera McWeeney

Vera McWeeney was born Veronica Mary Elizabeth Mahony in Blarney, County Cork on 21 July 1909. She was the youngest of the three children of Francis Walter Mahony and his second wife, Mary ("May") (née Ashlin). Her father was managing director of the family business Martin Mahony & Bros Ltd. She married sports journalist, Arthur McWeeney in 1940. The couple had one daughter and one son. Their son, Myles McWeeney, became a television executive at RTÉ.^[1]

McWeeney moved to Dublin in her youth, taking up hockey with Maids of the Mountain Hockey Club, with the team winning the Irish Senior Cup in 1930 and 1935. She won her first interprovincial cap for Leinster in 1927, and in 1932 her first Ireland cap. In 1936 she captained Ireland on a tour of the United States, first attending a world hockey conference and then a tournament in Philadelphia where they won two of their five exhibition matches. This was followed by a two-week tour, when they won five of their games. In 1933 she was part of the Ireland team that toured Denmark.^[1]

McWeeney was also an accomplished tennis player, considered to play at an international standard. She was a member of the Carrickmines club, winning the East of Ireland tennis championship in 1934 and the County Dublin Championships in 1936 and 1937. She was ranked number four in the 1937 Irish tennis rankings. In 1940 she won her only national tennis title with Norma Stoker in the Irish Close ladies’ doubles championship. She also played badminton, as well as being a skier and skater. Some suggest that she won international caps at squash. She was elected the president of the Irish Ladies Hockey Union in 1951, and served as a senior umpire and international selector for a number of years.^[1]