Referee Justin Murphy’s full-time whistle in Longford, on Sunday, July 14, brought an outpouring of relief for Fermanagh’s stars as it confirmed their place in the All-Ireland Junior final.

Just two points separated the Erne side and Limerick in the end after a nerve-wracking eight minutes and more of added time at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.

The result put to bed any demons of this year’s league semi-final defeat to Carlow as, this time, Fermanagh held on to confirm their place at Croke Park this Sunday.

“It was like a massive relief,” said captain Shannan McQuade on hearing the final whistle.

“Like the last semi-final, it was in the dire seconds where it all changed, and all went wrong for us. We were waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the final whistle to get that relief and we weren’t going to celebrate a second earlier.

"It was an amazing feeling to reach our goals, you know, we gave up a lot of time. I think we started in October, you’re giving off three nights a week and everything else outside of that. It’s a lovely feeling to know that all of it is worth it.

"I think there was pressure going into the semi-final, after our league campaign we reached the semi-final, and we were knocked out.

"We were afraid of that happening again. Getting over that hurdle has left a good buzz around the camp and has helped training.”

Fermanagh face Louth and will hope that any lasting memories of the side’s meeting, back in 2019, where Louth recorded a 3-15 to 0-11 win following a replay in the same final, will be washed away.

“They beat us well back then,” added McQuade. “Previously we’ve just focused on ourselves, we can’t depend on Louth to do the same thing they’ve done in other matches. We’re just going to play our game and hope that’s enough on the day.

"Obviously, they are completely different teams to what they are now. We were counting the other day and there weren’t too many that were there the last day, a lot of us are older now and more experienced, having had them days out.

"Some of us have won an All-Ireland and lost an All-Ireland, so we have that experience to draw on as well. Obviously, we have new management as well, the boys bring a lot to the training and our gameplay, so, hopefully, that shows now next Sunday.”

A handful of CJ McGourty’s squad had their spirits lifted even higher when attending a meet and greet to celebrate 50 years of ladies' football in the county.

Speaking on the event, McQuade said: “Saturday (July 20) was fantastic, there was a real good buzz about it and it was so well organised. It was actually lovely to see the amount of wee girl’s teams, I think there were 13 teams there in total for U12 girls.

"It's mad how much it's developed, even from when I was playing myself. When I was playing, I was the only girl playing on the U12 team, so, that’s a massive jump since then.

"That was refreshing to see and even having the wee girls know who you were was lovely and a nice experience. When you’re in that bubble chatting with the team, you don’t really get an opportunity to chat with the outside, but it was lovely a nice experience.”

McQuade is one of a select few remaining from Fermanagh’s last Intermediate All-Ireland final against Down back in 2014 and the Tempo half-back believes that her teammates can go on to compete in the Intermediate championship if they are able to get past the challenge of The Wee County: “That was a long time ago when I first started playing for Fermanagh, but we’re definitely a team that can be there and we’ve been saying this for years without actually winning it and staying up.

"That’s our goal. We need to maybe stop saying ‘We’re an Intermediate team’, we need to make that happen.

"It’s great to see the likes of Leitrim, they’re in the Intermediate All-Ireland final and we met them in the league, it was a tight match, but we beat them.

"We have the quality and talent to be there and push on.”

The 27-year-old has landed two Junior titles in her time, 11 years after making her debut, but this weekend’s final will be her first final as captain, as she aims to be the first player to lift the cup at Croke Park in her time with Fermanagh.

“There's plenty of leaders on that team and you don’t feel that it's all down to you,” McQuade said on captaining the side.

“It’ll be an extra special moment and it would be lovely to lift the trophy in Croke Park, something that we’ve never done before, it’s always went to a replay, or it was the Covid year, so, it would be lovely to lift the cup in Croke Park for the first time.”