| Code: | Ladies' Football |
| Sport: | Ladies' Football |
| Province: | Ulster |
| Brenda McAnespie | |
| Irish: | Breannait Mhic an Easpaig |
| Occupation: | FÁS employee, county councillor |
| Icposition: | back, goalkeeper |
| County: | Monaghan |
| Icyears: | 1991–2006 |
| Counties: | Monaghan |
| Icallireland: | 2 |
| Allstars: | 3 |
| Birth Place: | Monaghan, Ireland |
| Brenda McAnespie | |
| Nationality: | Irish |
| Office: | Monaghan County Councillor |
| Constituency: | Monaghan LEA |
| Term Start: | 11 June 1999 |
| Term End: | 5 June 2009 |
| Party: | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse: | Vincent McAnespie |
| Children: | 7 |
Brenda McAnespie (born February 1966) is an Irish sportswoman.[1] [2] She played ladies' Gaelic football with her local club, Monaghan Harps, with Emyvale, and with the Monaghan county team.[3]
Brenda grew up in Scotstown, County Monaghan. She attended Urbleshanny National School and played Gaelic football on the boys' team at a time when ladies' Gaelic football was not widely played. At 13 or 14 this was no longer allowed and she switched to indoor soccer, playing as a goalkeeper.
She married Vincent McAnespie in 1989.[4]
In 1991 ladies' football began in Monaghan and McAnespie was involved from the beginning. They won the 1992 All-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championship, and went on to dominate the senior competition in the 1990s. McAnespie played in six All-Ireland senior finals, winning in 1996 and 1997.[5] She won three All Stars, in 1996, 1997 and 1999.
McAnespie retired from county football in 2006.
In 2008, she was on an Emyvale team that won the All-Ireland Ladies Intermediate Club Football Championship, along with her daughters Ciara and Aoife.[6]
McAnespie was named by the Irish Independent on a list of "The 10 greatest women GAA [''sic''] players of all time" in 2015.[7] She was the subject of a 2020 Laochra Gael episode.[8] [9]
McAnespie has seven children.[10] Her son Ryan has played for Monaghan men's team.[11]
She was elected to Monaghan County Council for Sinn Féin in 1999 and again in 2004.[12]
Her husband, Vincent McAnespie, is also a longtime Sinn Féin activist. He was accused of involvement in the attempted murder of an Ulster Defence Regiment member in 1981; he was tried in 2010 and acquitted.[13] His brother Aidan was killed by a British Army sniper in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone in 1988.[14]