TONY FITZGERALD HAS three large picture frames ready and waiting.
They’ve been given a quick polish and are laid out on a table in one of the activity rooms of the Knocknaheeny/Hollyhill Youth Project Centre.
They catalogue a different time in this community on the north side of Cork.
A spirit, togetherness, and hope endures.
And at a time like this, with their own Denise O’Sullivan one of the leaders of an Ireland team on the verge of their World Cup debut, there is a greater feeling of pride and excitment.
The 42 visits a few days before the injury scare that led to the midfielder needing to go to hospital for scans on a leg injury. Relief at the positive results is no doubt the overriding emotion now, as she is out of the protective boot and stands a chance of starting Thursday’s tournament opener against co-hosts Australia.
The sold-out 81,500-capacity Accor Stadium in Sydney feels a long way from here, even more so as Fitzgerald approaches the pictures on the table.
“I’ll show you,” he says.
The first photo he points to is from 2002, when a group of U10s are celebrating winning their summer tournament.
You cannot miss the little girl with long blonde hair among seven lads with a mixture of skin heads and long, straight fringes.
They are all in their element and she is giving two thumbs up.
Another from 2003 has her front and centre this time, holding a football in a team photo for Danny’s Hot Shots, the Junior League winners from that summer’s camp.
She is recieving a Merit Award from a member of An Garda Siochana the following year, wearing her full Celtic kit and a pink hoodie.
And then Fitzgerald reaches the end of the table. He’s smiling as he points to the collage from the Fancy Dress Disco in 2001.
It’s a rarity because that same little girl, the one her mother recalls running home from her First Holy Communion to get changed out of her dress to go out and play on the green, is without a football.
Instead, she is wearing a pink dress, a silver tinsel headband and is holding a gold wand with a star.
“We have a huge tradition of sport and community spirit: put it together and you get someone like Denise O’Sullivan,” Fitzgerald beams. “Like Mayfield and Roy Keane.”
In 2008, Des Bishop spent three weeks in the area for a RTÉ show called ‘Joy in the Hood’, given Knocknaheeny’s reputation for crime and unemployment.
More recently, the comedy series Young Offenders highlighted that the stereotype has not quite faded when a fight scene was preceded by the following rules of engagement:
“It’s Knocknaheeny rules.”
“Sure what are they?”
“There’s only one rule: if someone dies, no one says who did it.”
Fitzgerald is a proud man.
“We have young people with a multitude of talents and abilities. The centre is about letting them explore their skills and see what they can achieve.”
He has been the manager here since former President of Ireland Mary Robinson opened the centre in 1996.
Generations of families and too many kids to count have passed through the doors.
Walk down the main corridor and posters of O’Sullivan hang from the ceilings amid the green, white and orange bunting.
There is a cafe at the end of it and plans are in place for screenings of the games – starting with the tournament-opener against Australia on Thursday.
“They do a great breakfast,” Sinead O’Sullivan, a chef at nearby Mercy Hospital and one of Denise’s nine siblings, insists.
Walk out of the car park, away from the red brick Hollyhill Inn and local library, and you will pass her old secondary school – Terence MacSwiney Community College.
More bunting, more flags, and more posters of a smiling O’Sullivan.
Up a bit further and there is the council pitch, surrounded by houses, belonging to Nufarm Athletic, the first organised team she played for from the age of seven before joining nearby Wilton United.
Every World Cup journey has to start somewhere, yet we’re still a few minutes from the true origin story of an Ireland international with 102 senior caps, and who doesn’t turn 30 until next February.
Yet this was her world, and these are some of the places that moulded her, giving her the strength of character and confidence to be capable of expanding her horizons.
It’s what took her through the underage Ireland set-up, reaching the final of the U17 World Championships in 2010, losing to Spain on penalties, before embarking on a professional career with Glasgow City and, eventually, in America with Houston Dash and North Carolina Courage.
…
PASS THE GENERAL community centre and there are more signs and more flags with well wishes.
“I love that photo of her,” Sinead says. “She is beautiful.”
Head up the road and St Mary’s on the Hill Primary School also have the place decked out in honour of their past pupil.
The sound of reams upon reams of bunting flapping in the wind is what dominates this corner of Cork’s north side.
At the entrance to the estate where she grew up flies a huge Ireland flag on a lamppost. There is an even bigger poster tied to some railings:
“Good luck to Denise O’Sullivan & The Irish team. From everyone in Knocknaheeny.”
A picture of the local hero with a clenched fist and bright, beaming smile is alongside it. O’Sullivan is arm in arm with Ireland captain Katie McCabe – two talismanic figures in this side.
Walk up the steep path and the sound of the bunting grows even louder as the wind swirls. There are Ireland flags hanging from the top windows of all 16 houses on the side of the road where O’Sullivan grew up.
Green, white and orange. Everywhere.
And of course there is a green right outside the front door of Number 10. It’s small, almost diamond-shaped, and more houses surround it.
It’s a lot quietier in Knocknaheeny today than it was a couple of weeks earlier. A homecoming party for O’Sullivan was arranged by family and friends when she landed back from North Carolina before joining up with Ireland for their send-off friendly against France at Tallaght Stadium.
🎥 The Queen of Cork left The Rebel County today to join up with her fellow Celtic warriors as they prepare to conquer the world. Her clan in Knocknaheeny gave her a fitting send off at her mother's home
— Derek Coughlan (@CoughloDerek) June 28, 2023
🇮🇪⚽🏆 #COYGIG #WorldCup2023 pic.twitter.com/zgc7k5LcNL
The entire community came together on the green.
Everyone’s door was open.
Number 10′s still is in anticipation of The 42′s visit.
Nuala O’Sullivan, Denise’s mother, has just finished putting some shopping away and is still on a high from the outpouring of support.
“It was amazing, fabulous, all the people there. Everyone made it so special.”
Sinead returns after dropping her two-year-old daughter to creche, while Denise’s old manager at Wilton United, Pat Bowdren, is due to join us at some point in the afternoon.
First, a roll call of the 10 siblings.
“I’ll start with Denise seeing as she’s the youngest,” Sinead laughs.
“Then there’s David, there’s Nicola,” she pauses.
“John-Paul,” Nuala says.
“Then me, Mark, Lee, Ross,” Sinead adds.
“Then Mags,” Nuala continues.
“And Melissa.”
The family dynamic was a typical one.
Sinead: We killed each other. We were out there on the green all the time, you look out for each other, like; it was a jungle out there. And Denise was there from the age of three with a ball. Imagine it, the smallest kid in the middle of 10, 20, 30 kids, out there in the thick of it. She was a littler terrier.
Nuala: Yeah, yeah. Just a small thing she was.
Sinead: We would be very protective of her. We still are now. Denise would be one to stay behind the scenes now, she’d almost run away from us, but not with football. She never ran away from anyone in football. She is coming out of herself more but she was always quiet, reserved. I’m the one who talks for Ireland.
DS: And sure Denise plays for Ireland.
Nuala: [Laughs] That’s it. Denise was the best child as a baby. I don’t think she ever cried. She’d wake up in the cot and always be smiling back at you.
Sinead: There were 10 of us kids in this house, like. Denise kind of slept in with all of us really as she got older. Heads and toes in the bed. Up there in the front room, then put back in the other one. We had an extension built out the back for Melissa, the oldest who is 17 years older than Denise. Melissa would consider her like her mammy sometimes, but when she moved out, no one wanted to go out there. We all wanted to stay in the house.
Only when they had to.
O’Sullivan thrived once she had a ball at her feet, and as she got older, began to imagine the possibilities it would provide for her away from the place she was most comfortable.
John-Paul helped with that. He played underage for Ireland, and while injury curtailed his ambitions, he did enough to show his youngest sister what could be achieved.
“She used to have a list stuck on the door just there with a list of things she wanted to achieve,” Sinead recalls.
“Play for Cork City. Play for Ireland. Play in America. Play for [Manchester] United. Buy a house.
“To have that vision so young, she was only about eight, like. To fight to get there, that tells you a lot.”
Nuala sits to Sinead’s left and seems content to listen for the most part, her succinct responses to her daugther’s achievements a mixture of “amazing”, “fabulous”, “brilliant”.
As she looks at Sinead talking about her sister, Nuala is smiling.
“It’s great to see her so happy,” Nuala adds. “She has always wanted to be a footballer and now she’s at the World Cup.”
The family are unable to travel Down Under and will make do with watching together.
“There’s no point beating around the bush, like. We wanted to go but the cost is too much,” Sinead admits.
They have been everywhere else on her journey.
So was Pat Bowdren, her coach at Wilton United from U11s until she joined Cork City at 18 and began her professional career in Glasgow.
“Well, where are we?’ he shouts as he slides open the porch.
“Who’s that?” Nuala asks.
“It’s Pat,” Sinead says, getting up to greet him in the hall. “Hi boy, how are ye?”
“I’m good, girl. Good,” he replies.
“Oh, Pat makes me laugh,” Nuala says. “The singer is here now,” she teases.
As he takes off his jacket, he produces a CD from an inside pocket.
“There ye go, have a look at that.”
The name of the self-produced album is Gentle on my Mind, and the cover photo is of Bowdren in a past life.
“Is that really you, seriously?” Sinead asks.
“It is, girl. When I was young and good looking. Ye know I had a fierce cock-up there with Denise?” he begins.
“Why, what happened?” Nuala responds.
“I’ll tell ya. I got a text there: ‘Hi Pat, meant to text you but I lost my phone, thanks for the CD, it’s great. It’s Denise by the way’. Now I still didn’t know who it was because I had sent a disc to another Denise who isn’t well with cancer. I thought it was her and was asking about how she was.”
“But it was our Denise?” Sinead asks.
“Yeah, I thought it was the other one, though. Denise must have thought I was being a bollox to her.”
Nuala howls.
Before the laughter has subsided, Pat is reeling off more memories of Denise playing for Wilton in the Gaynor Cup as well as tournaments abroad in Portsmouth, Aberystwyth and Liverpool, where she would line out for the junior and U16 teams as a 13-year-old.
“We played one final against South Korea and everyone there was cheering for the Koreans, no one for the girls from Cork.
“But they would always ask about the little blonde girl. She has become a star, there is no doubt about it. She has achieved that status. I’d liken her to Roy Keane because she has that drive in her.”
Pat reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a photo of him and Denise with Stephen Lynch, another Wilton coach who played a pivotal role in her development.
“One of my most prized possessions. She was collecting a Cork young person’s award. But look at that,” he says pointing to the rented tuxedo he wore for the occasion.
“I never wore one of those fuckin’ suits in my life before that.”
Nuala howls with laughter again.
“Brilliant,” she says.
…
THEIR DATE WAS arranged by Denise in one of her favourite coffee spots in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina where she has called home for the last seven years.
James was there early; nervous and excited and just hoping the set-up by a mutual friend would click. It was summer. Raleigh is warm and sticky in summer.
But Denise loves coffee.
“She scheduled our date for 30 minutes after training,” James laughs. “She was all business. Still sweaty, her hair was in a pony, she was in her training kit. A sleveeless top and she had a pair of slides on too. All we talked about was football. I loved it.”
James was with her for that homecoming last month and watched her sign autographs and pose for hundreds of photos. He set off for Australia over the weekend.
“James is lovely, very genuine,” Sinead beams.
“Yeah, yeah. He’s lovely,” Nuala affirms.
The seal of approval.
Denise brought him hiking in Killarney and touring around Dublin when they were here, while at home in North Carolina, they’ve been inseparable for much of the last year.
“She is a great person to be around. She’s so focused, loyal and always has a smile on her face. She’s so positive,” James adds.
“Every day she will speak to her family at home. She maintains such a strong connection and it’s easy to see why. It’s why she is so loving and caring.
“I’m from a different part of North Carolina but Raleigh is a cool place. I think it’s the kind of community where it’s easy to find your tribe. I’m really lucky I found Denise.”
An American footballer throughout high school, James earned a scholarship as a safety and wide receiver to Durham University in the north east of England.
“We’re wired the same way, we like to stay active,” he says, and while they will watch shows like Yellowstone together, Denise has control of the remote when Love Island is on.
“If we do get to workout together, on the pitch or in the weightroom, she kicks my butt with that too,” he laughs.
Mike Young, the performance director for North Carolina Courage, is one of the reasons for that.
He takes a call at dawn on his way to work to talk about “Sully”, the “small, unassuming” midfielder who “brings a kind of ferocity and intensity that is overwhelming for opponents”.
Young laughs.
“She’s like a honeybadger. What is that meme? Don’t fuck with the honeybadger, I think. But you definitely don’t fuck with Sully.”
When she joined the Courage from Houston Dash in 2017, there was work to be done to improve her level of physicality and strength. Yet, three successive Players’ Player of the Season awards highlighted her ability.
Still, that work ethic and desire to improve was always there – it’s why loan spells in Australia with Canberra United and Western Sydney Wanderers as one of their guest stars were taken up, along with a stint with Brighton in the Women’s Super League during Covid-19.
“She has a growth mindset,” Young continues. “She will jokingly complain about the fitness work but at the same time be saying ‘I love the gym’. She is so strong, she won’t let anyone treat her like an underdog. She is the gold standard for midfield output in our league. She is everywhere.”
The Courage schedule is relentless. They have one day off a week, a mix of weight and pitch sessions as well as a dedicated day for sprint training. “Other players might only bring 90% to the field. Sully always brings 100%. She sets the standard.”
It’s why, after back-to-back NWSL Championships and Shields, she was named captain for this season. They are top of the table heading into the break for the World Cup.
“We love her here, she is part of the personality and fabric of the team,” Trevor, from the Courage fan group The Uproar, adds. “She is a leader to her core. On the field she’s so dynamic and aggressive. Off it she is kind to everyone.”
Meredith Speck is one of the teammates who knows her best, although before they were sisters-in-arms in midfield, they were rivals.
“She was so damn good when we played against the Dash, when we found out we were getting her, we couldn’t believe it,” the American remembers.
“Then you see her up close, every day. She is not one dimensional. Yeah, she has tenacity, but watch her and you will be amazed at the things she can do. The technique she has, the vision. How to evade tackles and how quickly she thinks.
“Then the other side to her is that she is so caring and thoughtful about her teammates.”
She is the one who will host barbeques for teammates and when Japan international Narumi Miura joined earlier this year, for example, it was O’Sullivan who rallied the whole squad for a meal at a local Japanese restaurant to make her feel welcome.
“I look at her and she is full of love,” Speck adds.
…
Life motors along at a fair old clip when it wants to and sometimes it takes everything we have just to grab a strap and hang on. In the space of five days last week, Denise O’Sullivan buried her father, completed the pivotal transfer of her career to America and took home Women’s International Player of the Year at the FAI awards.
- Malachy Clerkin, The Irish Times, 24 March 2016
In the kitchen, Nuala, Sinead and Pat continue to chat.
All four seats at the table are filled.
Her 10 children have done what they were supposed to: grown up and started their own families, their own lives.
Nuala is never alone, yet for the last seven years, there has been a void.
Her husband, John O’Sullivan, was 63 years old when he was diagnosed with cancer. He died in Cork’s Mercy University Hospital five weeks later.
Sinead: Dad fell sick in the February. Yeah, it was the February. I dropped him into the hospital on the 13th. Denise was still in Glasgow. We didn’t think he was going to die.
Nuala: No, no.
Sinead: It was very short.
Nuala: Very short.
Sinead: We didn’t tell Denise much at the start because she was playing, she was flying in Glasgow. We still didn’t think he was going to die so soon. Then it got to the point very quickly that we had to tell her to come home. She actually missed him. We all said goodbye but her plane home was delayed by an hour and they had to put Dad into a coma. She got to say goodbye to him but he never got to say goodbye to her.
Sinead: Then she had the chance to go to America.
Nuala: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. It’s what he wanted for her.
Sinead: They had been in talks [with Houston Dash]. My dad didn’t think he was going into hospital to die so there were emails still open when we looked back on the computer. You’d see the date and it was probably three or four days before he passed away.
John O’Sullivan was helping to set up that next stage of his daughter’s life in America.
Sinead: Denise is tough, like. That was very hard. When the chance is that big, that high up, you have to go. My dad wanted her to go.
Nuala: Definitely.
Sinead: Because that is what he wanted for her. She wanted it too. And what would she be staying her for, like? You can grieve everywhere. I know she would have been around her family but she had football to keep her going. She’s very strong, though, fair play to her.
Nuala: Very strong, yeah.
Sinead: We asked her was she OK to go. She was. I think she was doing it for my dad. I think he still drives Denise. She was the baby, the youngest. She was so driven and he loved it.
Last week in Brisbane — prior to that injury scare which had the whole family “up to 90″ with worry, according to a message from Sinead – Denise spoke about her late father.
“My dad was the biggest supporter for me in my journey to get to where I am. Obviously, to have him here would be a dream but I know he’s looking down. He’s proud anyway. He pushed me along the way to get to where I am today.”
Plenty more saw that determination and dedication up close.
…
ON THE NIGHT that France beat Ireland at Tallaght Stadium earlier this month, Niamh O’Regan went for a meal with some colleagues in Cork city centre.
Now an IT worker, she began playing for Wilton United’s U11s alongside Denise and has continued at left back in the senior side.
“Did you get one of Pat’s [Bowdren's] CDs yet?” she laughs.
“We all have one. Everyone gets one. He still plays live in different places about the city. Fair play to him, like.”
At that dinner, Niamh took out her phone and placed it on the table to watch her old teammate make her 102nd appearance for her country.
“Some of the lads started laughing at me when they copped on what I was doing,” she says.
“Then I told them that I grew up playing with Denise, and against Megan Connolly. They loved it then, they wanted to hear more.
“I told my boss who was asking about it too. I said, ‘Do not even think of disturbing me when the games are on at the World Cup. I will not be responsive’. It’s just great.
“Denise was always the one spurring everyone on. And it’s not just Denise. Her niece Caitlin plays with us [at Wilton] now and is an absolute clone of Denise. I swear, there is just something in the O’Sullivan DNA. She was bred for soccer the way she grew up playing.
“She was hell bent on it. She stuck to her guns. A different breed. We were playing for the fun of it, but Denise lived for it.”
Barbara O’Connell was one of the experienced heads on that Wilton senior team when Denise and Niamh arrived at 16. She is still fighting the good fight in the middle of the park now.
Her own daughters – Jesse and Alix – play for Cork City in the Women’s League of Ireland. They were toddlers when their mammy had a new midfielder partner.
“You knew right away Denise played with the boys when she was young,” Barbara laughs.
“There was no fear. She had a confidence and a style about her. She got kicked, she got hurt, she got straight up. But I can’t remember her needing to pick herself up too much. She was always so quick thinking.
“You knew she could be a star because of the way she played and the way she worked so hard.”
O’Sullivan’s achievements belong to her, but on a week like this with a World Cup about to begin, Niamh and Barbara – not to mention so many more – can cherish the memories and their small role in a journey.
…
THE CHAT IN the kitchen has finished.
Nuala and Sinead lead the way to the front room for a final stop on the way out.
Pat is searching for a video on his phone.
On the wall above the fireplace is a large canvas of a smiling Denise in her Courage jersey.
“She’s beautiful, isn’t she,” Sinead says again.
On the wall opposite is another large, framed photo of Denise in action the night Ireland beat Scotland to qualify for the World Cup.
Beside that is a FAI promotional poster for a double-header of Euro 2013 qualifiers against Wales and Scotland at Turner’s Cross. One of the photos added to the frame is a small cut-out of Denise shaking hands before kick-off with then Deputy Lord Mayor: a certain Tony Fitzgerald looks as proud then as he is now.
And in the far corner is the a tall, mahogany cabinet with two glass doors. It houses everything from U12 medals to senior Ireland caps.
Nuala and Sinead take one of the caps and sit on the couch – which has another of her huge World Cup signs placed above it – for a photo.
Pat has found the video on his phone.
“Do you know Derek O’Driscoll,” he asks.
“Who?” Sinead replies.
“His sister is married to one of your brothers,” he says.
“Ah, Emma.”
“Yeah, yeah. Look at this. He sent me this.”
Pat shows us a video of Derek encouraging his daughter as she dribbles in and out of cones with the ball stuck to her feet.
“Ah, that’s great,” Nuala says.
She then carefully rubs the Ireland cap that’s in her hand and places it back in the cabinet.
