LOOKING BACK ON his sister’s sporting career, one memory comes to mind for Galway’s 2001 All-Ireland winning captain Gary Fahey.
He recalls a day when his sister Niamh, the youngest of eight siblings, was togging out for their local GAA club Killanin in an U12 clash with Moycullen. Knowing what was waiting on the other side of the line, the coach for the opposition warned his players to keep a watchful eye on the “girl playing for Killanin.” They couldn’t be convinced to follow the advice, and their ignorance came at a cost.
“They probably didn’t take any remarks,” Fahey tells The42 about his sister who is a core player for the Republic of Ireland women’s team who have ended the long wait to reach a major tournament by qualifying for the 2023 World Cup.
“But they did [after a few minutes] because she could hold her own against lads right up until about 14.
“From her early days, you could see there was something special [with her]. And then the determination, single-mindedness and the drive as well as the ability. Lots of people have ability but it doesn’t work out, but she really had it to go after what she wanted.”
The Fahey family have always had a strong association with the GAA, and three of them are All-Ireland winners with Galway. Gary and Richie were both part of the squads who lifted the Sam Maguire between 1998 and 2001, while Niamh was just 16 when she helped the Galway Ladies win a first-ever senior All-Ireland title in 2004.
But for Niamh, her sporting interests extended beyond Gaelic Games. Unlike her six brothers and sister Avicen, she became drawn to football after she discovered Liverpool.
“She was always a big fan of Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard,” brother Gary explains. “She joined Moycullen soccer club and played with Moycullen and Salthill Devon. There’s 15-and-a-half years between myself and Niamh so I think it was the Liverpool angle.
“She went to Moycullen because there was no soccer in Killanin at the time.”
As Niamh progressed through her teens, she managed the hectic balance between playing for the Galway Ladies and her burgeoning football career. Even in the year of Galway’s All-Ireland triumph, Fahey was maneuvering over and back between the sports.
The time eventually came for her to focus her energy on one, and it was the sport that offered the promise of performing on the world stage that swayed her decision. Choosing to head down the road of professional football has brought her to some of the best clubs in England, including Arsenal and her childhood favourite, Liverpool.
“It was a tough enough decision because she really was GAA through and through,” Gary notes.
“But I think the opportunity to test herself at Arsenal… they had won the Champions League the year before and she missed out but to test yourself against the best around and the international dimension probably swayed her.
“I never asked her this directly but for her own drive to be the best she could has brought her the opportunity to be on the world stage in Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s similar to the women now who are going to the Australian Rules. It’s a tough decision but these opportunities don’t come around all the time, and the players are grabbing them.”
Unfortunately, Gary was unable to be in Glasgow’s Hampden Park for Ireland’s historic 1-0 win over Scotland which sent them through to the World Cup finals. Work commitments kept him away that night, but the Fahey family did have some representation there for the occasion.
“I didn’t watch the game but the feeling for the last 15 minutes was just holding on. They had a good few chances, particularly in the first half, but Ireland held through so I never had a feeling that they were likely to lose it but they could. When you’re that close to a World Cup, it can always be taken out of your hand.
“So we were nervous for the last 15 minutes and then it was relief when it was over. My brother and his nieces were there, my parents were there. I didn’t get to go out because I had a work thing that I had to take care of.”
There was a particularly nervy few minutes in the first half of that game after the referee judged that Fahey had handled the ball in the Irish penalty area. Thankfully, Courtney Brosnan produced an excellent save, a moment which eventually inspired Amber Barrett’s decisive goal late in the second half.
The game could have taken on an entirely different trajectory had Brosnan failed to keep out the spotkick, but Gary assesses the moment differently. Scotland would certainly have taken the lead had his sister’s intervention not deflected the ball off the bar and away from the net. A penalty gave them a chance to keep Scotland scoreless.
“Sometimes you don’t always get what you want in your career but the fact they’re in the World Cup is just unbelievable. She’s given us a lot of moments over the years and this is the biggest one of all; the cherry on top. She had her cruciate injury in 2013 and there’s been ups and downs along the way.
“There was a photograph of her when she came off the plane back in Dublin and she was over the moon. She’s level-headed enough and she gets back to equilibrium fairly soon.
“We have tremendous pride in her achievements.”
When Niamh first became an emerging star with the Ireland team, reporters who had worked out the connection between her and her All-Ireland-winning brothers would often ask her about what it was like to grow up with them. Now, with the Faheys starting the process of booking flights Down Under, that narrative has been deservedly inverted.
“They should have stopped asking about myself and Richie a long time ago. We’re Niamh Fahey’s brothers now and rightly so.”
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