IRELAND AT THE Women’s World Cup is less the impossible than it is the inconceivable dream. We spoke with six members of the Irish squad about the path to one of the most audacious sporting achievements in the country’s history.
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Aine O’Gorman: It’s something I never thought would happen in my career, going to a World Cup. So it’s a dream come true.
Megan Connolly: Growing up, it’s your wildest dreams. To think you could possibly play in a World Cup with the best players in the world, the best teams in the world, you look at us who have never qualified for a tournament and you wonder, ‘Can we ever do it? Will we ever do it?’ Nobody has ever done it before, can we do it?
Niamh Fahey: There was no precedence for it….the dream is a reality, even if it wasn’t a dream.
Amber Barrett: We were all glued to our TVs when the men were doing so well, but the 20×20 campaign – if she can’t see, she can’t be – was absolutely massive. It broke it down so simply: if you can’t have anything to aspire to, you won’t be able to aspire to it.
Lily Agg: You wouldn’t even have dreamed of it. It wasn’t as visible, and you didn’t see as much going on for the women’s game. I remember Roy Keane growing up, you’d see him getting his yellow and red cards every week. That was visible. It wasn’t until I went to Arsenal academy, I was there with the likes of Ciara Grant, Yvonne Treacy, and Emma Byrne, I saw them as visible, and saw what they were going through with Ireland at the time. They became my heroes, and who I aspired to be.
But I never saw them on the telly, or in the newspapers, or on Twitter. It wasn’t there. I was lucky to see them at training every day. But now young girls can see us on telly, in newspapers, and on Twitter and Instagram, it gives even more inspiration and belief. It makes it more achievable, right? More and more girls now know they can be footballers. Back then, we just played because we loved it.
Denise O’Sullivan: I 100% did [believe this was possible.] I was so driven as a kid. Football was the only thing on my mind. I watched my brother play for the national team [John Paul played for Ireland at underage level]. I had him to look up to, and my other brothers who played football.
I always believed I would be in an Ireland shirt some day, and I always dreamt of being at a World Cup. It was only going to take time before I was able to do it.
Aine O’Gorman: I only realised I could play for Ireland when I saw Olivia O’Toole playing at Richmond Park. I was lucky to pursue that dream, and the more caps you get and the more experience you get, you think maybe it a European Championship will be the breakthrough moment to a major tournament. But here it is, a World Cup. It doesn’t get better than that.
Denise O’Sullivan: I do remember going to Turner’s Cross, I think Katie Taylor was playing for the national team at the time, and Emma Byrne. Noel King was the manager. I was out there watching them and telling myself, ‘I want to be in that Ireland jersey some day.’
Aine O’Gorman: I grew up in Enniskerry and I fell into football through my older brother, accompanying him to training. The manager had odd numbers one day and I joined in, so every Saturday I was there, waiting for the call-up. That’s how I found my love for the game.
My brother got older and progressed through the age groups and then I started playing at U8s at Enniskerry. I just loved playing football and I was lucky the club was so welcoming to me as a girl, in the minority at the time. I am still really good friends with some of the guys I grew up playing with. I think it stands to you, playing with boys growing up.
Katie Taylor then tried to push the limit from U12 to U13s so that the girls could still play with the boys in the Wicklow Schoolboys League, she would have been a couple of years ahead of me.
Megan Connolly: When I was younger I just played with all the boys. They are looking at you and laughing at you, ‘Oh, it’s a girl’, and then we start playing the game and I’m the best player on the pitch, scoring the goals. Then the parents go from pointing and laughing to shouting at their sons, ‘Kick her! Kick her!’ Growing up I had to play with the boys as there weren’t any girls teams.
Niamh Fahey: It was the exact same for me. The local boys team in Moycullen, me and one of the lads from my school played with them. Mam used to drive the two of us down to training. Boys and girls mixed well in my school so it was just normal to me. When I got older I had to join a girls team, so I went to Salthill-Devon and progressed from there.
Megan Connolly: I loved it. I always played with my brother at home. Out in the back garden, with anything we could find to use as goals. Poor Dad had to go through I don’t know how many potted plants. We put a pot in one corner and another pot in another corner, and you had to defend your potted plant. I always played with my brother and we always kicked each other.
When I got to the point where I had to play with girls, my Dad set up a girls team in my local club, College Corinthians. It was all for me. All he did was for me. To be fair, in doing that he gave so many other girls opportunities to play. He put out flyers to come and do trials, over 100 girls wanted to come. My Dad was, ‘Oh my goodness.’ He let them all come.
From the age of 10 or 11, we had an U12s team and that team went all the way to senior in the club. My Dad dedicated 10 years of his life to that team. We won so much, I learned so much and made so many friends. I was lucky my Dad did that.
Denise O’Sullivan: I remember that! There were no girls teams around where I lived, I am the youngest of 10, so to get Mam and Dad to drive me 30 minutes away just wasn’t possible at the time. I walked over the road and joined Nufarm Athletic when I was seven years old. That was the first boys team I played for. That helped my career.
Going over I heard a lot of, ‘Oh she’s a girl, she’s not going to be good.’ I think they realised pretty quickly that I was good! The boys will always be quicker than you, but technically, I was way better than them.
Lily Agg: I played in England with Eastbourne Borough Boys, and when she first rang the club and asked if I could ‘bring her down’, the response was, ‘Oh, her?’ Yeah, her. ‘Oh, um, okay, I guess so, bring her down and we’ll see.’
Mum tells me the story and it makes me laugh. They had an A team, a B team, and a C team: it was a big club. They started me in the C team and Mum says that, by the end of the session, I was in the A team. I was five or six. I didn’t have a father figure who at the time made me play football, it was me, Mum and my older sister who liked barbies. Mum says ‘For some reason, Lily, you wanted to play football.’ I played with the boys up to 12, until we weren’t allowed to play with boys anymore.
I broke my nose and I had two broken arms from playing with boys, as they get physical when a girl beats them. It made me into the player I am now. I don’t fear anyone, I don’t fear any tackle. I’ve broken my nose. I wouldn’t change it for anything.
I hung out with the boys and didn’t have many friends who were girls, to be honest with you, as on break time I would go and play football with the boys. I think I even said once, ‘I want to be a boy, Mum’, and she said, ‘No no, you’re fine as a girl.’
Denise O’Sullivan: Back then I didn’t have any role models to look up to, but now there’s 23 women in this room who young kids have to look up to, but at the Sky event [the night after the squad was announced], I’m looking out from the stage and seeing 100 kids with Ireland jerseys on asking for autographs. We didn’t have that.
Megan Connolly: I have loads of nieces and nephews who are obsessed with me and I think, ‘Really?’ It’s crazy. With all the promotion of it, with kids coming up and screaming at the sight of you..I never had that when I was younger. I didn’t have the ability to go see stars like that. We had the women’s team but we hadn’t achieved much. It’s still quite crazy: I have family members in awe of me and I am saying, ‘Guys, come on. I’m your relation, like.’
Amber Barrett: What can we do to raise the standards for young girls growing up so they have access to this, this, this, and this. That is something this team takes pride in. We are not doing this just for us: we are doing this for 10 years down the line when most of us have retired and moved on and there’s a new batch of players coming through. Then we can say, ‘We set the standard and they came along to improve it.’ That is very special to be part of.
Niamh Fahey: When I look now I see my local club in Oughterard, they have girls teams at every age grade and it’s packed. They don’t have to travel too far for clubs anymore, and it’s just brilliant. There are so many young girls and boys who have seen us now, and can look up to us and see that this is reality, that I can play for the Irish women’s team at a major tournament. We are very proud of that aspect, and of being those role models.
Amber Barrett: That’s the biggest success we can take out of this. Even my club team where I only had access to playing with boys, they now have girls teams at underage and senior level. That’s a massive thing, and something I am very proud of.
Denise O’Sullivan left the Rebel County today to join up with her fellow Celtic warriors as they prepare to conquer the world. Her Knocknaheeny clan gave her a fitting send off last night at her mother's home 🇮🇪⚽🏆 Video courtesy of FAI Cork Development Officer @CoughloDerek pic.twitter.com/jS0VINrp78
— FAI Cork (@FAICork) June 28, 2023
Denise O’Sullivan: I must have signed 500 autographs [when O'Sullivan's family organised a World Cup farewell in Knocknaheeny.] Where I stood signing autographs… that is where I grew up playing, where I played street football every single day. Fast forward I am there and signing autographs for all these kids. Very special.