Past and Future; The Rise of Women’s Football in Ireland
By Mark Cooper
With the prospect of a first major international tournament on the horizon, many have begun to speak of the remarkable rise of women’s football in Ireland under the stewardship of Dutch manager Vera Pauw. It may seem that women's football has seen an exponential and unprecedented rise in popularity and performance in recent years, the likes of which Ireland has never seen. Some have attributed this rise to the drastic changes made following an infamous 2017 press conference in relation to working conditions, during which it was claimed that the women’s national team was no more than “the dirt off the FAI’s shoe”. However, there is a far deeper history than many would realise which has led the women’s game on the island reaching its position to the fore of Irish sport, selling out stadiums and inspiring future generations of girls in green.
VICTORIAN BEGINNINGS
With the sport of football originating across the Irish Sea in the 12th century, it was not until the 1700’s that we can find recorded reports of women engaging with the sport. A women's game of “Foot-Ball '' was mentioned as part of the entertainment at a festival in a 1726 edition of the Ipswich Journal, with “six young women of a side” battling it out before the crowds. However, the sport does not appear to have reached Irish shores until much later. In 1895, a match was played between Irish and English teams, with the British Ladies Football Club visiting Belfast on a grand tour showcasing their talents. This was followed the next year by a return of the team to the island, this time to face a Dublin team on Jones’ Road, where the event was reported as a “great success”. The two World Wars also marked an opportunity for the women’s game to develop, with men across the continent fighting on the front lines, many groups of women came together to entertain their communities through the medium of football.
The Football Association of England instated a ban on women’s football in 1921 following crowds of 56,000 people attending at an unauthorised game held at Goodison Park in Liverpool just after Christmas the year previous. However, this attempt to exercise control over the women’s game did little to deter its development, and may in fact have had the opposite effect.
On St.Stephen’s Day 1917, two selected teams from Ireland and England faced off in a fierce contest in Belfast, marking the first modern international women’s football game for an Irish contingent, with the game promoted as ‘Ireland v England’. In May of 1927, the appetite for women’s football, in spite of the return of the gentlemen’s game following the conclusion of the Great War, was clearly illustrated. An exhibition match was played out in Glenmalure Park in Dublin between Irish and Scottish delegations, with over 12,000 people reported to have been in attendance. A 1936 international against France was another monumental step in the development of competitive women’s football being played across the continent, and not just between the two neighbouring islands.
In spite of such successes, one suspects that a scepticism remained at the highest levels of the Football Association of Ireland in relation to the women’s game. Many of an older generation grew up to believe that women were too frail and delicate to play the sport, and should be protected from injury rather than encouraged to play. While the game continued to grow and develop into organised street leagues and local park games, it was as yet not governed by any official body, with rules or structures. It was not until the Jeyes Fluid Factory sent a hand-picked Irish team on a four-match tour of France in 1972 that any real calls for an organised women’s game in Ireland began to be heard. The following year, the Ladies Football Association of Ireland was founded, with the LFAI Cup being won for the first time in 1973 by ‘Avengers’ of Dublin, defeating ‘Evergreen’ of Kilkenny.
In 1991, following prolonged negotiations, the LFAI became affiliated with the FAI in 1991, before it was renamed to the Women’s Football Association of Ireland in 2001 and ultimately became a branch of the FAI’s overall structure. These were the first steps towards a more professional women’s game in Ireland.
EARLY VICTORIES
At the turn of the millennium, there appeared to be an upward trend for the performance of the Irish women’s national team. Ireland were victorious in the 2000 Celt Cup, a four-team tournament between themselves, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. This was a competition played over only one weekend however, and generated little media or public interest, with little national recognition of the team’s 2-0 final victory over Northern Ireland. In 2002, Shamrock Rovers were the first women’s team to make the leap into European competition, with qualification for the group stages of the UEFA Women’s Cup. Across the water, Irish internationals began to make great strides, with Emma Byrne and Ciara Grant winning the UEFA Cup with Arsenal FC in 2007, a testament to the development of the Irish game at grassroots level. Many may also have seen a goal scored by Stephanie Roche for Peamount United FC in a Women’s National League game in 2013, which drew worldwide acclaim from such Premier League icons as Matt Le Tissier. The goal shot Irish women’s football onto the global stage, with the viral clip landing Roche a spot at the FIFA Puskas Goal of the Year awards night, being beaten to the award only by a James Rodriguez wondergoal at the 2014 World Cup. There certainly seemed to be an air of positivity surrounding the women’s game in Ireland, but few knew what cracks were forming beneath the surface, particularly in the international game.
A NEW DAWN
On the morning of the fourth of April 2017, thirteen members of the Irish women’s national football team gathered for a press conference at Liberty Hall in Dublin to air their grievances with the FAI, due to what the PFAI claimed was treatment akin to “fifth class citizens”. Dissatisfaction with appearance fees, facilities and equipment were all raised by the SIPTU representatives of the team as well as the players themselves, with former Puskas nominee Stephanie Roche front and centre in making her calls to the FAI. Players reported that they were forced to change out of their team issued (and required) tracksuits in public toilets in order to return them to the equipment manager, as players weren’t allowed to keep them and they would be reused. Grievances surrounding pay disparity between the nation’s men’s and women’s team were also aired, with claims being made that female international footballers were being forced to leave the game completely due to funding shortfalls and rising expenses. The FAI was given an ultimatum: Reach an agreement satisfactory to the women’s team, or they would refuse to play an international game against Slovakia the following week. While the governing body issued a less than sympathetic statement in response to the press conference, they ultimately sat down with the player’s representatives and the disputes were rectified.
The focus for the players could now rest solely on performance, and with the arrival of manager Colin Bell in 2017, there was a marked improvement in the team’s performance on a global stage. Finishing a respectable third in their group behind Norway and the Netherlands, with a memorable 4-0 win against Northern Ireland a particular highlight in the campaign. With a surprise exit for Bell in 2019, there was an opportunity for a new head coach to come into the set-up and continue to build upon the good work of the preceding years. Dutch manager Vera Pauw was that person.
In the past twelve months, Pauw’s charges have enjoyed famous victories over the likes of Australia (beaten Tokyo Olympic finalists), Georgia (a record 11 goal margin of victory for any Irish football team) and most recently Finland (to keep World Cup ambitions alive). These wins all came on the back of an historic equal pay deal with the FAI, where the women and men’s national teams will receive the same level of compensation for international appearances. There is certainly a feel-good factor surrounding this Irish team, with the near 7000 spectators who sold out Tallaght Stadium only a few short weeks ago a testament to that support. The final hurdle for the women’s national team in reaching a first World Cup is a victory over either Scotland or Austria. For the young women watching over the next few weeks as the likes of Cork’s own Denise O’Sullivan, Megan Connolly, and Saoirse Noonan prepare for the final and greatest test, there has never been a better example of “If you can see it, you can be it”. For almost 150 years, women have been playing football in Ireland, and it is only now they are getting the recognition they deserve. One has no doubt that the trailblazing women of the first game in 1917, to those who played in Dublin in 1927 as well as the touring team of 1972 will lend their spirit and bravery to Vera Pauw’s charges as they seek to create their own history.