Nenagh Celtic are looking for a home to take girls soccer to the next level

By Thomas Conway

Raising the profile of women and girls’ soccer was never easy, but the past several weeks have demonstrated that Ireland is very much a nation in which the female game can thrive. Psychological barriers have been overcome, but hurdles remain, many of them resource-based.

In Nenagh, the popularity of girls’ soccer has witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years, but demand has outstripped supply. At Nenagh Celtic FC, the struggle for resources has been most acute. The club is currently on the lookout for a place to call home, because their usual home venue simply isn’t big enough to facilitate the droves of youngsters who want to play.

For the clubs assistant secretary Eoin Buckley, one of the coaches at the epicentre of the Nenagh Celtic girls’ academy, the conundrum is simple: the club needs a new pitch, desperately, or opportunities will inevitably be lost.

“Currently we have access to the pitch in St. Mary’s primary school, but it’s only big enough for nine-a-side games,” he revealed.

“So, obviously for under-13s and up, we need an eleven-a-side pitch, which we just don’t have at the moment. So, we’re just basically looking for one around town. We’ve approached the council, we’ve approached a few of the schools, we’ve even approached the other club. But there just doesn’t seem to be any space suitable for what we’re looking for, for eleven-a-side games.”

The surge in playing numbers didn’t just happen for no reason. Huge levels of time and effort have been invested to develop the Nenagh Celtic girls academy over the past several months. Granted, the momentum was there. The Republic of Ireland had qualified for the World Cup and female football was on a high across the country. Nenagh Celtic sought to capitalise on that, to seize the opportunity and launch a girls’ academy of their own. Certain individual figures were instrumental.

“I suppose it started with a conversation with the FAI Youth Development Officer for North Tipperary, Tracy Gleeson,” Buckley added.

“We decided that we were going to run a special initiative - the Aviva Future Stars Academy - in conjunction with St. Mary’s primary school. So, we started running training programmes, running the academy two days a week after school. And we got a fantastic response from the girls.

“We got such a good response in fact that some of the girls actually said they would like to play in a competitive league. So, last season we entered an under-12 girls’ team in the league, and we had an under-13 girls’ team just playing friendlies. The under-12s actually did really well - they actually beat the league leaders Moneygall and got some really encouraging results. I suppose things snowballed from there, and we’ve now decided to enter a number of teams competitively for this coming season.”

Financial obligations

As Eoin emphasises, Nenagh Celtic aren’t looking for philanthropic donations here. They’re fully willing to take out a lease and meet all the necessary financial obligations. But finding a space, an area of land with a reasonable surface and a means of access, has proven frustratingly difficult.

The club is effectively making an appeal, to the people of Nenagh, for help. They’ll survive regardless - they’ll play their games on away soil and make some kind of temporary alternative arrangement, but in order to grant their young players a true opportunity to play football at a competitive level, having a home pitch is essential.

There is every chance that, one day, in the not so distant future, some of those Nenagh Celtic players will go on to represent their country and perhaps even play in a World Cup. Many of them adore soccer. They love the game, love the teams, love the players - many of whom feature as a source of inspiration for an entire generation of young Irish footballers.

“They’re just fantastic role models, those Irish players,” Eoin says of the Ireland team.

“The likes of Katie McCabe and Amber Barrett for example. And it just shows how far you can go in the game if you’re good enough to reach that level. And obviously having female role models is particularly important, but the girls also look to male players - they have their Man United and their Liverpool jerseys and they just have that general interest in soccer, be it male or female.

“Definitely this World Cup has brought women’s soccer to the forefront. The tide rises, with an event like this, an event like a World Cup, and it has really inspired the girls - just seeing the possibilities that are there for them within the game.”

Those possibilities certainly exist, but in order for them to be realised, developing adequate infrastructure and facilities is a necessity. The youth dimension of Nenagh Celtic is thriving at present, as both boys and girls immerse themselves in the beautiful game. The enthusiasm is there. The facilities aren’t. That needs to change.