Building on Ireland’s development in Moneygall

In the build-up to the Republic of Ireland’s Women’s Soccer teams first appearance at a FIFA World Cup later this month, the Nenagh Guardian are producing a series of weekly features focusing on different aspects of the women’s game locally and the excitement ahead of the tournament.

By Thomas Conway

For women and girls, playing soccer wasn’t always fashionable, but right now, the trend is very much in vogue. This month, scores of people across the length and breadth of this country will don their green jerseys and invest everything in support of their Irish team.

Some, such as Yvonne Healy, will travel down under to shout on the girls in green in person. The experience promises to be electric, and Yvonne genuinely cannot wait.

The Moneygall under-16 coach is steeped in football. She’s been involved in the game for as long as she can remember, having played with Nenagh AFC during an era in which the women’s game was an entirely different landscape to what it is now. She managed to win an FAI Junior Cup medal in 2007 and cherishes the many memories she has from playing with Nenagh team, but things were different back then - as she openly acknowledges.

Now, in 2023, young kids are running around pretending to be Katie McCabe and dreaming of one day emulating the Republic of Ireland star. When it comes to women’s and girls’ soccer, the mood music has changed. The appetite for the game amongst the younger generations is insatiable. Girls want to play football, and people like Yvonne want to make sure they have the opportunity to do so.

Her stated objective is to spur the growth of a women’s senior team in Moneygall. It’s an ambitious prospect, but one which she believes is entirely attainable, with the enthusiasm that currently exists in the club.

“I would have played the game enthusiastically but more recently I took an interest in women’s soccer in Moneygall,” she said.

“To try and improve it, to improve participation, to improve the club’s facilities, and maybe to try and get a senior team going. We don’t have one yet, but I’m now training the under-16s and trying to encourage them to keep playing. It’s a hard age to retain players, but I’d be hopeful that many of them will continue playing on into adulthood and that one day we’ll have the numbers for a senior team.”

Small grassroots club

Moneygall FC is an exemplar of how a small grassroots club should function and operate. It’s a local institution, drawing from a sparse rural population yet producing numerous teams, both boys and girls, from under-8s right up to adulthood. The girls section is a relatively new dimension of the club, and it’s individuals like Yvonne who have led the charge in terms of creating and promoting it.

“It hasn’t always been the case that we’ve had enthusiasm for girls’ soccer here in Moneygall,” she added.

“We had no girls team for instance until quite recently, but the club has played a huge part in developing that side of things, in developing women’s and girls’ teams. The club has invested a lot of time and effort into it, just encouraging people to get involved and take on coaching courses and other things like that.

“We now have great interest there in terms of the girls. We have teams right the way up from under-10s to under-16s, and as I’ve said we’d be hopeful that we’ll be able to form a women’s senior team in the near future.”

Should the plan come to fruition, that women’s senior team should be formed within the coming years, enabling Moneygall to participate in the Tipperary Women’s League - itself a relatively new creation.

Within North Tipp and across much of the country, pathways now exist to allow girls to transition seamlessly to adult level. Higher calibre players also have opportunities at their fingertips. Competitions such as the Gaynor Cup offer a showcase for emerging stars, while the visibility of the game at elite level has increased dramatically, as Yvonne describes.

“There are great structures there now, even just in North Tipperary,” Healy added.

“I was at the Gaynor Cup (National Under 14 Tournament) a couple of weeks ago, and actually I was blown away by it. I thought it was a fantastic tournament, just in terms of the facilities and the standard of play. It’s a super opportunity for girls of that age, the Gaynor Cup, it really is.

“But the structures for women’s and girls’ soccer across the country have grown massively, and I think a lot of that has to do with televised games and the broadcasting of matches. The publicity has increased. There’s more on the newspapers, more on television about ladies’ soccer. And not just in Ireland. You have the Women’s Super League over in England and then obviously the Champions League. And when girls see the likes of Katie McCabe playing at that level, they know that there’s a pathway there for them to follow.”

Originally a native of Switzerland, Martha Larkin is another of Moneygall FC’s most steadfast volunteers. The mother of three is currently the head of Moneygall’s “Kick-Fit” programme, an initiative designed to promote women’s participation in football as a means of keeping fit and interacting socially. Having played soccer throughout her youth, she loves her new role, and witnesses first-hand the benefits which the initiative generates for those who partake.

“The Kick-Fit is an eight-week programme which is now ongoing in Moneygall but also in Cloughjordan and in Borrisokane,” she revealed.

“Really, the big thing about it is the social aspect. It’s designed to try and engage women, to bring women back into the sport. It’s perfect for women who are older who just want to have a bit of fun - that’s the main focus. So, it’s a really good movement.

“Now it can be difficult to engage the women, because they are all living busy lives, but once they start and become involved, they see the benefits that it brings.”

Like Yvonne, Martha attributes much of the recent development of the women’s game to increased visibility and enhanced media coverage. She can remember a time when women’s football was largely peripheral - a sideshow designed to cater for a small group of enthusiasts in a select few countries. But the landscape has changed - dramatically.

In Ireland, Vera Pauw and her players have created a movement. When they step out onto the pitch in Australia this summer, it will represent a watershed moment in the history of Irish sport, a moment few would have thought possible just several years ago.

“Qualifying for the World Cup has put women’s soccer on the map in Ireland,” Larkin says.

“Looking back, 1981 was the first women’s football World Cup, but at that time nobody really took any notice, and the standard of the soccer wasn’t very high either.

“But women’s soccer started to take off, and I think in Ireland, that process began just before Covid. The game started to grow in popularity. Then in 2019, that was the first World Cup where RTÉ broadcast all the matches live on television, and I actually believe that that was the turning point. All of a sudden women’s soccer was visible on the television and in newspapers, and that really had an impact on women and girls. That brought women’s soccer into the living room of every house, and the impact was huge.”

World Cup prospects

In terms of Ireland’s prospects at the World Cup, Martha is optimistic. She concedes that Pauw’s side are nestled in a tough group with hosts Australia, Canada and Nigeria, and feels that progression from the group stage would represent a major success. But she also admires the Irish manager, whom she considers fiercely experienced and in tune with her players.

“I think Vera and the team are doing very well,” Larkin says.

“They’re playing a nice brand of solid soccer. They all know their roles, they all know exactly what they’re doing, they know exactly what is asked of them. Vera knows her squad inside out, and she also knows exactly what she wants from her players. I think she’s very very clear on what she wants from them.”

There’s no masking the reality. Ireland will be up against it. But with Pauw at the helm and players like McCabe and Amber Barrett, there’s no reason the girls in green can’t flourish down under.

They’ve already inspired the next generation, but there is a sense that the story is only really just beginning. This is the start of something epic. Brace yourself for a rollercoaster couple of weeks under the Australian sun.