SPRINGBOARD TO SUCCESS FOR PAULA

INDOOR football was a craze that had a definite influence on girls and young women taking up football, soccer in the first instance, but also perhaps a Gaelic football.

A quick development that took place in the midst of the indoor football boom was the formation of the Dundalk FC ladies team that went on to dominate Irish ladies football with a young Paula Gorham setting the standard. It’s hard to dispute that she was Dundalk’s greatest lady soccer player and with few if any better than her in the country in a playing career in which she was offered the opportunity to play professionally in France.

She was capped 11 times for Ireland, making a dream debut in 1970, scoring a hat-trick against Wales in Wales to secure a 3-2 win.

She was a sports all rounder who played multiple sports, including gaelic football for Louth and Leinster, squash and tennis, also sampled camogie and in latter years turned to golf. She was playing active sport into her 40s and suffers from arthritis as a likely consequence

‘My life was sport, ‘she reflects, and ‘they were great days’ she asserts of the indoor football in the heyday of the Adelphi.

She strongly agrees that indoor football was the springboard for the start up locally of formal ladies soccer.

‘No question about it,’ with the leading ladies teams, such as the Casuals, Blackthorn and the Sputniks providing players for Dundalk FC. The Oriel Park based outfit was formed in 1968 with the late Kevin Gaynor at the helm and Paddy Sherry and Paddy Carron, both also sadly deceased, sharing the management and coaching of the side.

The games were staged as curtain raisers to League of Ireland matches, with Dublin, Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick and Cork boasting also ladies teams.

‘We (Dundalk) won the league and the cup. We had a great run. We went to play the first un-official ladies international game in Wales. Most (players) were from Dundalk ladies. The reason was that nobody beat us.’

Members of the successful first squad were Margaret McDonald, Marie Conway, Pauline McShane, Annette Murphy, Nellie McShane, Mary Hearty, Marie O’Connell, Paula Gorham, Elish Byrne, E. McLaughlin, and Pauline Devine.

Paula went on to collect ten more caps between then 1970 and 1979. However, she never received a cap, a situation which was rectified nearly 50 years after her debut just before New Year’s Eve in 2016, thanks to the efforts of her children - Orla, Mark and Karl - and Oriel Park. The surprise presentation was made by Paul Browne, then co-owner of the club Paul Browne.

‘It was an unbelievable feeling— nearly as good as playing my first international with Ireland when we won 3-2 and I scored a hat-trick.’ Paula describes getting her hands on that precious cap.

A career as a professional to play in, Paris was there for the taking but her father wouldn’t allow her join Stade De Raem.

After her days with Dundalk, Paula continued to play, joining Boyne in Drogheda and finished her soccer career lining out for a team in Dublin.

When her soccer and indoor football days ended, she went on to play Leinster League squash and tennis. Her Casuals teammates influenced her to play camogie. She played for Shelagh at gaelic football, and represented Louth and Leinster.

Jas Craven who was a member of the All-Ireland indoor champions’ team in the Adelphi in 1969 was then the manager of Louth. Paula also turned her sporting talent to golf.

The indoor football days has special resonance with Paula who was in her very early teens and at secondary school when she was spotted playing on the street by well known local soccer player Gerry Savage and recommended her to play for Blackthorn ladies. Gerry was a member of the mens side in the shoe factory, and the two teams achieved the unique distinction of winning the ladies and mens All-Ireland indoor titles in 1967.

Precocious and unfazed by the occasion, Paula was entrusted to take the penalties when the ladies decider with the Casuals finished level at the end of extra-time, and secured victory for the ladies.

The winning team comprised Marie Conway (captain), Carol McGuirk, Pauline Charity, Pat Neary, and the men of Gerry Savage (captain), Gerry Foley, Jim Murphy, Joe Callan, and PJ McEneaney.

Two of her team mates Marie Conway and Marie O’Connell were among those recruited also for Dundalk FC. Among the leading ladies indoor football players at the time were Nuala Kelly and Anne Maguire. Others Paula recalls playing were: -Mary Mackin, Evelyn Lynch, Sandra McCrave, Regina McCoy, twins Nellie and Pauline McShane, a trio from Ardee, two whose names she remembers, Madge and Bernadette Martin, with also Margaret Enright.

Blackthorn broke up and Paula and joined the Casuals who ruled the roost in the Adelphi and tournaments in the locality, such as the skating hall in Blackrock, where Paula enjoyed success also with Blackthorn ( shown in picture), and far outside of town.

Paula’s stature in ladies soccer was recognised as one of the recipients of the North Louth Sports Stars awards in 1969. She was an ‘ innocent gumbeen’ among an otherwise all male galaxy that included one of the country’s great athletes Noel Carroll from Annagassan, Hugh Boyle who attained Ryder Cup status in golf and Derek Stokes, the cultured striker whose goals along with Danny Hale played such a valuable part in Dundalk’s winning the league in 1967 and great success under Alan Fox.

Like in all walks of life dedication and hard work and sacrifices lay behind Paula’s sporting prowess and achievements. School wasn’t her thing, which her principal let her mother know. So when a job came up in the local Hallidays shoe factory Paula went for it and went to work in the office.

She rushed in during her school days and scoffed her dinner to have ten minutes practice hitting a ball with both her feet against walls in a cul de sac in the Hyde Park estate where she lived. The result was that she could equally powerfully strike a ball with either her left or right foot. In the evening it was get her home work done as quickly as she could and back out for football.

‘You have to work at things,’ she remarked, and it meant forgoing nights out.’ When my sisters were going to dances I was in bed at 10 o’clock and up at 6 o’clock to train with the Irish team.’

She played with the Casuals for years, and went all over to play with them. She was still in secondary school for the first couple of years the All-Ireland ran in the Adelphi. With the crowds tightly packed in ‘it was daunting. You’d go onto the floor and the noise it was like Wembley at my age and you rattling with nerves. ‘

The teams prepared and trained hard. She remembered three or four nightly sessions a week preparing for tournaments and also near to finals with Blackthorn. The players had to cope with tricky underfoot conditions. ‘The floor was like a skating rink after dances. Playing on a Monday night you