DREAMCATCHERS
Brave stance taken in 2017 has finally paid off with the realisation of Irish ambitions, insists Caldwell
THERE was chaos in the moments after the final whistle at Hampden Park. The joyous and pleasant bedlam was natural, given how long and rocky the road had been for Irish women’s football. Even the narky and overly-aggressive security personnel, trying to usher the Irish supporters towards the exit and cut short the celebrations, didn’t dampen the mood.
Everyone wanted a piece of Vera Pauw. There were a multitude of photographs to pose for between post-match interviews. After being called away at one point, she made a point of returning to the group of Irish journalists. She wanted to hammer home a message.
‘We need to realise, and I mean this from deep down in my heart, that we stand on the shoulders of previous generations,’ said the first manager to lead the women’s team to a major tournament.
‘We will get all the praise but without all the hard work and the fantastic way that everybody has step by step built this game, we would not now flourish. We do this for the next generation. I want to pay tribute to all the coaches before me, and all the players before this group. I wanted to add that because it is really important.’
Next summer will mark the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s first women’s international. The FAI have now been handed a golden opportunity to remember that moment in a special way, from one landmark to another. Through all the struggles for respect and dignity over the past halfcentury, it will feel like a journey completed.
Amber Barrett, who showed such composure and poise to deliver the biggest moment ever for the game here, made her senior international debut in September 2017, just five months after Emma Byrne and a number of other Ireland players stood together in a press conference and demanded that the FAI stop treating the women’s team like ‘dirt on their shoe’.
Byrne was on commentary duty for Newstalk when history was made in Glasgow while Stephanie Roche, another player to the forefront that day, was working for RTÉ. But six of the players present in Liberty Hall started last Tuesday’s play-off – Katie McCabe, Megan Campbell, Áine O’Gorman as well as the impressive and seasoned trio in the heart of defence – Niamh Fahey, Louise Quinn and Diane Caldwell.
As Caldwell gathered her thoughts on the pitch after achieving history, she quietly insisted that a night such as Tuesday could not have happened without the team drawing a line in the sand in April 2017 and saying they wouldn’t allow themselves be treated so poorly any more.
‘Absolutely not,’ the experienced defender said, ‘And I think that adds to our story and our legacy, because we fought to get here and we fought to have better standards. We fought to give ourselves this chance because we knew we could compete. We needed the structures in place, we needed the support, we needed the foundation and we put our necks on the line, asking for those things. And now we have backed it up.’
It was on the night of the PFA awards in 2015 in London that the wheels were set in motion to safeguard the future of the women’s game here.
Arsenal’s Emma Byrne, national team captain at the time, was at the event. As was PFAI general secretary Stephen
McGuinness.
They met and Byrne outlined the disgraceful way that the women’s team were being treated. How players were ending up out-ofpocket for representing their country. Byrne was one of a handful of players who were professional, but many were juggling their football careers with day-jobs and those players weren’t afforded the chance to stay on top of work as the FAI often booked hotels with no wi-fi on away trips. The FAI had taken away the per diem expenses, which was only €30, for players on international duty back in 2011, citing the economic difficulties but it hadn’t been restored. There was also no such thing as a win bonus.
The most shocking revelation was that players often had to change in airport toilets as their tracksuits had to be returned as the under-17 boys team needed them.
In an explosive interview with a Sunday newspaper a year earlier, Ireland’s highest-profile female soccer player was scathing in how the women’s team were treated by the FAI, even suggesting that she might be forced into premature international retirement. Byrne subsequently had to row back on some of the criticisms, but it was clear to McGuinness that night in London that nothing had changed.
The treatment by that regime in the Association was appalling. What was worse, as is described in Champagne Football (by Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan), is that those at the top showed little interest in addressing the issues – until their hand was forced by the very public stance at Liberty Hall.
‘What we are fighting for here is equality. We are fighting for the future of women’s football,’ Emma Byrne declared that afternoon.
Two of the more basic things the players sought were more homebased sessions for those players who were based in Ireland, which has been one of the success stories of this campaign, and a regular goalkeeping coach, rather than one changed from game to game. The development and growth of Courtney Brosnan into an international custodian of substance, culminating in Tuesday’s magnificent save from Caroline Weir’s spot kick, underlined how significant it has been that she has been able to work consistently with Jan Willem van Ede.
We fought hard, put our necks on the line and we’ve backed it up
Caldwell may be one of the lowerprofile players in the squad, but she embodies the journey that the team have been on. Not only was she present when their fight for respect became public, but she has travelled the globe over the past 15 years in search of full-time football. Having completed a soccer scholarship in America, the Balbriggan native has gone on to play for clubs in Iceland, Norway, Germany, the US, Ireland and England. All to get the best out of herself for her country.
‘Yeah, I have been out of pocket playing for my country, but we did it for the love of the game. I knew that I wasn’t going to make money when I got into the sport, but it is just for the sheer love and passion for it,’ the Reading defender said.
‘I have gone a long time without getting paid to play for my country, but it was still an honour and a privilege. It is nice to get an extra reward now, but it was always for the love of the game and to try and accomplish this dream of getting to the World Cup or a major tournament with this country. And we have done it now.’
Alongside Quinn and Fahey at the heart of the Irish defence, Caldwell was excellent on Tuesday night. A parallel has been drawn with Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid in how the Ireland players put their bodies on the line to protect their goal. Moments after Barrett’s strike, Caldwell personified that defensive resilience when blocking Martha Thomas’s rasping goal-bound shot with her face.
‘Yeah, I got that in the nose. We do whatever is necessary, my nose is still straight,’ Caldwell smiled. ‘We just knew that the gameplan would work if we played to our maximum capacity. We did that. We caused them a lot of trouble and they didn’t really know what to do, didn’t know how to break us down. Even at the end when they were putting pressure on, we were always in control. Bodies on the line, blocks by the face or whatever.’
Caldwell, Fahey and Quinn have 292 international caps between them and have been playing together for a decade and a half. It showed on Tuesday. Their understanding of each other’s positioning was critical to how Ireland defended. It might have looked desperate at times, but it wasn’t. They were always in control.
‘We have played together for probably 15 years, or even more. It is amazing that the three of us have been on this journey together and like I say, to finally achieve it. It makes you break down a little to think about it, because we have played together for that long. We know each other inside-out. We are more than a team, we are like a family,’ she pointed out.
A lifelong Manchester United fan, Caldwell lived out a dream in wearing the famous red shirt in the WSL. And now she will get a chance to realise another one in representing Ireland at a World Cup.
‘I am hanging on,’ she laughed. ‘Hopefully, I am getting better with age like a fine wine. I was at United last season and that was a dream for me as a die-hard United fan. That was one pinnacle achieved for me and the next was a major tournament for Ireland. So that is two in one year, so let’s keep it going.’
And the journey will now lead to new and uncharted territory. ‘It is limitless how much this can do for the growth of the sport in this country. You have seen on the back of the Euros that the women’s game taking off and it has done so over the past five years. For our little country, it is going to do wonders. We have a travelling fanbase now, which we would never have had years ago. It just shows the growth,’ Caldwell said.
Having gone where no Irish team have gone before, they will also be scrutinised like no team before. They already got a taste of that in the fallout from the unfortunate choice of song in the victorious dressing-room. They will learn from that.
As they have shown over the past two years, this is a group well able to absorb harsh lessons.
It has led them to where they are now – a special group of players that have composed their own chapter of Irish sporting history but who are well aware of those who laid the groundwork for their landmark achievement.
We did it for the love of the game, I knew I wasn’t going to make money