Last time the media examined Louise Quinn’s elongated career, Birmingham City were in free fall from the Women’s Super League.
No worries. The nexus of Ireland’s defence would presumably prioritise her own future, at 32, by joining a club cemented in the English top flight or secure Champions League football on the continent or introduce that six foot frame to US soccer.
“No, not for me,” said Quinn on a sun-drenched Castleknock morning, ahead of Finland’s visit to Tallaght for Thursday’s penultimate World Cup qualifier. “I just went with what felt right and how I wanted to enjoy my football, how you want [to live] life as well off the pitch.
“Everything was right for me to be staying in Birmingham. There is a load of Irish there as well. I just missed an Irish festival that was on at the weekend – Finbar Furey, Sharon Shannon, the works. They were all playing at it ... Imelda May and absolute legends like the Dubliners, that was Megan’s [Campbell] grandad’s band.”
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The great Eamonn Campbell took leave of this rock in 2017.
“And it was just down the road from me,” Quinn continued. “No, I love Birmingham.”
That’s an accurate snapshot of the less heralded member of an Irish triumvirate who have endeavoured to drag the national team where no Irish side has been before – a World Cup.
For all Katie McCabe’s verve and Denise O’Sullivan’s steel, Quinn’s interventions have proved equally valuable throughout the uprising.
“We’ve got an opportunity now to make sure the game keeps growing and growing and yeah that’s what we want to do. We don’t want it to stop really.”
Growing a fragile professional sport must sometimes feel like torture. Not one professional female footballer can simply retire when the game is done with them. The salary gap to men is more galactic than generational. Astronauts will be farming on Mars before equal pay becomes a reality as WSL salaries vary from £20,000 to £250,000.
Per annum, rather than per week.
Life becomes about feeling wanted at a club where circumstance forces them to all-too-briefly settle. Quinn has been around the houses with stints in Sweden and Fiorentina either side of a false start at Notts County and three memorable years at Arsenal.
She says she’s still the same Vera but she is a better Vera
“For me personally [the connection is] massive. And it is probably the same for all the Irish girls. It is about trying to find a bit of a home away from home.
“Obviously, in Sweden and Italy, that was a bit more difficult and I struggled there a bit more. At Arsenal, it was a feeling of home and the surroundings as well, but that is football, things happen and contracts end and sometimes you have to move on.
“But for me, Birmingham has that great mix now of a 40-minute flight home, plenty of Irish around the area and in the team as well, that balance and having that feeling of a home away from home, that comfort.
“It is something I always wanted in my career, you want to share everything with your closest people as much as you can. And we don’t get the money that the men get, where they can pick up and go and bring their family. So, you actually have to do your dream job away from your most loved ones, close family and close friends, and then link in with them when you can.”
“It’s a very different city but I absolutely love it. They’re mad.”
Recent historical demons surrounding women’s football still need to be exorcised. North Carolina Courage pair O’Sullivan and Diane Caldwell forged a path through this qualification campaign despite club coach Paul Riley being fired following accusations, by two former players, of abusive and sexually coercive behavior.
Caldwell moved to Manchester United, and has since joined Reading, while O’Sullivan recently shelved thoughts of returning to Europe by extending her American deal to 2024.
“The Courage is my home,” explained the Cork midfielder.
Amid the global ructions sparked by Riley’s alleged actions – the Englishman has denied any wrongdoing – Ireland coach Vera Pauw was quietly preparing to reveal jaw-dropping allegations of rape and sexual abuse from 30 years ago by three men formerly employed within Dutch football.
“It was one of those things that is very difficult to hear from someone you are so close to in a camp,” said Quinn. “But for me, how she has handled herself as a person, she was composed, she was brave, she was strong – she is going to help a lot of people.
“She says she’s still the same Vera but she is a better Vera. She is still going to be the great manager she is, but for her on a personal level to have that bit of freedom is fantastic.
“She’s the bravest woman on our team right now and we just back her all the way.”
