In February 2008 Republic of Ireland were playing Poland in a friendly in front of a sprinkling of spectators at John Hyland Park in Baldonnel. Not the most glamorous of starts to a senior international career, but 17-year-old Louise Quinn wasn’t complaining.
She was nervous, though.
“I remember tentatively going in to the changing room and seeing Ciara Grant, Emma Byrne, all of them,” recalls Quinn. “I didn’t know where to go, where to sit, what to do. I was kind of waiting for someone to tell me, it was nerve-wracking.”
She came on in injury-time for Niamh Fahey, when Ireland were leading 4-1, to make her debut. “I was on for probably a whole minute and half. A short run-around, I think I headed the ball once … that just speaks for itself about my career, to be honest,” she laughs. “But I’d never take that moment away.”
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There have been a mountain of highs and a heap of lows since then, but if manager Vera Pauw puts Quinn’s name on the team-sheet for Monday’s friendly against Morocco in Marbella (kick-off 5pm, live on the RTÉ Player and News Channel), then the Blessington native will become just the sixth Irish woman - after Olivia O’Toole, Emma Byrne, Grant, Áine O’Gorman and Fahey - to win 100 caps for her country.
The 32-year-old defender is, then, in reflective mood ahead of the game, which marks the start of Ireland’s build-up to next summer’s World Cup. But while she picks out landmark games on her international journey, nothing, she says, had a greater impact than the stand the squad took in 2017, in which she was involved, against their treatment by the FAI.
“It was over five years ago, but it’s still actually really, really fresh for us. It was just extremely powerful, it solidified the group in every way possible - it was the sticking together, it was getting into conversations that people maybe never had before. We were all just wanting to do it for the greater good.
“You had Emma Byrne on top of it, putting her career on the line. I got to talk to her after the Scotland game [last month’s World Cup qualifying play-off win in Glasgow], I just reiterated what we all think of her, she still gets mentioned in every single camp. And we’re making sure that the younger girls coming through know what we had to do.
“We really didn’t know what the reaction was going to be, we didn’t know if people cared that much because at that stage some people in the association didn’t care at all. It was a tick-box situation with the women’s team. But then everyone got behind us, that was the turning point, people did actually care. Without that day in Liberty Hall, I’m not sure we’d be where we are now. So, it’s something that we will always cherish, it changed women’s football in Ireland forever.”
What might well change it even more, of course, is the team’s qualification for the World Cup, Quinn hopeful that the impact of that achievement will have a similar effect as 2002 had on her 12-year-old self.
“It’s not going to be us just watching it on the TV, this time we’re there. And we’re going to fully embrace it and do ourselves proud. I remember being in the pub watching the [men’s] 2002 World Cup - obviously I was very, very monitored! I remember the atmosphere. It was so special, watching the big screen, immersed in a crowd of people with just so much joy. We want to bring back that feeling.
“My sister lives in Melbourne, so when the tickets went on sale I had messages from her and her friends at, like, three in the morning, telling me that they’d got their tickets.
“If the tournament wasn’t in Ireland, I think the next best place is probably Australia for us to get our fans there and to make that experience special. To play the hosts in Sydney in front of a full stadium in our opening game, I’m just ridiculously excited. I need to calm down.”
Morocco in Marbella won’t quite be the same, but if Quinn gets to play, it’ll be as momentous an occasion in her career as that day in John Hyland Park in Baldonnel.
The teams drew 2-2 in a behind-closed-doors game on Friday, Ireland having led 2-0, but it was an experimental Irish side with several of its regulars missing.
Like Ireland, Morocco have qualified for their first ever World Cup, doing so by reaching the final of the African Cup of Nations in July - winning their semi-final on penalties against Nigeria, who are in Ireland’s World Cup group.
A more than useful test, then, at the start of a build-up to an adventure Quinn could only have dreamt of 14 years ago.
