5 June 2026; Amber Barrett of Republic of Ireland scores her side's third goal during the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifier match between Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Bright sunshine, sunny spells and the storm clouds that won’t go away for leaderless Irish football
Cathal Dervan, Editor
And now for something completely different. Here’s the weather forecast for Irish football ahead of another week of mixed fortunes on the horizon, on and off the pitch, as two World Cups fight with pollen for airtime.
Bright sunshine will continue for Carla Ward and her Irish heroines after a quite brilliant win in a rain soaked Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Friday night, a result that has set-up the prospect of some Brazilian sunshine via FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification in the French enclave of Grenoble this Tuesday night.
As the other World Cup beckons, sunny spells and scattered showers remain the forecast for Heimir Hallgrimsson and his players after a 1-1 draw in Canada when the first-half was grim but the second-half was brighter as the squad experimentation came to an end ahead of the Nations League storms to come.
Ah yes, the storms. It’s still stormy I’m afraid for those who sit in the FAI Boardroom and the offices on that corridor of power in Abbotstown. They still can’t shift those Israeli storm clouds and still don’t appear to want to. Dark days ahead but more of that anon.
Let’s start with Mna na hEireann and a win in Cork on Friday that is every bit as worthy of high praise as their victory in Hampden Park almost four years ago.
Then it was Amber Barrett who scored the goal that made all the difference for the Girls in Green. Again on Friday night and fittingly, it was the Donegal hero who scored when it mattered most.
Already guaranteed a play-off for the finals in Brazil next year, this brave and bold Irish side can now throw caution to the wind against France on Tuesday when a win will send them straight to the World Cup.
They will have a ‘f****ng go’ as Carla Ward promised on Leeside and why not. They have nothing to lose and they have already proven that there is no limit to their ambition when it really matters. Give it a lash Carla - and it if works, then we can all go f****ng mental!
Post Prague, it looked like it will be some time before fans of the Irish men’s team will get the chance to go effing mental on a World Cup stage again and whilst some are talking of green shoots after wins against Grenada and Qatar and a draw with Canada, these are early days.
Yes, there were bright spells in the latest experiment that was Friday night’s game in Montreal but the huge variety of players used over the past month tells its own story. These end of season games were designed to have a look under the bonnet and see what parts are missing and what parts are available for an overhaul two summers before Dublin co-hosts a Euro finals that Ireland must be a part of.
The truth is that some of those players utilised for the first time by Hallgrimsson over the past three games may have played themselves into contention for the Nations League games to come but caution is the word here. Very few of them will be in the squad come the end of September but more of them may be around when the Euro qualifiers begin.
It is down to them now, down to the likes of Jaden Umeh, Mason Melia, Jack Moylan, Tom Cannon and James Abankwah to show at club level that they deserve to be part of a bright future for this Irish side.
And so to the silent FAI and the dark days ahead. They still haven’t told us what decisions, if any, they made about the Israel game when their Board met last Thursday and they still seem to be whistling in the wind caused by the Israeli storm that won’t go away until they take a definitive stand.
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The world and his mother now seems to accept that the game can’t be played in Dublin and last week John O’Shea, one of the football world’s great ambassadors, added his voice to a story that shouldn’t have ever concerned the Irish players or management if the FAI had any real leaders in the boardroom or in the big offices in Abbotstown.
The leadership wannabes will have their fingers crossed that Carla Ward fashions a win against the odds in France on Tuesday night and overshadows the Israel issue for another day or two.
But those storm clouds ain’t going away. Irish may be rosy on the pitch but off it, Irish football needs a big decision now. Don’t hold your breath.
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The key stories developing today
Carla Ward turned the air blue as she issued the battlecry to down Les Bleus and seal World Cup qualification with a victory against France in Grenoble on Tuesday night.
“Let’s f**king go!” cried Ward after Friday night’s sensational 3-2 win against the Netherlands in Cork set Ireland up for a winner-takes-all clash with the French.
A late, late goal from Glasgow hero Amber Barrett put Ireland on the verge of another World Cup qualification as they prepare to face the seventh best team in the FIFA rankings on Tuesday.
And Ward is adamant Ireland will relish the opportunity to qualify for a second World Cup finals.
Speaking after Friday’s big win, she told the Irish Sun: “Listen, they’re both top teams. They’re just very different. France, yeah. They’re both unbelievable but everyone’s beatable. Let’s f**king go.”
Ward threw caution to the wind in the closing stages in Cork on Friday when she threw three strikers onto the pitch and the gamble paid off.
“I think some people thought I was mad when I looked to the bench and I said, ‘right, get every single attacking player ready, we’ve got to go for it, why not?’,” said Ward.
“And I, as a player, I was a 10, I liked to play football a lot. I was an attacking player and I liked to go score goals. I think at club football, I’ve always tried to play with an attitude with the ball and be a little bit more attacking.
“And you know what? It probably hurt me early on coming in here in the system that I started with so we had to then build back. We almost had to go backwards to build our out of possession structure in a five.
“And then we restart again with the way we want to play with the ball. But this lot, you know, they enjoy it. They enjoy it. So I tell them all the time, enjoy the ball with the ball. Enjoy the fight without the ball. That’s critical.”
Ireland coach John O’Shea has echoed Seamus Coleman’s strong views on the prospects of Ireland hosting Israel in the Nations League at the Aviva Stadium in October and the need for a decision to be made ASAP.
Speaking ahead of the 1-1 draw with Canada at the weekend, O’Shea confirmed that the Ireland camp are fully behind Coleman’s belief that the Gaza situation has put the players in a really difficult position as the FAI continue to stall on a decision around the game.
“Totally, we’ll be 100% behind Séamus’ answer, and we fully respect any of the players’ opinions on the scenario,” O’Shea said in a report by Joe Callaghan, carried by the Irish Examiner amongst others.
“It’s only going to get stronger and stronger, that opinion, the public opinion, and you’re fully aware of it. What Séamus said, being a dad, I have three kids myself, nobody wants to see innocent kids being involved in scenarios like that.
“Nobody…It’s not right, and listen, the FAI have made their statement on it, Heimir has spoken about it, and I’d echo that sentiment as well. Obviously [Uefa] acted on Russia, they haven’t acted on Israel. From a sporting point of view, we don’t want to give anyone an advantage, but we fully appreciate it’s not right.”
Dawson Devoy’s international debut only lasted 45 minutes in the 1-1 draw with Canada but the Bohs midfielder was buzzing afterwards as Irish fans celebrated a Cheo Ogbene equaliser in Montreal and the Bohs man dedicated his first cap to his family.
Devoy told the Irish Sun that his nearest and dearest had booked their flights to Montreal as soon as he was named in the squad.
He said: “They came over Tuesday. Me mam, dad, my missus travel everywhere. They go to all the Bohs games, home and away.
“So to have them here… I owe my mam and dad a lot, they’ve been through a lot with me. I’m just so happy to give them that moment.”
Robbie Keane will be a contender to manager Celtic in the future dispute the club sticking with Martin O’Neill on a permanent deal this time around, according to a report by the Irish Independent.
Kevin Palmer writes that Keane was ‘fully aware’ that Martin O’Neill had first refusal on the Celtic manager’s job during his discussions with major shareholder Dermot Desmond.
Palmer also states that there remains a strong chance Keane will manage Celtic in the future despite the negative reaction from some fans to his links with the job.
Manager Jim Crawford hailed the character of his Ireland Under 21 players as they came from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw with Croatia in a friendly in Zagreb on Saturday with the goals coming from Sam Curtis and Sean Grehan.
“I thought we were the better team today, certainly in the first-half. We were excellent, we had a good structure about us with lots of fantastic play,” said the Ireland manager in a report on The42.ie website.
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