Miriam Lord: End-to-end action in the Dáil as TDs jump on the Irish football bandwagon

What’s that noise?

That’s the sound of a bandwagon pulling up outside Leinster House and hordes of screeching TDs and Senators shouldering each other out of the way as they race down the plinth to grab themselves a seat.

It’s only natural.

We hear Winston Churchtown is inconsolable. The former minister for sport was so upset when he discovered our women qualified for the World Cup finals he had to stop flogging his book about Mary Lou McDonald and go for a lie down. Winston, aka Shane Ross, enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as Ireland’s foremost political photobomber and there was nowhere he wouldn’t go to get his smiling mush into the same frame as local sporting heroes.

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But now, in a cruel twist of time and electoral fate, he is still on the publicity merry-go-round but a different minister for sport will be the nation’s basker-in-chief when an Irish football team shines on the international stage again.

It isn’t all bad news though. After that mortifying post-match miskick in the dressingroom on Tuesday night when players belted out an IRA chant in the euphoric aftermath of their historic win, Winston will probably be able to squeeze another book out of the episode and RTÉ can have another fit of the collywobbles about interviewing him.

‘Ooh Ah, Michael McGrath. Say Ooh Ah Michael McGrath!’

Anyway, it’s Wednesday now and here comes the bandwagon and we’re on it.

There’s the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, walking out on to the Dáil pitch with the minimum of fuss. He doesn’t do fanfare, being more of a dependable centreback type who goes about his business with a steely calm. Rarely shows the studs. Wears opponents out with his trademark droning runs. Very effective.

All together now:

“Ooh Ah, Michael McGrath. Say Ooh Ah Michael McGrath!”

Maybe not.

Nonetheless, in the midst of an unspeakably sad week when funerals of the Creeslough tragedy victims are still taking place, the wonderful achievement of Vera Pauw’s team gave our battered spirits a bit of a lift. Something, at last, to smile about.

[ Amber Barrett: I want people to say ‘we want to win this game, so we need her on our team’ ]

If possession is nine-tenths of the law, the Labour Party set about hot-wiring the World Cup bandwagon almost immediately, with Aodhán O’Riordan getting in early doors by claiming indirect credit for getting the Girls in Green to their first final. Speaking during his party’s motion on pay rises for community and voluntary workers (there were workers in the public gallery from unions representing the different sectors) he managed to shoehorn the victorious Irish team into his contribution.

“That success was built on a level of trade unionism that stood with those women five years ago when they threatened strike action. That is what the trade union movement does. When it sees injustice in the workplace or anywhere else, it stands beside those affected and seeks to platform that injustice. It is on the shoulders of Siptu that the Irish team is heading to the World Cup next year.”

[ Miriam Lord: Never mind all the politicians, actor James Nesbitt was the keynote address at Ireland’s Future event ]

[ Miriam Lord: TDs balance lack of words for Creeslough with duty to speak ]

Typical FAI carry-on and the Blazers, no doubt, will be flying first class. The women would want to start packing now if they want to get to Australia before the kick-off.

Siptu has been carrying Labour for donkey’s years and look where the party is now. Those broad shoulders have done trojan work. “That needs to be acknowledged,” said Aodhán, who runs football walking tours of Dublin and collects Ireland and League of Ireland jerseys in his spare time.

He returned to the subject later in the day, reminding the Taoiseach’s substitute Michael McGrath about what the women did “in order to get basic respect from within the FAI”.

Not the politicians were much better. “I put it to you that Irish soccer and particularly Irish women’s soccer, has not got enough support or respect from Irish politics.”

Ooh Ah Minister McGrath assured him that the Government will support the FAI in all its efforts. “I attend underage girls’ soccer matches every weekend because my daughters play. I know of the fantastic work that is being done at grassroots level,” replied the father of five, congratulating the team, manager Vera Pauw and Donegal’s Amber Barrett, the goalscorer.

“You couldn’t but be touched by her tribute and the way in which she dedicated her goal to the victims in Creeslough.”

[ Amber Barrett sends Ireland to the World Cup and dedicates her goal to Creeslough ]

Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould and Louise O’Reilly also joined in the good wishes, with Cork North-Central TD Gould namechecking Denise O’Sullivan from Knocknaheeny and Fingal’s O’Reilly, a former union official, citing the breakthrough as a testament to the value of trade unionism and collective action.

“Very clearly, they have come an awful long way in the past five years since their meeting in Liberty Hall.”

It was end-to-end action in Leinster House.

Across in the Seanad, Senators were also keen to mark this famous win.

Labour’s Marie Sherlock, former head of equality and policy in Siptu, was “overjoyed” by this “remarkable breakthrough” but reminded Senators that some of the players, along with Stuart Gilhooly in the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland and Ethel Buckley of Siptu, “had to call a press conference to talk about how they were treated like fifth-class citizens”.

And against a backdrop of the Creeslough tragedy, it was touching that a Donegal woman scored the decisive goal

Fianna Fáil’s Eugene Murphy reflected on the tragic deaths in Donegal and how they cast a dark shadow across the nation.

“After returning from the weekend we spoke about the sadness of Creeslough and all that happened. And all of a sudden, last night, somebody lit a light – a lady called Amber Barrett. And it was remarkable and wonderful to see her go down on her two knees, grab that armband, bring it down and kiss it and dedicate that wonderful goal, which means that the Irish ladies football team are going to the World Cup, to those 10 people.”

But those ill-judged celebrations in the winning dressingroom were already causing waves. As the FAI and team manager Pauw were issuing a strong and unequivocal apology for the choruses of “Oh Ah Up the Ra!”, Senators were calling out the young players’ clueless behaviour.

Senator Micheál Carrigy hailed the victory but condemned the scenes that came afterwards. “It really took the gloss off the victory for me.”

[ ‘It shouldn’t have happened’ - Vera Pauw apologises for players’ IRA chant ]

Emer Currie, daughter of the Northern Ireland civil rights leader, the late Austin Currie, tried to explain why so many people found the chanting so offensive. Her sadness and disappointment at what happened was clear in her voice and etched on her face.

She spoke of her pride, as a mother of two girls, at seeing Ireland’s women reach their first ever World Cup finals.

And against a backdrop of the Creeslough tragedy, it was touching that a Donegal woman scored the decisive goal.

“We saw the PSNI and Garda working side by side, we saw emergency services from the North and South working side by side and we saw politicians standing shoulder to shoulder,” she said.

“It is devastating that, 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement, the girls would want to chant what they chanted. For such a moment of pride and joy for the entire nation to cause hurt and division is a pity and a disappointment to us all… We are speaking about a shared island, potentially with shared sports teams, so to hear chants like that sets us back. After such a momentous occasion, what happened has left us with a heavy moment and it needs to be reflected on.”