Meet the Girls in Green: Mary Hannigan’s player-by-player guide to Ireland’s Women’s World Cup squad

Goalkeepers

Courtney Brosnan

Squad number: 1

Age: 27

Born: New Jersey, United States

Qualifies through: Her grandparents from Kerry and Roscommon

Position: Goalkeeper

Debut: March 2020

Caps: 23. Clean sheets: 10

Club: Everton

After a successful football career with Syracuse University, where she completed a degree in biology and psychology and a masters in exercise science, Brosnan headed to Europe, having spells in France and with West Ham before joining Everton. An underage Irish international, she was brought in to the senior squad by Colin Bell in 2018, turning down a United States under-23 call-up at the time. Seven clean sheets in nine games in 2022 saw her nail down the goalkeeping position and earn her the Irish player of the year award. And no clean sheet was more valuable than the one against Scotland in the World Cup qualifying play-off when she saved Caroline Weir’s penalty.

Grace Moloney

Squad number: 16

Age: 30

Born: Slough, England

Qualifies through: Her grandparents from Cavan and Tipperary

Position: Goalkeeper

Debut: March 2016

Caps: 6. Clean sheets: 1

Club: Unattached

It’s been a rough few months for Moloney who found herself at the centre of the controversy surrounding Ireland’s dressingroom celebrations after they qualified for the World Cup, having filmed the scenes of the players singing “Ooh ah, up the Ra” and posting them online. She subsequently went in to exile for a spell at Reading and when she returned could do little to prevent their relegation from the WSL after eight years in the top flight. Released by the club at the end of June. It’s seven years since she made her debut for Ireland, having starred at underage level, but she has only won six caps in that time.

Megan Walsh

Squad number: 23

Age: 28

Born: Bromsgrove, England

Qualifies through: Her grandparents from Wexford

Position: Goalkeeper

Debut: February 2022

Caps: 1. Clean sheets: 0

Club: Unattached

Footballing highs and lows? Megan Walsh could write the book. May 2022: She was named Brighton’s player of the season. May 2023: They announced that she was being released. So, in the build-up to this World Cup, she’s had to try to sort out her club future. A psychology graduate from the University of Liverpool, Walsh played for England at every underage level up to under-23, featuring in the same squad as Aoife Mannion at the 2014 under-20 World Cup, but after failing to earn a senior call-up, she switched allegiances to Ireland in 2021. But that’s been a frustrating trip too, Walsh so far winning just one cap.

Defenders

Louise Quinn

Squad number: 4

Age: 33

Born: Blessington, Co Wicklow

Position: Defender

Debut: February 2008

Caps: 105 Goals: 15

Club: Birmingham City

Since being called up to the Irish under-17 squad when she was just 14, Quinn has been a permanent fixture on the international scene. Having done her sports and exercise management degree in UCD, she got her first taste of professional football when she joined Eskilstuna in Sweden 10 years ago. After an ill-fated move to Notts County in 2017, the club’s women’s team folding soon after she arrived, she switched to Arsenal, where she won the WSL title in 2019. After a season with Fiorentina in Serie A she joined Birmingham City where she is captain and recently signed a new two year contract. Dabbled with Gaelic football, hockey and athletics before focusing on football, winning her 100th cap last year.

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Diane Caldwell

Squad number: 7

Age: 34

Born: Balbriggan, Co Dublin

Position: Defender

Debut: March 2006

Caps: 96 Goals: 4

Club: Reading

Dublin to the United States to Iceland to Norway to Germany to the United States to England – Caldwell’s career air miles must be through the roof. The quirkiest move along the way had to have been her switch from New York, where she left Hofstra University with a BA in physical education teaching and a masters in sports science, to a small whaling coastal town in northern Iceland where she played for Þór/KA.Her latest season was a rough one, Caldwell in and out of a Reading side that ended up being relegated from the WSL. Along with Áine O’Gorman, she’s Ireland’s longest serving player, the pair making their debut back in 2006.

Izzy Atkinson

Squad number: 22

Age: 22

Born: Rush, Co Dublin

Position: Defender, midfielder

Debut: January 2018

Caps: 6. Goals: 0

Club: West Ham

Very few – if any – World Cup squad-predictors saw Atkinson’s selection coming, the West Ham player having only played 45 minutes in Vera Pauw’s first 29 games in charge before starting last month’s friendly against Zambia. She wasn’t even in the initial squad for that game, being brought in as a “training player”. But she impressed at left wing-back and with Megan Campbell ruled out through injury, Pauw needed cover for the position – and Atkinson persuaded her she was up for the job. She had a successful season with Celtic, scoring the winner in the 2022 Scottish Cup final, before joining West Ham in the Women’s Super League last summer.

Heather Payne

Squad number: 14

Age: 23

Born: Creagh, Co Roscommon

Position: Defender, midfielder, forward

Debut: July 2017

Caps: 35 Goals: 1

Club: Unattached

She was once described by a team-mate as “half horse, half human” after one of her typically tireless performances for Ireland, the ever-versatile Payne possessing an engine like few others. Mind you, despite being the niece of former champion jockey Tommy Carmody, horses never featured in her sporting life, her youth occupied by Gaelic football, in which she represented Roscommon, volleyball, basketball, swimming, athletics and rugby – until she settled on football. She has just graduated from Florida State University with a degree in dietetics, so will start a new footballing adventure after the World Cup. The reigning Irish young player of the year is unlikely to be short of offers.

Niamh Fahey

Squad number: 5

Age: 35

Born: Killannin, Co Galway

Position: Defender

Debut: March 2007

Caps: 108 Goals: 1

Club: Liverpool

It was 15 years ago that Arsenal offered two Irish players a contract after a friendly between the teams in Dublin. Fahey accepted hers, but her team-mate declined – Katie Taylor, after all, had other sporting options. Fahey was an all-rounder too. At just 16 she won an All-Ireland title with Galway’s footballers, before going on to win a string of honours during her six years with Arsenal. After spells with Chelsea and Bordeaux, she joined Liverpool in 2018 where she is captain and has recently signed a new contract. At 35, she’s the squad’s elder stateswoman, a three-time Irish player of the year who has somehow found the time to squeeze in an MSc in Pharmacology along the way, while also pursuing an MBA.

Áine O’Gorman

Squad number: 13

Age: 34

Born: Enniskerry, Co Wicklow

Position: Defender, midfielder, forward

Debut: March 2006

Caps: 118. Goals: 13

Club: Shamrock Rovers

The third most capped Republic of Ireland player of all time, O’Gorman having made her debut when she was just 16. She retired from international football in 2018 but was persuaded to return to the fold by Vera Pauw two years later. Another of the squad’s versatile players, she has been the top scorer in the Irish league for the last three seasons, but usually appears on the right side of defence or in midfield for Ireland. She and her wife Rachel Neary became parents for the first time last year and they plan on bringing young James to Australia. “He won’t remember Oz, but we’ll show him pictures when he’s older. I’d like him to look back on these times and be proud of me.”

Chloe Mustaki

Squad number: 3

Age: 28

Born: Ohio, United States

Qualifies through: Lived in Ireland since she was three, Irish mother

Position: Defender, midfielder

Debut: February 2022

Caps: 6 Goals: 0.

Club: Bristol City

When she moved from Irish champions Shelbourne to Bristol City last summer, Mustaki was leaving behind a job with a recruitment firm – and taking a 50 per cent pay cut in the process. It’s worked out nicely – City won promotion to the WSL in May and Mustaki was rewarded with a new contract. But she was due a change in fortunes. Back in 2014, when she was captain of the Irish under-19 team, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, her recovery taking close to two years. And then in March 2020 she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament, which kept her out of action for another 18 months. If ever anyone deserved a break.

Claire O’Riordan

Squad number: 2

Age: 28

Born: Newcastle West, Co Limerick

Position: Defender

Debut: March 2016

Caps: 19. Goals: 1

Club: Unattached

As a youngster, O’Riordan’s sole sporting ambitions were to play Gaelic football and camogie for Limerick, both of which she achieved. It was only when she went to the Institute of Technology in Carlow, where she did a BA in sports management and coaching, that she realised there might be a future in soccer. After a successful spell with Wexford Youths, she spent four years in Germany with MSV Duisburg before joining Glasgow Celtic last summer. She scored in their Scottish Cup final victory over Rangers in May and again in June’s friendly against Zambia when she earned just her fourth cap under Pauw. Another Irish player who will be on the move after the World Cup having announced her departure from Celtic.

Midfielders

Sinead Farrelly

Squad number: 17

Age: 33

Born: Pennsylvania, United States

Qualifies through: Her Cavan-born father

Position: Midfielder

Debut: April 2023

Caps: 2 Goals: 0

Club: NJ/NY Gotham FC

There’ll be no shortage of remarkable back stories at this World Cup, but Farrelly’s is like no other. Until April of this year she hadn’t played competitive football since 2015, but then in the space of a week she returned to action for Gotham FC in the NWSL and made her debut for Ireland against the United States, the country of her birth. It was in 2021 that she went public with her allegations of sexual coercion against her former coach Paul Riley, prompting his lifetime ban from the NWSL and an investigation that unearthed widespread misconduct by coaches in the league. “We were waiting on a player like Sinead,” said Pauw after her debut when she reminded anyone who had forgotten what a composed and gifted midfielder she is. Farrelly represented the United States all the way up to under-23 level.

Katie McCabe (capt)

Squad number: 11

Age: 27

Born: Kilnamanagh, Co Dublin

Position: Defender, midfielder

Debut: March 2015

Caps: 73. Goals: 20

Club: Arsenal

The undoubted face of Irish women’s football, it’s simply impossible to overstate the value of the Dubliner to this Republic of Ireland team, which she has captained since she was 21. The stats say it all: she was the only player to have appeared in every game under Vera Pauw until she missed out on the Zambia friendly last month, and out of the 49 goals Ireland scored in that time, she got 11, as well as providing 11 assists. Good going for someone who often plays at left-back or left wing-back – although, just like at Arsenal, she’s played close to everywhere for her country. Was included in the Champions League team of the season in June and won the WSL goal of the season for her stunner against Manchester City in April.

Denise O’Sullivan

Squad number: 10

Age: 29

Born: Knocknaheeney, Co Cork

Position: Midfielder

Debut: September 2011

Caps: 102. Goals: 18

Club: North Carolina Courage

Another widely travelled Irish player, her career taking in spells in Scotland, Australia and England, but the United States has been O’Sullivan’s home since 2016. After a year with Houston Dash she moved to her current club North Carolina Courage, who she now captains, winning two NWSL titles with them since. “She is one of the best midfielders in the world,” said Vera Pauw of the Cork woman who is the driving creative force from midfield for Ireland, averaging close to a goal every third game for Pauw and almost as many assists – none more valuable than the one that set up Amber Barrett’s winner against Scotland in the World Cup qualifying play-off.

Ruesha Littlejohn

Squad number: 8

Age: 33

Born: Glasgow, Scotland

Qualifies through: Her maternal grandmother from Ulster

Position: Midfielder, forward

Debut: March 2012

Caps: 72. Goals: 6

Club: Unattached

The Glaswegian played for Scotland at every underage level until deciding to declare for Ireland after failing to see eye-to-eye with then senior manager Anna Signeul. “She wasn’t a fan of mine – I think she thought I had too much carry on, a little personality.” If you’re one of her 13,000 subscribers on YouTube – or Rue Tube, as she calls her vlogging channel – you’ll know that she has an abundance of personality. As her twin sister and broadcaster Shebahn Aherne put it, Littlejohn has had more clubs than Tiger Woods – she’s had close to 20 moves during her career and after being released by Aston Villa at the end of a season ruined by injury, she’s on the hunt for new employers again.

Lucy Quinn

Squad number: 15

Age: 29

Born: Southampton, England

Qualifies through: Through her Sligo-born grandfather

Position: Midfielder, forward

Debut: September 2021

Caps: 14. Goals: 3

Club: Birmingham City

It’s just as well for Lucy Quinn that the 2017 Euro Beach Soccer Cup in Portugal wasn’t a Fifa-affiliated event, otherwise her efforts to switch allegiances to Ireland might have been scuppered. She’s an attacking midfielder-come-forward these days, but back then it was her goalkeeping that helped England win the Beach Soccer crown in the same year she and now Irish team-mates Megan Walsh and Lily Agg represented Britain at the World University Games. A Physical Education graduate from the University of Chichester, Quinn looked to have lost her hopes of making it to the World Cup when she was initially left out of the squad for April’s games against the United States, but after being called up as a late replacement for the injured Agg she took her chance, impressing in the second of the friendlies. Recently signed a new two year contract with Birmingham.

Lily Agg

Squad number: 12

Age: 29

Born: Brighton, England

Qualifies through: Her Cork-born grandmother

Position: Midfielder

Debut: June 2022

Caps: 8. Goals: 2

Club: Unattached

Agg represented England from under-15 up to under-19 level but had to turn down her first Irish call-up from Vera Pauw. “I thanked her, said I’d be honoured, but told her I’d just fractured a bone in my knee.” Her debut eventually came in June of last year and she’s become an established member of the squad since. With an eye to the future, the Brighton-born physical education graduate teacher has also lectured in “Trading and Investments”, has an interest in crypto currencies and “things that hopefully make your money work for you rather than just sitting in the bank”. A useful teammate, then. Released by London City Lionesses after her contract expired at the end of the season.

Ciara Grant

Squad number: 21

Age: 30

Born: Letterkenny, Co Donegal

Position: Midfielder

Debut: November 2012

Caps: 18. Goals: 0

Club: Hearts

Having made her debut for Ireland at 19, the Donegal woman turned her focus to her medical studies, graduating from University College Dublin in 2017. So jammed was her work schedule by then, she assumed her footballing days were done. But the former Gaelic footballer, who now plays with Hearts, was brought back in to the squad by Vera Pauw in 2021 after returning to club football. “At 19, I was just going with the flow – now it means so much more to me.” She’s kept her place in the squad since, but has won just three caps in that time.

Megan Connolly

Squad number: 6

Age: 26

Born: Turners Cross, Co Cork

Position: Defender, midfielder

Debut: January 2016

Caps: 40

Goals: 4

Club: Unattached

Another member of the Irish squad who took up a football scholarship in the United States, Connolly studying social science and psychology at Florida State University. She was a key figure in their 2018 national success, just the second in their history, earning a place on the All-American team of the year.

Since her debut seven years ago there’s been ample proof that Connolly is a warrior, but she went above and beyond when she played the full 90 minutes with fractured ribs and a lacerated kidney in a critical win against Finland last year. She moved to Brighton in 2019 but parted company with the club in May. It will be a surprise if she doesn’t pop up in the WSL again next season.

Forwards

Kyra Carusa

Squad number: 18

Age: 27

Born: San Diego, United States

Qualifies through: Her grandfather from Cork and her grandmother from Laois

Position: Forward

Debut: March 2020

Caps: 12. Goals: 2

Club: London City Lioness

When she began studying human biology at Stanford University in California, Carusa’s career plan was straightforward enough: she’d enjoy playing football there, but would focus on “becoming a doctor and all that jazz”. But she couldn’t stop scoring goals, ending up with offers to play in Europe. Her most successful spell was with HB Køge in Denmark, winning two league titles and a player of the year award. A former United States under-23 international, Carusa made her debut in March 2020. She moved from Denmark to England in February of this year when she joined London City Lionesses.

Amber Barrett

Squad number: 9

Age: 27

Born: Milford, Co Donegal

Position: Forward

Debut: September 2017

Caps: 36. Goals: 7

Club: Standard Liege

If Irish women’s football had a Mount Rushmore, Barrett’s face would already be carved in to it. She was, after all, the player who scored the goal against Scotland that got the team to the World Cup, eloquently and movingly dedicating the most exhilarating moment of her career to the 10 people who had died in the Creeslough tragedy four days earlier, the Donegal village the home of her grandparents.

On the club front, though, it was a miserable season for the former Gaelic footballer who struggled for game-time at Turbine Potsdam, their campaign ending with relegation from the Bundesliga after 26 years in the top flight of German football. She is hoping for a fresh start in Belgium having signed for Standard Liege earlier this month. Her two goals against Zambia last month ended any chat about her being in danger of missing the World Cup.

Marissa Sheva

Squad number: 20

Age: 26

Born: Pennsylvania, United States

Qualifies through: A Tyrone grandfather and a Donegal grandmother

Position: Forward

Debut: February 2023

Caps: 4. Goals: 0

Club: Washington Spirit

Another former United States underage international who came in to the Irish fold after the team had qualified for the World Cup, although Sheva had first made Vera Pauw aware of her eligibility last summer. She was a gifted runner in her Pennsylvania State University days and that pace has been evident in her opening appearances for Ireland when she played on both wings. She’s also an option at wing-back. With a degree in Security Risk Analysis, she should know when it’s safe to venture forward. Had a brief spell in Spain before returning home, now playing with Washington Spirit in the NWSL.

Abbie Larkin

Squad number: 19

Age: 18

Born: Ringsend, Co Dublin

Position: Forward

Debut: February 2022

Caps: 8. Goals: 1

Club: Shamrock Rovers

When she was just 16 Larkin needed her parents’ and school’s permission to bunk off to make her debut for Ireland against Russia in Spain, putting her second behind Tyler Toland in the list of Ireland’s youngest ever senior internationals. She is regarded as one of the most gifted young players in the Irish league, moving from Shelbourne to Shamrock Rovers – a touch controversially – ahead of the current season, although her ambition is to play in the WSL one day. She’s the youngest player in the World Cup squad, and its only teenager.

Travelling reserves

Sophie Whitehouse

Age: 26

Born: Enfield, England

Qualifies through: Dublin-born mother

Position: Goalkeeper

Caps: 0

Club: Lewes

Another recent addition to the Irish squad, given her first call-up in March, Whitehouse is the daughter of Dubliner Caroline Sergeant and an English father. Her family moved to Africa for her mother’s work when she was three months old and spent a decade living in Kenya and Tanzania. They then moved to the United States, Whitehouse studying at Columbia University and Santa Clara University where her football career blossomed.

She moved back to England in 2020, initially joining Spurs but it wasn’t until her move to Lewes in the Championship that she established herself, signing a new contract last month. Was voted the club’s players’ player of the season.

Harriet Scott

Age: 30

Born: Reading, England

Qualifies through: Three of her four grandparents were born in Dublin and Donegal

Position: Defender

Debut: March 2017

Caps: 23. Goals: 0

Club: Birmingham City

After labouring your way through five years of medical studies, the very least you’d want at the end of it all would be a big day out. Not so Scott. “Hopefully I’ll be missing my graduation,” she said upon noting that it was scheduled to clash with this summer’s World Cup. She’ll only travel to Australia though as a reserve.

Since making her debut in 2017 she has dipped in and out of international football, choosing to prioritise her education, first earning a degree in physiotherapy before taking up medicine. That workload has resulted in her winning just five caps in Vera Pauw’s three-and-a-half years in charge.

Jamie Finn

Age: 25

Born: Swords, Co Dublin

Position: Defender, midfielder

Debut: November 2019

Caps: 15. Goals: 0

Club: Birmingham City

One of the national league’s star players during her days with Raheny United and Shelbourne, Finn had a brief stint with Florida Gulf Coast Eagles before moving to England to join Birmingham City in the summer of 2021. It’s been a rocky trip since, the club relegated from the WSL in her first season, and pipped by a point to promotion from the Championship by Bristol City in the latest campaign. Finn had been a regular at right-back or right-wing-back for Ireland, with occasional forays in to midfield, but she misses out on the 23 having found game time harder to come by of late, with new options emerging for the manager.