REFEREEING HAS taken Michelle O’Neill to parts of the world she may not have visited otherwise.
When I called the Wexford native early this week, she had just returned to Ireland from Malta, where the preliminary round qualifiers for the 2017 Women’s European Championships were taking place.
It is straight back to her day job as a swimming instructor before a trip to Zurich this weekend for a UEFA seminar ahead of this year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada.
The 34-year-old has been chosen as one of 44 assistant referees for the finals, which begin on June, meaning she becomes only the second ever official to represent Ireland at a World Cup — following on from Eddie Foley, who was a linesman at France’98.
“I’m absolutely over the moon as it’s an amazing opportunity and the achievement of a lifetime in terms of a referee’s career,” she told The42.ie.
“It’s a massive honour to represent Ireland and female referees. This is the highest level you can get and you dream of things like this. When I started refereeing I would never have thought it was possible.”
A keen footballer for Adamstown and Wexford, O’Neill turned her attentions to the other side of the game in 2008 and began at local level but soon worked her way up to the FAI Referee School of Excellence.
“It’s a massive preparation for young referees coming up,” she explains. “We went through fitness testing, video analysis, offside testing and you have mentors and observers there for support.”
At national level, O’Neill referees in the Women’s National League (WNL) while she also works as an assistant in the SSE Airtricity League. With the likes of Paula Brady and Sinead Forde, she is leading the way for women’s refereeing and hopes her achievement encourages more to get involved.
“Since I first came on board with the School of Excellence I’ve seen a huge growth,” she says. “We now have female development seminars and a lot more women are becoming involved at local level as well as national.
This year alone, there are another four female referees there and hopefully my status at the World Cup will inspire and encourage more females to get involved from a young age.”
Supporters can often go over the top when voicing their anger but O’Neill maintains she isn’t singled out for abuse from the terraces because of her sex.
“When I started years ago, fans would have singled out female referees and supporters can be boisterous in getting their opinions across but at the end of the day I think we’re all treated equally as officials and everyone gets it the same now.”
Originally published at 16.12
Ireland beat NZ, SA and OZ in the same year! Rory best deserved his ovation
Well said…
Go on the biys!! Southern Hemisphere got nothing on us
Ringrose is becoming exceptionally good exceptionally quick at this level!!
Great opportunist try. BOD-esque in his step and pace.
Murray what do you think of our injury concerns? We seem to get an abnormal amount from game to game; which would make a World Cup run of games very difficult.
Conor you got there before me thinking the same.
Given another week, we’d likely have had Henshaw, Payne at full strength and O’Brien in the team. Last week was exceptionally brutal. Australia rested a huge amount of their team last week. We did very well considering the circumstances.
In a World Cup though, that’s scant conciliation when you play tough games from week to week.
When him and Henshaw get a bit of a run together for Leinster its gonna be real exciting. Drico and Darce reborn only bigger? Well done to all the young lads, playing out of position etc. Incredible shift.
When Peter O’Mahoney came on I though he was really good. Steadied the ship.
I would love to see what a pom cj jvdf back row could do in a full game
Diarmuid, you’ll have to wait until Heaslip retires. Not a single coach on the planet would leave him out of an Irish 15.
I was one of heaslips doubters myself but I must say he has been one of Irelands best players this autumn I just wanted to see how those 3 could work together would have been an exciting prospect to see but the back row competition atm is frightening
Well said diarmuid. I was the same. Had my doubts, but he has been excellent.
@Stephen Foster:@Stephen Foster: He spend his 20 mins on the wing, and didn’t bother to tackle. Clearly unfit..
Take a bow Ringrose. Chuffed for Best shows true grit in Ireland to grind out that win. Great to see O’Mahony back to his best bruising men and getting a vital turnover. Well done Ireland great series!
Rory Best is a gent. And a great captain. Tough second half…. Well done the boys in green.
Well done to a valiant Irish team. Bring on the 6 Nations…
And we sure saw a lot of LIONS there tonight ????
Pat – possibly, but there is a 6Nations to come yet and make no mistake it will be physically brutal.
What a game by the whole 23 great series with plenty of new players blooded on to the six nations…
Do you think there are any other players that haven’t played in this series that could come into the mix? Maybe Ronan O Mahony? Stuart olding?
Jesus me nerves!!!
@Range Rover P38: Bloody oath mate. Do wish we wouldn’t kick possession away – just adds to the stress.
What a country we have! Proud to be Irish. Great win.
Couldn’t agree more. Proud of Rory and all of ‘em!
What a great win and heroic performance; a scrum half on the wing, a rookie out half full back, a midfield who hasn’t played together and all the injuries to senior players prior to the game. Great heart and performance.
Brilliant win. Getting wins over the big three in one year is nothing to be sniffed at. The depth at backrow is unreal, even when we had to reshuffle we had a backrow that dominated Hooper, Pocock at the breakdown, and we finished with a backrow of POM, VDF and Stander. Ringrose a special player. Best a great leader. Furlong a monster. Mighty potential shown over the series. One thing though, should we have started Scannell and O’Halloran? Players pushing hard to recover from injuries weren’t able to last the full match, that stretched us a bit.
@Thomas Moroney: And what happened to the SH dominance all of a sudden? Australia, SA, Argentina and even NZ losing in the November series. Glad to see that things are maybe being shaken up at international level.
Your right there Thomas, I have never seen Pocock so dominated at the breakdown.
Just Brilliant .
The Mighty Green MEN made a dark November very BRIGHT .
Thanks .
3rd in the rankings. “How sweet this moment is”
Even if Australia get hammered next we we still won’t be third in the rankings, the gap is too big between us and the Aussies.
Correct
Ya I realise that now. Those at RTÉ 2fm told me differently
That was an Incredible victory, arguably a better victory than the win against the All Blacks considering the 2nd half circumstances and the missing players from the start.
An epic match! Battered by injuries and still found the wherewithal to come from behind to win. Aussie grand slam in tatters. My heart bleeds…. not.
They’ll take it out on the Poms. Didn’t deserve to win tonight after our first half.
Hopefully
Wohooo!! Guess we bet them with their own style
Fantastic mix of young and less young. Can’t wait 6N. England and France at home. Big thanks to Joe, Andy and coaching staff.
Love this team!!!! What a win. Injuries are a serious concern though
Brilliant match the boys in Green are on fire. Congratulations to all who played hope the injuries received are not too serious especially Rob Kearney.
What a Man Rory Best.
That was one of the best Irish performances I’ve seen….they knew there would be a backlash after the break, they soaked up the pressure of 2 scores, and when it was necessary, went out and finished the game with am Earl try in the corner. ….very proud. ….a world beating performance.
Amazing as well considering Aussies rested so many lads last week to be fresh for this. None of our injuries bar Jordi murphy seem to serious at this stage as well.
If we didn’t have all those injuries we could have won by a cricket score.
Exactly!!!
Well, if ever our depth was going to be questioned, it was going to be in a game against a better ranked team, an improvised back line, with two backs having seven caps between them. That was an incredible win. Our pack is just fantastic. So happy right now.
What a win. Such heart and passion shown there with all the injuries and reshuffling around the backline. All 23 were superb there today, an excellent November series and lots of players blooded for the 6 Nations in February. Well done Rory and the boys.
What was done here with so many inexperienced kids is just brilliant – The squad standard is scary and will have no need to fear anyone. it’s potentially only a beginning – but what a start. I’m sure there is a crazy talented winger or two out there just waiting to be sprung on us and maybe a fullback or two ( thanks Rob for being a hero of mine for so long)
The aussies really did butcher it. Twice they had easy run ins but messed it up thankfully. Joe should really have had a Centre on bench considering Payne wasn’t 100% and Kearney also.
We’re the first team to beat the All Blacks, Oz and SA in a year since England in 2003. Joe Schmidt & the boys deserve great credit for that. I was fearful of England in the 6N but not anymore after this series. COYBIG, you’ve done us proud.
Brilliant game and great atmosphere at the Aviva , the pack were on fire today , Furlong , Stander , Van Der Flier and Jackson had world class performances today . Beating Springboks , The All Blacks and The Wallabies all in the space of a few months is incredible. Hopefully we get no injures and a few players recover and we’ll be in flying for the six nations
I think its fair to say Ringrose makes the grade in an Ireland shirt and once again Furlong went on the rampage!
Huge character shown by all 23 players. And a great victory in the face of such adversity. But if we know Joe he will have picked out a number of areas we can improve upon and win the 6N.
Rory Best for the Lions captaincy??
Great win, great year. Congratulations, am gonna go put some money on Ireland for the 6N before the odds drop thru the floor!
Bring on the six nations. England and France at home. . GREAT CHANCE !