MANY WHO follow Irish soccer, or football will know about the Roy Keanes, the Damien Duffs, and the Liam Bradys who graced the international stage once upon a time, but it's one name that many wouldn't be familiar with at all, that player is Anne O'Brien.
Anne O' Brien was a pioneer back in the day when women's football was non-existent as a sport. She won nine league titles with Stade de Reims in France and Lazio in Italy taking to the international stage with ease. She passed away in 2016 and it hit international shores, which as predicatable as she left a legacy not only here but over there.
O' Briens journey up the footballing ladder stands out as a footballing trimup for women and girls across the island of Ireland. Her time with the Irish national team didn't herald a huge amount of caps, but her status on the global stage is unmatched, even for those that played or worked with the woman.
She grew up in Ireland at a time when Irish women were given a societal perception on how they should act in Ireland. A football nut who would kick a ball around the street around Inchicore for hours on end blew that perception apart. She became an outlier and would continue to do so for her whole career.
The Dubliner is a cousin of Irish legend Johnny Giles and Jimmy Conway. She alerted French club Stade de Reims to her talents when the club travelled to Ireland in August 1973. She was part of a Dublin team that played Dundalk. Her efforts that day caught the eye of Pierre Geoffroy and was asked to join the team for the next game against Limerick as they were missing players.
She accepted the offer and travelled to France with her parents permission for a trial. The 17-year-old played in three matches and agreed to a deal after impressing the club prior to the 1974 campaign.
The Stade de Reims team in 1976. Anne is third from the left in the back row.Anne O Brien
An RTÉ news report, by reporter Tom McCaughren and broadcast on Monday, 24 January 1974, showed O’Brien gave an insight into O'Briens life in Dublin at the time.
This was a time when the streets were aplenty with kids, because of no social media and traffic, her skills would have bypassed the obstacles anyway. When asked by the reporter whether she expected a long career in the game, she replied, ‘I hope so.’
In Trani, the southern fishing town where she won a Scudetto and an Italian Cup, a local journalist, Franco Caffarella, was emotional as he described her talents.
“She had class and she had vision,” he said.
“She was a pure talent who illuminated Italian women’s football. Now she’s a star in the sky.”
O' Brien's achievements have not been given any sort of notoriety in previous years, but it's now that she has been given her plaudits. The news has also hit French shores via ITN in London
She became the first female from Britain and Ireland to play the professional game. Her balance, left foot and vision excelled and pushed her to stop. O' Brien became integral to Reims’ play, and acted as the team’s main source of goals. Her three leagues titles and hatrick in the cup final are testament to this, never forget the name Anne O'Brien.
📅#onthisday Fran Rooney's Irish Women's team got a very creditable 0-0 draw with the Netherlands - One of the few caps that Ann O Brien got for Ireland https://t.co/vQYnWanJpo pic.twitter.com/8YHTZ3q5qL
— irishstats (@irishstats1) April 29, 2021
