The last time the Ireland WNT played England was March 29th 1987.
Charlie Haughey had been restored to the office of Taoiseach 19 days prior, with Fianna Fáil defeating Fine Gael in a General Election. The previous week, the National Lottery had been launched. Later that year, Stephen Roche won the Tour de France, Johnny Logan became the first performer to win Eurovision twice, and Sinéad O'Connor and U2 released two of the greatest Irish albums of all time ('The Lion and the Cobra' and 'The Joshua Tree.')
The majority of the current Irish women's squad were not even born in March 1987, as Katie McCabe was reminded at Monday's media session.
Ireland as a country is a very different place now to what it was in 1987, as is the landscape of women's football.
With Eileen Gleeson's Ireland preparing to welcome England to Dublin on Tuesday in what is undoubtedly the biggest ever women's game to take place on this island, the squad are keen not to be daunted by the occasion or to lose sight of the task at hand.
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Ireland WNT v England: 30,000+ expected at Aviva Stadium
8 April 2024; Republic of Ireland players, from left, Tyler Toland, Lucy Quinn, Aoife Mannion and Abbie Larkin during a Republic of Ireland Women's training session at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
Friday night saw Ireland get their EURO 2025 qualifying campaign underway with a daunting task against France in Metz.
The world's #3 ranked side ultimately showed their class, though Ireland can take encouragement from the fact that they held the hosts to a one-goal margin at the Stade Saint-Symphorien. And, as head coach Gleeson pointed out, it could have been even better had Leanne Kiernan spotted Katie McCabe wide open in the centre in the dying moments.
Things will not get any easier for Ireland in this group, with European champions England and World Cup bronze medalists Sweden still to come. Next up is the visit of the Lionesses to the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The Ireland WNT return to the national stadium after last year's historic debut against Northern Ireland in the afterglow of the World Cup. Eileen Gleeson said during Monday's press conference that there have been over 30,000 tickets sold for the game, and both she and Katie McCabe encouraged fans to bring the noise at the Aviva on Tuesday.
Eileen Gleeson: That level of support, we’re over 30,000, I think the home game, that’s a real support for the girls. We’re hoping it’ll be nice and loud, sing along with the anthem with us. I don’t know if you could hear the stadium the other night in Metz but it was absolutely phenomenal, the whole stadium singing. And I think it’s a real boost, definitely a support for us, when we’re in Tallaght, when we’re at the Aviva for the Northern Ireland game. It makes a real difference.
Katie McCabe: That buzz that the fans create for us whether in Tallaght or at the Aviva is so special to us and we feel that when we step onto the pitch, we feel that we’ve got a stadium behind us and it’s going to be massively important for us tomorrow night. So if you do have a ticket, make sure you’re coming and watching us, because it will be crucial in helping us tomorrow.
Gleeson is right to evoke the atmosphere of Metz. Almost 17,000 fans were in attendance in the 30,000-capacity stadium, with the French fans in attendance making their voices heard well over half-an-hour before kick-off. If Irish fans can replicate that atmosphere on Tuesday night, it will go some way to creating the "cauldron" atmosphere Aoife Mannion spoke of post-match on Friday.
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The tickets sold are ticking over well, and RTÉ have made the correct call in placing the game on RTÉ 2 up against the competition of Real Madrid v Manchester City in the Champions League (which moves to the Player and RTÉ News channel).
Even if it is almost as tough a game as could have been expected, the hype around any game against England will have been a marketing dream when the draw was made, and a better fixture on paper could scarcely have been chosen to drum up interest in this qualifying campaign.
Not that McCabe or Gleeson are losing sight of the task at hand: the effort to get points on the board against all odds in this group to end all groups.
8 April 2024; Katie McCabe and head coach Eileen Gleeson during a Republic of Ireland Women's media conference at the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
The history attached to a game against England does, of course, go beyond sport, and that is something the men's team have evoked (at times controversially) in past preparations for fixtures against "the old enemy." That is not something Gleeson is interested in doing.
We're just focused on the game and what we have to do within the game. We're not focused on building any other narratives around what could be attached to this game. It's purely on the game and what we need to do.
We've had really tough opposition on Friday against France, the girls put in a tremendous shift. The focus has been on recovery, getting them fresh for Tuesday and focusing on what we need to do in the game.
Likewise, McCabe is uninterested in getting drawn into any "rivalry" talk, preferring for the players to go out and do their talking on the pitch.
We've not played them as a women's team since 1987. The rivalry... you'se can create whatever you'se wanna create, but for us, it's another game.
France on Friday was massive. Playing the European champions, massive. Each game is so big, so we have to remain focused on what we have to do, and you'se can make the noise of any rivalry if yiz want to do that.
For us, it's another stepping stone in order for us to try qualify for the Euros for the first time.
England were not at their best against Sweden on Friday night, but the quality of the European champions and World Cup runners-up is undeniable, and both the Ireland head coach and captain stressed that the Girls in Green would need to be at their best to have any chance of a result.
It will be a boost, then, that the two players who trotted off with injuries on Friday - Heather Payne and Amber Barrett - both trained on Monday during preparations at the Aviva Stadium. Jess Ziu, who was missing from the matchday squad on Friday through injury, has withdrawn from the camp altogether, replaced by Glasgow City's Emily Whelan.
Tuesday's game will be an occasion to remember, as Ireland have a second chance to land their first blow of the group. With the strength of opposition they will face throughout this qualifying campaign, they are right to take every game as it comes, and we were never likely to hear anyone say otherwise in pre-match media. But there will be an edge to tonight's game, and it is hard to pretend otherwise.
After all. It is England.
Ireland v England kicks off at 7:30pm on Tuesday April 9th at the Aviva Stadium, with the game live on RTÉ 2.
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