07-05-2025
Rachel Graham: Louise Quinn and Niamh Fahey generation should be celebrated
Back in 2006, the Republic of Ireland women's under-19s players and coaching staff all sat down to have their headshots taken by the Inpho photo agency.
Nearly 20 years on and if you look through the players in that squad, household names abound. That particular team contained future Girls in Green centurions Louise Quinn, Diane Caldwell and Áine O'Gorman, while Puskas Award nominee and 58-time Ireland cap Stephanie Zambra was another key player in the frame.
Quinn called time on her playing career last week as did her long-time defensive colleague, Liverpool captain Niamh Fahey, and the duo stepping away from the scene has fuelled a sense of an era ending in Irish soccer, especially given that O'Gorman and Caldwell have already retired from international duty, Zambra is now coaching at Shamrock Rovers and Julie-Ann Russell has also stepped away from the game.
Shelbourne midfielder Rachel Graham, who was part of the aforementioned Under-19s crop in the mid-2000s and went on to represent her country at senior level between 2013 and 2017, told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast that it was important for her former team-mates to receive due recognition for what they have done for the country over a long span of time.
"These players deserve a lot of recognition for what they've done, they should be celebrated," said the 35-year-old, who helped Shels to a 3-1 win win at Treaty United in Saturday's round of SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division action.
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"They've had great careers, done great performances for Ireland, been so consistent for Ireland.
"It's sad to see them go but I do think it's the right time. I just hope that they're really remembered and if they can keep them in the game, brilliant, but if not, celebrate everything that they've done and they've left the jerseys definitely in better places for the ones coming through."
Reflecting back almost two decades, Graham offered an insight into the career-long commitment levels that Quinn showed in a timeframe which also saw the Wicklow-born defender establish herself at Arsenal in between spells abroad in Sweden and Italy.
"I used to remember, once or twice in camp, we'd go to the pictures in the evening and we'd obviously all have popcorn and pick 'n' mix and Louise is there with her yoghurt and her fruit and her nuts," Graham recalled.
"That's the side of something that people don't see. It's all these little decisions that you have to make throughout the day to make yourself the best you can be and that's what she had to do.
"She couldn't cut corners, she was someone that every decision she had to make throughout the day was the right one she had to make.
"So to do as well as she did, it's a real credit to her because it's something that she had to work really hard for and she made a nice comment in her retirement statement that one of the reasons she played football was to play for Ireland and you could see that in her performances that she had for Ireland.
"It was body on the line or it was head on the line and whatever you needed from Louise, she'd be more than willing to do."
