Eimear Ryan: From here on for women's sport, there is no limit to our ambition

It can be hard to identify change in real-time but in 2021, you could almost feel the tectonic plates of progress moving under your feet

“You’d be envious of the girls coming through now.” This statement, or a version of it, has been recently said to me by at least three inter-county giants of women’s GAA. I’m sure it’s a sentiment that is deeply felt by many female players in the latter stages of their careers. Besides the envy, there’s a wistful joy in it, too. Things are getting better before our very eyes.

In his bestselling non-fiction book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, the writer Malcolm Gladwell explored major sociological changes, in particular, ‘the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point’. Examining the widespread adoption of different products, ideas and behaviours, the book demonstrates how societal change can seem to happen both very gradually and all at once.