Eimear Ryan: Girls in Green have had major say in growth of women's team sports on this isle

If there’s a monument to the progress of women’s team sports in Ireland, the national soccer team have added more than a few stones to the pile.

ROLE MODEL: Ireland's Denise O'Sullivan. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

I experienced a surreal moment two weekends ago. The day before the All-Ireland hurling final, I got up, put on the sausages and the coffee, and parked myself in front of the TV. Zambia were playing Japan, England were playing Haiti, Denmark were playing China. 

All of this was just a curtain-raiser, of course, for the All-Ireland camogie semi-finals, which I likewise watched back-to-back on RTÉ2 – two close, thrilling matches in Nowlan Park. At some point in the evening I got up and stretched, in a bit of a daze, having done something I’d never done before: watched a full day of women’s team sport live on telly.