Ireland's Louise Quinn finally has her home away from home
Finding her home away from home hasn’t been linear for Louise Quinn but the Ireland centre-back has settled on Birmingham as the nearest thing to Blessington.
When the side she captained were relegated from the Women’s Super League in May, Quinn could have easily defected back to the top-flight.
Once certain aspects were improved to ensure the Blues didn’t retreat to the dark days of inferior treatment for their female side, and her boss Darren Carter was sticking around, the 32-year-old was prepared to aid their promotion bid.
That’s begun on track, the weekend 4-0 hammering of Sunderland reinforcing their tag of favourites among Championship rivals, but more pleasing for the veteran is her sense of place.
Having around her a colony of Irish including Jamie Finn, Eleanor Ryan-Doyle, Harriett Scott and her namesake Lucy fuels the patriotism, as does the environment she inhabits.
Birmingham’s emerald links are steeped in the mass immigration of the 1950s, solidifying Irish as the second city’s largest ethnic minority.
While the 1974 Birmingham pub and the miscarriage of justice that followed heightened tensions, the resumption of the annual St Patrick’s Day parade in 1996 – it’s 100,000 turnout making it the third largest behind Dublin and New York – underscored the deep affinity.
“There’s comfort there,” explains Quinn, who had stints in Sweden and Italy either side of lining out for Arsenal.
“That’s always something I wanted in my career. You want to share everything with the closest people as much as you can.
“We don’t earn the wages that the men get, where they can just bring their family over.
“You have to do your dream job away from your most loved ones but Birmingham has that great mix. We do well at sticking together and helping each other out when needs be. It’s a very different city and they’re a bit mad but I absolutely love it.
“It was a more difficult in Sweden and Italy and I struggled a bit more. Arsenal and the surroundings gave a feeling of home as well, but contracts end and you have to move on. That’s football.
“Birmingham's only a 40-minute flight away, there’s plenty of Irish around the area and there’s loads to do.”
Commitments don’t permit a free run. Directly after that Sunderland win, Ireland duty was calling. And not a routine assembly either, for they can seal a first-ever World Cup qualification playoff by beating Finland on Thursday at Tallaght Stadium.
“I was gutted to miss a big music festival in Birmingham over the weekend, having to make do with watching on bloody Instagram,” Quinn sighed.
“Imelda May was playing along with absolute legends like the Dubliners. Lots of Irish flew over too and it looked brilliant.
“I know where the Irish centre is. My partner’s parents are Irish and her name is more Irish than mine. All of her mates’ Irish parents are off to the west next week and I’m saying ‘you’re in Ireland more than me and you live here’. I’d hear them say Irish words in an English accent. It’s lovely.”
It was within compatriot company that she watched some of her former Arsenal teammates such as Beth Mead and ex-central defensive partner Leah Williamson claim the Euro title on home soil.
“I did some punditry on the tournament at home but was in England for a lot of it,” she reflects.
“It felt like a summer tournament and when one of my friends, who has an Irish pub in Birmingham, showed the game, the comments about Beth were completely normal.
“Sometimes it’s hard to say but England deserved to win it really. It was theirs to have and the way they handled it.”
Now Ireland have to deal with their own dose of expectancy. The 7,500 fans coming to Tallaght don’t want the team’s destiny dragging into next week’s final qualifier in Slovakia.
“There are expectations but we have placed certain expectations on ourselves from three years ago,” summarised Quinn, who was only breaking into the squad when Ireland reached their last and only playoff, for the 2009 Euros.
“It’s the main goal but can’t let it be the be all and end all. We have to simplify it and make it as realistic as possible. We’re up against a really Finland good team and not going to put this pressure from everyone else on us.”
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