Clare Shine loving the game again among her first football family
Clare Shine in action against Whitehall Rangers in the FAI Intermediate Cup
You might say Clare Shine has fallen back in love with football. The Ireland international retired from the professional game four years ago, having said all her goodbyes. But home, and particularly her first football home, eventually called.
“I moved to Australia six months after I stopped playing and I didn't really have an interest in playing when I was over there,” the Cork woman says. “I didn't really have the bug, and I didn’t miss it. I suppose I was in a new place, surrounded by new people, making new friends, so football wasn't really a big topic. And because of the time difference I wasn't really watching a lot of football either.”
Shine has played in a World Cup and a Euros for Ireland underage teams, has seven senior Ireland caps, won Premier Leagues and Cups in Glasgow, scored in the Champions League, chipped a classy winner in the FAI Cup final for Cork City. But her way back to football came via a chat with the woman who oversaw her first steps in the game at Douglas Hall, where she won a National Cup at U12.
“I thought maybe I’d get back into it a small bit, so I texted Noreen (Martin, Douglas Hall chairperson) and of course she welcomed me with open arms, as she always does. And I thought, you know what, I’ll give it a go.
“I’d played with most of the girls anyway, either in Douglas Hall or at Cork City, so it wasn’t like going into a brand new team. And I always wanted to finish my career at Douglas Hall, having started there, so it was kind of a nice full-circle moment. It was cool to go back and see everybody again.”
The football never leaves you, they say, though it can take time to reintroduce itself.
“So in April I hit the ground running and probably got too excited. I hadn't played in three and a half years and then I played three games in a week and I got injured.
“Those first couple of games I couldn't kick snow off a rope, I was very rusty. I couldn't really move to be honest, but that comes with a good pre-season, which I didn’t have. I just had to be patient because I was getting frustrated. I had to park that to the side because it's more about enjoying it now and helping the team as best I can.”
By the time the FAI Cup rolled round, she was well up to speed, crashing in a brilliant 30-yarder in the second-round defeat of Dundalk, a moment sadly missed by LOITV.
“It was probably one of the best goals I've ever scored but the cameraman never pressed record so I didn't get to watch it back, but hopefully there might be another one on Sunday.”
— Douglas Hall AFC/LFC (@DouglasHall1971) July 31, 2026
Sunday brings another reacquaintance for Clare. The Hall have already wrapped up the CWSSL Premier Division title and are in two local cup finals, but on Sunday Cork City visit Moneygourney in the FAI Cup quarter-final, with plenty of former City players facing their old club.
“It’s been a great season. There’s not the same pressure, but then the team that we have at the moment is excellent so you're fighting for a position every week. We've got 20 very good players and anyone can start. The standard is very good so it's been a lot of fun.
“But Sunday is going to be a massive one, something I'm really looking forward to.”
Shine’s goal in the 2017 Women's FAI Cup final — City defeating UCD Waves — lasts among the proudest moments of her career.
“It's definitely up there because we were not fancied. With Glasgow City, we were always kind of expected to win, the pressure was always on us to perform. Whereas with Cork City we were complete underdogs and it just goes to show anything can happen in cup games. Playing at the Aviva too, with the Cork City men winning the same day, it was very very special.”
Clare will forever rank among the most important figures in Cork football. Her searing honesty about her mental health struggles shone a light that has guided plenty out of their own dark corners.
Perhaps facing her in Sunday’s midfield, recent injury permitting, will be another emerging Cork figurehead. Eva Mangan this month became the first woman to sign a professional contract with the club and is the poster-woman for recently appointed City manager Derek Coughlan’s ambition to build a football force around young Cork talent.
“She's a brilliant player and she deserves it,” Shine says. “Even though she’s still so young, she brings a lot of experience to the team and she sets the standards. For City to be able to offer her a professional contract is great, and I hope to see many more of them because the girls deserve it.
“What Derek is doing with City has been excellent. It's brilliant for the game in Cork and for the younger players coming through in the academy that this gives them a bit of an incentive and something to aim for.”
She’s not striving for anything more in the game now than contentment right here at home.
“I'm very happy now where I am. I don’t want to change anything. I had my time playing at a high level. I'm studying at the moment and I want to go into athletic mindset coaching and the mental health side of things. If I was ever going to go back into a team environment at a higher standard it would be in the background.”
In a beautiful speech at The Echo Women in Sport Awards in 2023, Clare expressed regret that some of her finest hours in the sport somewhat passed her by, since she was always eyeing the next win, the next prize. But she remained so thankful for sport and how it looked out for her.
She said then: “We do not have control over everything that happens in our lives. But we do have control over how we react to it and no matter what happens in life, sport has the power to bring us back to life.
“That is the power of sport; the power of having team-mates and a family who believe in you. Not only as a player, but more importantly as the human being you really are.”
Back among her first football family, Shine is now able to savour these moments.
“I'm just excited and I hope people come up and support on Sunday. It’s going to be a great day and anything can happen in the cup.
“Most of us are a lot older than the City girls, we do have a lot of experience so it's just about how smart we can play the game.”
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