The Sport for Business Women in Sport Conference took place this morning at Tallaght Stadium, the spiritual home of Irish Women’s football, and there was a football tint to proceedings across the morning.
Chelsea FC Women’s Business Operations Director Nadia Shahrestani joined David Davies of Experience Specialists Catapult on stage for one of the keynote presentations, showing what is possible with an understanding of your particular fan demographics and some storytelling genius from the club, sponsors, and players.
They were followed by Drogheda United Chair and Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Sport, Joanna Byrne. She grew up with the club, taking her first steps on the pitch at United Park and is deeply committed to the club and its importance within the community. We will have more on her attachment to the club and how United Park was named Head in the Game Park in a special focus on her conversation with Rob Hartnett on Sport for Business tomorrow.
A specific session on female coaching pathways delivered on many levels with the lived experience of Laura Heffernan, First Team Manager at DLR Waves, Lynne Cantwell, rugby legend and one of the most thoughtful and intelligent voices across Irish sport on how we can do things incrementally better, and Stephanie Roche, who shared her pathway into coaching schoolboys and schoolgirls through Champion Coaching and the lessons which will make her stronger coming out of a harsh and unexpected pause on her elite coaching journey when released from Shamrock Rovers in recent weeks.
It was a tough conversation at times, and illustrative of the solitary path that has to be navigated right now for women. Still, there was hope, too, and it is a theme we will continue to return to, one Sport Ireland will continue to champion.
We know that having opened the Morning with Michelle Tanner, Chair of the Sport Ireland Women’s Sport Committee, Head of Sport at Trinity College with its more than 50 different sports clubs, and a coach herself with her local Volleyball club.
We also had the athlete voice, with the wonderful Linda Djougang speaking about looking beyond her time in the rucks on the pitch for Leinster and Ireland, towards a future where she can find purpose and give back across society. her journey into the sport followed a different map to most and is all the more valuable as a role model story.
She was joined on the athlete panel by Laura O’Connell, aiming to crack the big time in motor sport with the dream of a Le Mans 24 Hour seat keeping her occupied in a busy life combining track time in England with a full time job as a biochemist in Limerick. She needs funding to make her dream come to life and serve as an exemplar in another male driven area of sport.
The other session was an introduction to three of the new entries on this year’s 50 Women of influence in Irish Sport, Julie Nicholson, neurodivergent and an advocate for disability as well as equality is a force of nature. She serves as Chair of the Association of Irish Powerchair Football and is Ireland’s first ambassador in the global Purple Tuesday campaign.
Rosie Barry is President of Irish Squash and has won battles at European level to introduce common sense but not common enough measures to promote women’s and girls place on the court and in the boardrooms.
And Bethany Carson, one of the first graduates from our 30 under 30 to our 50 Women of Influence, who alongside Nora Stapleton, is forging an ever stronger network through Sport Ireland to help make equality real and not just an aspiration.
We opened the day quoting Joanne O’Riordan that ‘Gender equality isn’t a slogan, it’s a continuous collective effort to make sure talent, opportunity, and dignity aren’t determined by circumstance,” and that “progress happens when voices meet, collaborate and push forward together.
From the best of Ireland to the best in the world that is what we brought together for this conference, backed and supported as we have over many years by the team at Lidl who are themselves seeking to be more than a sponsor within Ladies Gaelic Football and Women’s Sport.
I’m lucky enough to plot and plan these days, and to share the stage with brilliant passionate people who everyone can learn from and grow as a result.
We are grateful to South Dublin County Council to Mayor Pamela Kearns and Stadium Manager Nicola Coffey for the use of Tallaght Stadium, scene of so many moments of shared joy between players and fans of the Women’s National Team in recent years.
We are grateful also to those who came to join us, an advocate army of over 100 who will have left with an ambition to keep making progress, keep making it normal for young girls to see themselves on the pitch, the court, the sideline and the centres of power in sport.
Join us again in the coming days for a more detailed review of some of the discussions and more imagery from the day.
Image Credit: Sport for Business
Further Reading for Sport for Business members:
Read our Sport for Business Coverage of Women in Sport
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