Back in March 2014, when this newspaper interviewed the Republic of Ireland goalkeeper and captain, Emma Byrne, she related the story of being knocked off her bicycle on her way to training at Arsenal and being brought to hospital. She also shrugged off the fact that her male counterparts at the north London club wouldn’t be seen dead resorting to pedal power to get to work. Nor did it particularly bother her that some of her Irish teammates playing at Arsenal worked also in the laundry as part of their employment. What she was annoyed about — seething in fact — was what had happened three years previously, when the Irish women had their €30 daily allowance taken away.
That the per diems showed no sign of being restored, despite the FAI emerging from a difficult economic period, didn’t seem to bother anybody other than the women themselves. “It would be great if you could highlight this for us,” Byrne said.
Back in Ireland, there was an extremely frosty reception to the captain’s remarks. Byrne had also said that the Irish women couldn’t afford training camps, though “we might get one or two weekends or weeks together”. This was seized upon by the FAI who pointed out that the association had organised two such camps already that year and the budget for women’s football was bigger than it had ever been. The international team manager, Sue Ronan said she was “disappointed” with her captain and said: “It’s correct that the per diems were taken away, but that happened to all international teams in the FAI except the senior men’s squad. We were treated equally.”
Nobody has explained properly how this could amount to equal treatment. The men kept their dailies, even though they were already on an international match fee to supplement the bonuses and salaries from their clubs which made most of them stinking rich; while the women, some of them out of pocket as a result of taking time off work or using up their holidays, lost theirs. Again, however, nobody seemed too bothered by this curious argument.
Byrne found she was a lone voice and quickly clammed up. Having said that she might have to give up her international career to pursue paid coaching work offered by other associations, it was only last week that she announced her retirement after amassing a record 134 caps.
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In her retirement statement she said: “Thank you to the PFAI, SIPTU, the FAI and the Irish media for making my last battle a successful one,” a reference to the fight for better conditions, restoration of daily allowances and match payments which the women successfully concluded after a rebellion earlier this year. That statement didn’t make it into the FAI press release singing Byrne’s praises on her retirement, suggesting that the association is still sore about being so publicly shown up.
But why did they make it so difficult for themselves? Byrne was simply looking for the restoration of the €30 a day allowance three and a half years ago. Had that simple demand been met, rather than her argument being picked apart, it’s conceivable that the women would not have gone into strike mode earlier this year and then made their services available again when the FAI appeared to meet their every demand. This included a €300 match fee for each player, which probably ends up exceeding the gate receipts at some games. We say “appeared” as details of the final agreement were kept secret, even though the protest had been made very publicly.
After turning a blind eye for so long to the difficulties which women were experiencing, even the government got in on the act last week, with Shane Ross, the minister for transport, tourism and sport, chiming in on Byrne’s retirement.
Byrne still has much to offer when it comes to the development of the Irish game given her coaching qualifications and the force of her personality. It’s just a shame she wasn’t listened to a few years earlier.