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How Dundalk Ladies helped set up the Women's Football Association

Updated / Tuesday, 9 Apr 2024 12:49
Players from Dundalk Ladies and Corinthians Nomads at the 'Ireland vs England' match on May 10th 1970. Photo: Paula Gorham
Players from Dundalk Ladies and Corinthians Nomads at the 'Ireland vs England' match on May 10th 1970. Photo: Paula Gorham

Analysis: The match between Dundalk Ladies and Corinthians Nomads was part of the battle for recognition of women's soccer as an official sport

By Helena Byrne, British Library

For the first time in over three decades, the Republic of Ireland Women's National Team (WNT) will take on England, when Ireland host the Lionesses at Dublin's Aviva Stadium in their second Euro 2025 qualifier tonight. The teams first faced each other in 1978, and last met in 1987, but their relationship goes back much further.

From the mid 1960s, women’s football started to become very popular. In the Republic of Ireland the indoor football leagues that started in Dundalk and Drogheda in 1966 actively encouraged female teams to participate, with leagues that catered for women and men of all ages and abilities, springing up all over the country. These leagues were the springboard for outdoor women’s soccer and Gaelic football teams.

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From RTÉ Archives, a 1967 Newsbeat report on the rise of women playing soccer in Waterford

Established in 1968 by Kevin and Nan Gaynor, Dundalk Ladies was one of these teams. Kevin was heavily involved with the men's League of Ireland team, Dundalk F.C. One of the ways he helped to generate funding as part of the floodlight committee was to organise a women’s football league. The women's matches were played in the local Oriel Park stadium before the scheduled League of Ireland matches, and the players would then collect money from the crowd to go towards the floodlights.

Through his job with CIE, Gaynor took advantage of discounted travel to Britain and further afield. It is thought that he made contact with like-minded people who were organising women's football teams there through his holidays with Nan in England. This laid the groundwork for what was to come.

Following the men's World Cup in 1966, women's football became very popular in England. In November 1969, a meeting was organised in London to establish a governing body to organise women's football and advocate for official recognition at a national and international level. The Women’s Football Association (WFA) was established at this meeting and 51 clubs registered as members, though only 46 attended the inaugural meeting, and Dundalk Ladies were the only club from outside England.

At the inaugural WFA meeting, their first action was to lobby the Football Association (FA) to overturn the ban it imposed on women against using FA affiliated grounds, referees and officials. This finally happened at the FA council meeting on 19 January, 1970, where the FA made the decision to rescind the Councils Resolution of 1921. It was June 1971 when UEFA mandated its members to recognise and take control of the sport. With that, Dundalk Ladies and the Gaynors had played a historic part in lobbying for the recognition of women's football as an official sport.

From ITV News, why women's football was banned for 50 years

By 1972, membership of the WFA had grown to nearly 300 clubs with over 20 leagues. These additional clubs were from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and even one team from Nigeria. The clubs from Britain and Ireland would remain affiliated with the WFA until a governing body was established in their respective nations.

The Gaynors were passionate about women’s football and built many friendships with other clubs in Ireland, as well as further afield. Through the WFA they arranged a challenge match for Dundalk Ladies against the Corinthian Nomads from Manchester in May 1970. The match was dubbed England vs Ireland and was played at Prestatyn Raceway in North Wales.

From The Football Collective, Paula Gorham, Helena Byrne, Jean Williams, John Carrier and Dan Parnell discuss the 1970 game between Dundalk Ladies and Corinthian Nomads

Through this match, Kevin became friendly with a local welsh women's football club called Prestatyn Ladies. In 1971, two challenge matches were fixed between the teams, the first held in Dundalk in April and the second in the town of Rhyl in Wales, in October. When the first match was played, Prestatyn weren't affiliated to the WFA, but did join later. During the 1971 WFA AGM, meeting notes show Kevin informed the members "that he had been invited to a meeting in Dublin of 36/40 teams. He hoped to persuade them to join the WFA". But as there are no surviving membership records it is unclear if any did join.

The Ladies Football Association of Ireland (LFAI)

The Ladies Football Association of Ireland was finally formed in 1973. With the strong international friendships the Gaynors developed with Welsh clubs, it was unsurprising that the Republic of Ireland's first International match was against Wales in May 1973. Ireland won the match 3-2 thanks to a hat-trick from Paula Gorham, the star striker from Dundalk Ladies who featured on Ireland's first ever WNT.

Kevin Gaynor was one of the founding members of the LFAI and formed part of the inaugural council. He was still actively involved in the WFA during this time and attended the 1973 and 1974 WFA AGM. But unlike the governing bodies in Northern Ireland and Scotland, the LFAI did not become an affiliated member of the WFA.

This issue was discussed at the 1974 AGM and at the following WFA Council Meeting. "It was reported that Mr. Kevin Gaynor, who was the first representative of Eire on the WFA Council, had lost this position due to administrative changes made by the Football Association of Ireland," the minutes from the meeting stated. "It was recommended that he be made an Associate Member but the fee of £1.50 be waived. AGREED". The Gaynors held many positions within the LFAI over the years they were involved in women’s football, and the relationships they fostered with the WFA and its members are still strong today.

Helena Byrne is a librarian that specialises in web archiving and an independent researcher focusing on the history of women's football in Ireland. She regularly contributes history segments to FAI Women's National Team match programmes.

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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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