It is the last dance for Louise Quinn the footballer over the next week, as she is about the draw the curtain on an incredible playing career. At club level it took her from captaining Peamount United to the title in the inaugural WNL season, to spells in Sweden, Italy and the UK where she won a WSL title and League Cup with Arsenal.
On the international stage it has been a 17-year career starting with her first cap in John Hyland Park in 2008. She pulled on the green jersey from Tallaght to Turkey this week, with the Women’s World Cup a career highlight, and Pairc Ui Chaoimh to come next Tuesday for her final outing with the Girls in Green.
She is a player whose stature will be missed – in the dressing room and vocally and physical on the pitch (15 of her 16 international goals came from headers!).
With Ireland already in camp in Istanbul ahead of their UEFA Nations League match against Türkiye on Friday, it was one final early morning video press conference on Monday for Quinn. As ever with Wicklow woman, it was an insightful conversation, and it easily took up every second of the allotted 40-minute Zoom call.
She discussed her impending retirement, leadership, her new baby Daragh, and, of course, the success of her former club Arsenal in winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League over the weekend.
Club ties
The Gunners and her son Daragh were a dangerous combination on Saturday as Quinn explained with a laugh that her partner Eilish having to come to their son’s aid. “I was fairly calm and collected going into the second half and then (Stina) Blackstinius came on and I was thinking ‘she could do something here’,” said Quinn.
“I’m there holding Daragh and I said to Eilish ‘If Katie scores, I am going to freak out!’ and she was like ‘Give me our son, do not frighten the crap out of him’.
When Katie McCabe spoke with extratime.com after the final whistle in Lisbon on Saturday, the Ireland skipper spoke about silverward success she had when sharing a dressingroom with her Irish teammate.
“I remember us winning the league back in 2019 and me and Louise Quinn having a moment in the changing room so to have now won the Champions League, it makes me very proud.”
Quinn will share a dressing room with McCabe for a few final times this week and she was full of praise for the Ireland captain.
“Katie is so deserving,” said the 34-year-old about McCabe’s success with the Gunners. “I’m just so proud of her. She’s always one of the first names on the teamsheet and she deserves that, a club like Arsenal deserves that. They proved it throughout the tournament but especially on the day to keep out what is the best team in the world.
"I’m delighted for them. It’s an amazing club, even when I was there however many years ago, seven years, but always did their best to support the players and that's just got better and better.”
Family ties
While this week is the last for Quinn with Ireland, it is her first week away from baby Daragh. The boots she is wearing this week have her son’s name on them and she admitted that “I was sobbing at the airport yesterday. I did one day (away from Daragh) when we had an away game, but this will be a week now. It's difficult, but again, my partner very much has everything under control.
“My son coming along, he's been a big part of it (retiring), but there's loads of things. You want to have that time, that I've never had. I've constantly missed out on events with friends and family, just seeing them for more than 24, 48 hours, actually being able to go home and actually enjoy Christmas.
“Now that I have my own little family, I want to be able to be there and (be) a bit more present, and potentially (have) a schedule that's a little bit more flexible.
I did go to my cousin's wedding in the summer, I flew in for less than 24 hours, went to the wedding, drove back home later that night and got a flight first thing at 6 o'clock in the morning. It's like, 'This isn't how I wanted to celebrate my family' all the time.
“Daragh probably doesn't have a clue really, but I just think it's important that I'm also around and flexible and there for Eilish. It's always an important time, but this is so brand new you want to have all hands on deck and look after him.”
The far future
So what is next for Quinn? “I’m not sure if it is for me,” she said about coaching. “Maybe I will find the love for it. I’m finishing my B (coaching badge) soon but at the moment it is not totally on my radar. Being a player is very full on, club and country it’s a lot to give. And then I turn around and look at the coaches in Blues, it’s seven days a week as it is being a player.
“I’ve so many things in my head that I want to do but at the moment it’s about making sport, or more specifically, women’s football more available, foundation work potentially in Birmingham City that the club is developing and then there’s PFA stuff.
"I’ve a fair bit of experience in that, trying to help people and players with things I potentially missed out on and then we have the Irish team and if there is any way I can be involved and I can help the players and the coaches…it is very broad.”
The near future
“I'm here to play,” said Quinn about her expectations for the upcoming couple of games. “I'm here to fight for my position. It's not going to be given to me, I absolutely know that. Carla (Ward) doesn't owe me anything in terms of being like, 'Oh we'll just play her just because of this.' No, it's not how it works and I wouldn't want it to work that way.
“For me it's going to be fighting back for my position that the girls I feel like have settled into really well, which is exactly what you want as well when you're almost 35. You need people to be able to fill that gap when me, Niamh (Fahey) and Diane (Caldwell) have gone.
“We have really strong characters, we have leaders, we have personalities. It's now just trying to gradually step in for them to ease into some of these leadership roles that have been missing.
"We absolutely have some of the girls that it's natural to them and they probably do it at club level and now again, you're asking, okay, how about another step up, another level? Can you do it at an international level? And it's not going to happen like clicking your fingers.
“But it's something that we have that we have. We have some really strong people, strong personalities and so for me I can see that the team has grown through this campaign. And I think that's what is most important, and now we've really got to get the results and back it up.”
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— extratime.com (@extratime.com) 24 May 2025 at 22:49