One name popped out above all when interim Republic of Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson named her squad on Friday for the upcoming Nations League games against Northern Ireland and Hungary: Tyler Toland.
Having become the Republic’s youngest ever senior international back in 2017, the Donegal native failed to add to her 13 caps under Vera Pauw, the manager’s treatment of the then 18-year-old prompting a war of words between her and the player’s father.
Now 22, the midfielder who is playing her football with Blackburn Rovers in the English Championship after a year in Spain with Levante, last played for Ireland four years ago this month. Having been an unused substitute in Pauw’s first three games, she was never called up again.
Gleeson’s decision to recall the player for her first squad is a pointed enough rebuff of Pauw’s exiling of her from international football, but also an acknowledgment of her abilities despite a difficult few years at club level.
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Eighteen of the 23-strong World Cup squad have been selected again, but Gleeson is without two more who featured in Australia, Niamh Fahey and Sinead Farrelly, both of whom are injured.
Megan Campbell, Aoife Mannion, Jessie Stapleton, Claire Walsh, Tara O’Hanlon, Roma McLaughlin, Jess Ziu and Leanne Kiernan are also unavailable due to injury.
Áine O’Gorman has since retired from international football, leaving Izzy Atkinson and Ciara Grant as the only two members of the World Cup squad to miss out on selection. Atkinson’s exclusion in particular is a surprise, having made two appearances at the tournament, but both players have been placed on standby.
Returning to the fold are six previously capped players, including Birmingham City’s Jamie Finn who controversially missed out on World Cup selection, having to settle for the status of a training player instead. The other five are Savannah McCarthy, Hayley Nolan, Emily Whelan, Saoirse Noonan and Eabha O’Mahony, who plays her football with the University of Texas.
The former Cork City defender is, perhaps, the surprise pick having not featured for Ireland since winning her fourth cap back in June of 2022. The 21-year-old has impressed during her college career in the States, earning a transfer earlier this year from Boston College to Texas where their Longhorns side are ranked in the top 20 teams in the country.
McCarthy was beginning to establish herself in Pauw’s defence when she was struck down by a cruciate ligament knee injury last year, but has since returned for Shamrock Rovers. Nolan and Noonan made intermittent appearances under Pauw, but Whelan hasn’t featured since 2021.
The 21-year-old Dubliner, who joined Glasgow City from Birmingham last year, is one of four Ireland internationals at the club, along with Claire Walsh, Aoife Colvill and Abbie Larkin, who joined from Shamrock Rovers earlier this week.
Gleeson, along with her assistants Emma Byrne and Colin Healy, will remain at the helm until a permanent successor to Pauw is found, the FAI hoping that appointment will be made before the end of Ireland’s Nations League campaign in December.
The game against Northern Ireland on September 23rd will be the first time the women’s team has ever played at the Aviva Stadium, with FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill expecting a crowd of over 30,000 to attend.
Ireland squad
Goalkeepers: Courtney Brosnan (Everton), Grace Moloney (London City Lionesses), Megan Walsh (West Ham United).
Defenders: Louise Quinn (Birmingham City), Diane Caldwell (FC Zurich), Claire O’Riordan (Standard Liege), Savannah McCarthy (Shamrock Rovers), Éabha O’Mahony (University of Texas), Hayley Nolan (Crystal Palace), Chloe Mustaki (Bristol City).
Midfielders: Katie McCabe (Arsenal), Denise O’Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), Ruesha Littlejohn (London City Lionesses), Tyler Toland (Blackburn Rovers), Jamie Finn (Birmingham City), Megan Connolly (Bristol City), Lily Agg (Birmingham City), Heather Payne (Everton), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City), Marissa Sheva (Washington Spirit).
Forwards: Kyra Carusa (San Diego Wave), Abbie Larkin (Glasgow City), Amber Barrett (Standard Liege), Saoirse Noonan (Durham WFC), Emily Whelan (Glasgow City).
