Newcastle West World Cup star Claire O'Riordan had star quality from an early age

NEWCASTLE West native and Republic of Ireland women's soccer star, Claire O’Riordan, has been a talented sporting all-rounder from a young age.

O'Riordan is currently with Vera Pauw's Republic of Ireland women's squad preapring for their World Cup opener with hosts Australia on Thursday morning (11am Irish time).

From her first days in national school at Scoil Iósaf through to her selection on the Republic of Ireland’s Women’s squad for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Claire has always shown the ability to make a major impact on the playing fields in whatever sport she chose to pursue.

She was picked out by many of her underage coaches as being a driven and hardworking individual. Before soccer took over as Claire’s main passion and focus she played many sports, including Gaelic football, camogie and basketball.

One of her first coaches at Newcastle West Camogie Club was Noel O’Connor, who remembers her as being extremely talented from the moment she began playing.

Noel said: “I have known Claire from a young age and coached her team back in 2007 when they won the Limerick Féile competition. She was and still is a talented sports woman, you could put her into any sport and she would do well.

“The fact that she was a great camogie player, a successful GAA player, playing at inter-county level for Limerick and is now an international soccer player shows her commitment and dedication to reach the highest standards in each sport she played.”

Claire’s ability to turn her hand to anything also translated to her starting position on the field as she played in goals for the majority of her camogie career while playing full or centre forward in GAA.

She played her Ladies Football with the Monagea club which saw them winning a series of titles four years in a row moving through the ranks from Junior to Senior while Claire excelled with them. One of her coaches at Monagea, Joe Lee, says that Claire was nearly impossible to mark on the pitch.

Joe continued by saying: “Claire was a scoring machine, not many people could stop her once she was bearing down on goal. “She was just so natural in what she did and such an unassuming girl, she just loved her sport and that was that.

“It’s just fantastic to see her doing well and coming from a town like this. There have been a lot of fairly good male athletes around the place but not as many women so it’s great to see Claire getting the limelight around town that she deserves for all her hard work.”

Alongside her efforts in ladies GAA and camogie, Claire found her main passion to be soccer as she played with the male teams throughout her underage career.

She began her soccer career at nine years of age with Ted Murphy being one of her first coaches at Newcastle West Rovers. “She was tough, possibly more so than any of the fellas. Claire started as a defender but always put pressure on me to put her up forward.

"She told me if I switched her up forward that she would score a goal and as soon as I made the change the goal was scored. She was and still is an incredible talent and I am honoured to have coached her in underage soccer.”

Vera Pauw’s team will begin their World Cup campaign Australia, before facing Canada and Nigeria in their later group fixtures.
The whole of Limerick will be glued to their TV screens to watch the progress of Newcastle West stalwart Claire O’Riordan and her team mates in the nation's first time at such an event.

Ireland's opening group game at the Women's World Cup against Australia this Thursday morning will be live on RTE2. The Rep of Ireland will then face Canada on July 26 and Nigeria on July 31.