What happened when Ireland's WNT first met France in 1973?

Analysis: Footage from that October day in Parc de Princes is so far the earliest surviving footage of Ireland's first women's national football team

By Helena Byrne, British Library

Tonight the Republic of Ireland's women's national team take on France in Metz in their first of six 2025 UEFA Women's European Championship League A qualifiers. Saint-Smyphorien Stadium in Metz will be the 11th venue at which the two teams have gone head-to-head and the 12th match between France and Ireland's WNT. It will also be just over fifty years since the teams first met at Parc de Princes in Paris, in October 1973.

Back then, 16 trailblazing footballers travelled to France and paved the way for players like Katie McCabe, Izzy Atkinson and Denise O'Sullivan to do what they do best. 1973 was also the year Ireland's WNT made history and their official international debut, on 17 May against Wales, with Dundalk's Paula Gorham scoring a hat-trick to win the match 3-2. The Republic of Ireland's women’s national team had only been formed earlier that year with the establishment of the Women's Football Association of Ireland, then named the Ladies Football Association of Ireland. It would be another decade before the Irish women made their competitive debut in 1982.

In 1973 they played four international matches, one at home and three away. Although women’s football was recognised by UEFA in 1971 and all members were mandated to take control of governing the sport, it was really up to those involved in the day-to-day running of women’s football to make international matches happen. They organised friendly international fixtures through the relationships built at club level.

With this in mind it is not surprising that in their inaugural year, the Irish women's team played against Wales, Northern Ireland and France. The relationships with Wales and Northern Ireland were fostered by Dundalk Ladies manager, Kevin Gaynor, and Dundalk Ladies were also founding members of the Women’s Football Association (WFA) in 1969.

But it was the groundbreaking 1972 tour of France by Jeyes, a Dublin-based factory team, that helped cement the relationship between the Republic of Ireland and France. Jeyes manager Pat Noone went on to be the first Republic of Ireland manager, while Pierre Geoffroy, the manager for French women's side Stade de Reims, would go on to become manager of the France team formed in 1971.

Fixtures and results in 1973

So when the two teams met in 1973, it was still in the very early days of women's international football. While it was Ireland's first international match, it was France's fourth, and their first victory (Ireland lost 4-0, but Anne O'Brien still won player of the match). France had only drawn one match previously and lost the others. Their very first match in 1971 against the Netherlands was retrospectively recognised as an official international match.

The match between Ireland and France was also covered by TV cameras. TV station Réseau 2, recorded footage before the match with the French team in the dressing room and of the match itself. Just over nine minutes of footage was broadcast on 14 October, 1973 on the Tele Sports programme. The footage has been preserved by the French audiovisual archive, Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) and is available for anyone to view at their premises in Paris.

But a two minute segment of the footage has also been released online here. This is so far the earliest surviving footage of the early Republic of Ireland WNT. Their first match against Wales was broadcast live on BBC Wales, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem the footage has survived.

This footage has been invaluable for researching the history of women's football in the Republic of Ireland. The line up of the Irish team never got reported in the press. The French reports only had the homeside team sheet and the few reports that were published in English mention some names, but mostly focused on Anne O'Brien's performance as she was moving to France a few months later to play for Stade de Reims.

Irish team that travelled to France

It was only in 2023 we were able to document the full team sheet for that match in Paris through the INA footage, combined personal photos from players and the players themselves identifying others involved. There are still a number of WNT matches we don't yet know the full line up for because there was no match programme, as well as no or limited news coverage of the game.

When asked almost fifty years later what it was like to lead the Republic of Ireland team out onto the pitch in Paris, Captain Nono McHugh, a Galway native, reflected: "I was privileged and honoured to lead the Irish team onto the pitch in Parc des Princes, it is a time I will never forget, and as I've reached the good old age of 74 now I appreciate it even more".

Read more: The early days of Ireland's pioneering women footballers

The Irish team were guests of the French Football Federation (FFF) which meant that their expenses for the match were covered. This made a huge difference as all the players had to pay their own way to represent Ireland in Wales a few months earlier. It is only relatively recently that players don’t have to fundraise or cover their own expenses to represent their country.

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