AINE O’Gorman has revealed her new baby daughter Emily to the world in an adorable Instagram post.
The Ireland legend and her partner Rachel are now the proud parents of two children with Rachel having given birth to son James in July 2022.
The 35-year-old and her other half announced their happy news on Wednesday evening[/caption]
In a sweet photo, the former Peamount United winger is seen smiling for the camera while cradling their new arrival.
Many of her ex-Ireland teammates were quick to react to the lovely post.
Katie McCabe wrote: “Congratulations to you both.”
Louise Quinn, who herself became a mother only a fortnight ago, labelled Emily ‘beautiful’ while Chloe Mustaki was also smitten with her ‘amazing’ new arrival.
Stephanie Zambra and Leanne Kiernan were also over the moon with each commenting a series of heart emojis.
The Ireland WNT are next in action on April 4 and 8 in Nations League double-header against Greece.
They’ll be seeking to rectify a poor start under Carla Ward that saw a patchy 1-0 home win over Turkey followed by a 4-0 drubbing in Slovenia.
Their male counterparts will be equally aiming to salvage their Nations League campaign this evening by avoiding relegation to League C.
Their first leg against Bulgaria takes place in Plovdiv with Sunday the date of the return leg in the Aviva Stadium.
Ahead of tonight’s game it is clear that boss Heimir Hallgrímsson does not subscribe to the theory that relegation in the Nations League might be no bad thing.
That school of thought highlights that it would provide better opportunities for favourable results and, potentially, qualification for Euro 2028, although that should come automatically as tournament co-hosts.
But, for Hallgrímsson, whose only positive results to date have come against Finland, he could do without his side acquiring the reputation of being one on the slide.
Hallgrímsson said: “Does it matter? My thoughts are, we need to play good opponents day in and day out to develop as a team.
“That’s why group B is important for us, there are differing views on it and I respect that.
“But I think it’s really important to stay in group B and play higher ranked opponents.
“Experiment? Yes, we have players who don’t have caps and we’d like to see them in action, we called in players we feel are ready to play, that’s why we bring them in.
“It’s also a time to give players a chance, but it’s not like we will lose anything or risk anything in this game, as a group we like to stay in group B and compete with better teams.”
The three uncapped players are QPR’s Jimmy Dunne and Watford duo James Abankwah – on loan from Udinese – and Rocco Vata.
His long chat with Vata before yesterday’s training session at the Hristo Botev Stadium may prove significant and he again spoke positively about the former Celtic player who, at 19, is the youngest player in the squad.
He said: “The kid has something. Like I’ve said before, he can show up and do something that you look at and go, ‘wow’. That’s this kid. He can be a match-winner for us in the future.”
