By Michael Preston

Stepping out onto the flag football pitches at the University of Limerick will be a sort of homecoming for Ireland slot receiver and linebacker Kelly Dwyer. She will be on home ground in more than just the sense that her nation is hosting the 2023 IFAF European Flag Football Championships.

Originally from just an hour away in County Tipperary, Kelly first discovered American football at the university, which led to her beginning a journey not only in flag football, but in officiating and administration as she serves as a member of the American Football Ireland board of management.

“I certainly consider Limerick my home field,” says Kelly, who was an ardent supporter of the Limerick Vikings men’s tackle team while studying at the University of Limerick, rarely missing a home game. “It’s not only a home tournament for me because it’s Ireland, it’s a home tournament in a better and bigger way.

“When I went to that first Vikings game to go and watch I just never thought that ten years later I’d be playing on the same fields in the European Championships, so it’s very surreal. It’s pretty amazing. I was definitely very invested in it from then on and I suppose I became like a super fan of that team.”

This weekend, with the roles reversed and the one-time supporter now on the field and in the spotlight herself, along with Limerick local Ray Burke from the men’s team, those University of Limerick players are paying it back.

“The support has already been amazing,” says Kelly. “We have an alumni chat and they’ve put into all our groups that the two of us are going to play. They’re going to be there, yeah you know, and we’ve been really blessed that there’s so much support.

“There’s some pressure in that too, so I think it’s important that we represent ourselves well and not feel a responsibility for the tournament. It’s not only that we’re representing our country, which is just a phenomenal feeling. To do that at home is magic, especially because we hope to have a big crowd cheering for us.

“There’s a massive source of pride, being the first to do this and knowing that we’re the first female athletes to play as the first female national team in Ireland in football. You also have to manage that because you can’t play too emotionally either. We want to play with freedom of expression in the moment and be competitive.”

Following her studies, Kelly volunteered as an AFI game official and after a while moved to Singapore to work and started playing flag football. She is currently based in Denmark, returning to Ireland to attend national team training camps. Making the decision to represent her nation, despite geographical challenges, was an easy one.

“I was out in Singapore and I think at that point we knew that Ireland would be hosting the continental championships in Limerick,” she remembers. “So, I joined a flag football team that was there and kind of learned how to play flag football with a new focus of coming back to Ireland to play on this team. That was a fabulous experience because attended a lot of tournaments in Vietnam, some in the Philippines, Malaysia, and it was brilliant.”

Lining up in the green of Ireland for the first time just after midday on Friday will be a momentous and historic occasion for the Wolfhounds. The game will mark the competitive debut of the women’s flag football national team against Finland, the competition’s inaugural winner back in 2005.

“We are going to discover what our strengths are out there,” says Kelly. “I think that the character of our team is something that stands out to me and this team has a lot of fight. I think that we will take the wins where we can get them but it’s not always the scoreboard that’s important.

“The way that I play, I know that I never I never feel like I’ve lost and I’m always playing until the final whistle. I feel like all of our players have that, where you just keep going and the thing that’s great about flag football is you always get the ball back, so you always have another chance. That way, anything can happen. We’re the Wolfhounds and we’ve got that dog fight in us!”

Don’t underestimate the Irish, especially on home ground, or that might come back to bite you.

Photo: Eoghan Connolly