Emily Murphy: ‘I always wanted to come and play for Ireland’

It was back in January 2021 that Birmingham City’s manager brought in a couple of players on loan to help an ultimately successful battle against relegation from the WSL. They were Emily Murphy and Ruesha Littlejohn – the boss was Carla Ward. This week the trio link up again, this time on international duty with the Republic of Ireland. Small world.

Littlejohn was 30 and well established in the game by then, but Murphy was just 17 and was coming from Chelsea, having started out in Arsenal’s academy. She had made plenty of headlines 12 months before when she scored twice on her full debut for the club. “Emily is the future,” then Chelsea manager Emma Hayes had declared.

But opportunities were limited enough at the reigning WSL champions so Murphy chose a different route, taking up a scholarship at the University of North Carolina, moving to Wake Forest University in the same state two years later.

“I was only a child when I was at Chelsea and Birmingham,” she says. “You learn a few things, you realise football is not going anywhere, it will always be there, so I decided to focus on my own development and pathway. And after that hopefully I can get to where I want to be by the end of my career. Little stepping stones to get there is probably the way I operate.”

‘We’ve been the worst this year’: Pep Guardiola has no complaints after Real Madrid thrashing

Heather Payne in the mood to hit more milestones for Ireland

Stephen Bradley defiant as Shamrock Rovers aim to defy the odds again

In December she completed her four-year spell in the States, returning home with a degree in political science and a bunch of offers from suitors in both the States and England, having had a successful time of it in college football.

Three factors influenced her decision to join Newcastle United in the Championship: wanting to move back to England to be closer to her family, “because I’ve lived a lot of my life away from home”; wanting to be sure of game-time, rather than getting a smattering of minutes from an NWSL or WSL bench; and wanting “to come back to play the football I remember playing”, the English game, she believes, putting more emphasis on technique than physicality.

“It was an incredible life experience for me in America,” she says of her time in the States, but she admits there were frustrations when Wake Forest refused to release her at times for international duty – as they weren’t obliged to do, college football not being under Fifa’s umbrella.

“I don’t want to speak too much about it. You always want to play for your country, I always wanted to come and play for Ireland. They were discussions I had with my college. That chapter is closed and a new one is opened. I’m back here. I was upset. Frustrated. But it’s happened now.”

That will no longer be an issue for Murphy, now that’s she’s at Newcastle, so she will hope to add to the five caps she’s gathered so far.

It was Vera Pauw, impressed by the forward’s form for Birmingham during that loan spell, who first invited her to train with the squad in April 2021. As an England underage international, and a former captain of their under-17 side, Murphy was initially in two minds about declaring for Ireland, but she finally made her debut under Eileen Gleeson a year ago this month.

She is one of 12 players in Ward’s 23-strong squad who was born outside Ireland, so inevitably questions arise about whether the switch of allegiances are ones of convenience or whether the connections to the land of their parents or grandparents run deep. Murphy’s most certainly do.

Her father Jonathan is from Rathfarnham, and she spent most of her summers on her uncle’s farm in Westport. “We were always in waterproof overalls, you could never guarantee the weather,” she laughs. “He had every animal you could imagine, as kids the highlights for me and my sisters were the lambing and the baby calves.”

Jonathan’s claim to fame is that he played Gaelic football and hurling for Ballinteer’s Scoil Naithí in Croke Park, and rugby for Palmerston in Lansdowne Road. “That was probably the biggest highlight of his childhood,” she says of the Leinster rugby diehard’s finest hour.

Quite a character he sounds too. When she was asked by the Telegraph last month which three people she’d invite to dinner, she chose Jonathan, Roy Keane and Michelle Obama. “Because he can speak to anyone and likes to take the mick out of everyone. I think the dynamic between him, Roy and Michelle would be hilarious.” Netflix are probably signing the trio up as we speak for a fly-on-the-wall job.

Jonathan is proud as punch of his daughter representing Ireland, as is her mother Lucy, although he’d probably have been happier if she’d kept up her rugby. “I played it a lot, until I had to give it up. I was as inside centre. I was fast and at that age I was as physical as the lads. Things have changed now, but I’d say I’d still give them a run for their money.”

Her focus now is on thriving for Newcastle and persuading Carla Ward that she can do for Ireland what she did for Birmingham back in 2021. “I’m very excited to get back working with her,” she says, “it’s a fresh start and something we’re all ready for.”