Head Coach, Karl O’Shaughnessy reports on Shamrock Rovers ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ with the homeless in Dublin.
The FAI Women’s National League doesn’t always get the coverage it deserves and even less so when you are fighting close to the bottom of the table, like we at Shamrock Rovers have been for most of the season. Things are starting to change though both on & off the pitch and hard work is thankfully paying off for all involved.
Just last weekend, Rovers deservedly overcame Galway 1-0 at the AUL in Dublin to claim our third win of the season. The squad could easily be forgiven for enjoying and savouring that moment to the fullest, given the season’s difficulties thus far. However, this week the girls returned to training on Wednesday and on Thursday produced arguably their best performance of the season, a long way from a football pitch.
Member of the Rovers squad visited the streets of Dublin, dishing out food and clothing to the homeless people of Dublin. Even more impressively, this initiative was not the work of a charity organisation but this exceptional squad of young women, putting their hands in their own pockets and choosing to do some good for the local community. In the wake of some impressive social media campaigns the girls decide to make their efforts a ‘RAK Nomination’ – a random act of kindness that’s followed with a nomination for others to get involved. The squad are hopeful that some of the other Women’s National League teams will follow suit and do something big or small for their local community.
The concept itself originated from centre forward Rosie Maguire as she explained: “To be honest, it didn’t start out as a RAK Nomination idea. It’s just something I wanted to do for a while now and when I mentioned it to the team, they all said it’s something they wanted to do too. The nomination part really was an after thought. We just thought we might as well get a few more teams on board too. After all, the more kindness around the better.”
Maguire continued “We chose the Homeless because it’s a big problem in our city and we feel it’s something doesn’t get enough attention. To see how grateful some people where just to receive something as small as a new hoodie or a pair of gloves was a real eye opener. These are the things we take for granted. This is something we’d like to continue doing.”
To say that as a coach and as a club we’re proud of these girls would be a huge understatement. There’s plenty of moments in life when as older people, we accuse young people of taking the easy option in life. There was nothing easy in this action, particularly given that a huge number of these girls go to school, college or work part-time hours just to survive. Football is a hugely emotive game and I’m guilty of getting caught up in it myself but seeing a group of people like these girls doing such good for the city we live in restores my faith in all that’s good about football as a power to do right by it’s communities.
I know the girls don’t want any thanks for what they did. It speaks volumes about the type of people they are. I do think though the best thanks you could give them is to come out and support them in the AUL, Dublin this Sunday at 2pm when they face Cork in a big game for both teams in the Bus Eireann FAI Women’s National League.
As coaching staff, we had no real notion as to what the girls were up to. We can’t take credit for anything other than helping to put this group of players together. The success the girls achieved last weekend was down to their attitude on the pitch. Their humility off the pitch is even more impressive.
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