Amber Barrett says she was “caught off guard” when she received messages of congratulations for her World Cup play-off winner from relatives of the victims of the Creeslough tragedy.
Barrett celebrated her Hampden Park strike by paying tribute to the 10 people that died in an explosion in the small Donegal town.
She went down on one knee and pointed to the black armband that both she and her teammates wore during the 1-0 win against Scotland.
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Barrett, who grew up in nearby Milford and whose grandparents hailed from Creeslough, also spoke so eloquently after the match about the tragedy.
In the wake of Saturday’s World Cup draw - which has pitted Ireland against co-hosts Australia, Canada and Nigeria in Group B - Barrett spoke about the reaction to her tribute.
“It did take me a few days to get back to a lot of the messages that I’d received,” she said.
“Speaking to the family at home, they were saying in Donegal, there was a buzz around for what had happened on Tuesday night, but also the sadness of course of Creeslough and still the county is reeling from that moment and what happened, and how it affected so many people.
“I think I got a message from Hughie Kelly’s niece, he was one of the victims, and I got a message from Leona Harper’s father, who was also one of the victims, just to basically say congratulations.
“Those two messages really kind of caught me off guard, because you don’t expect in moments when people are going through such a terrible time that they’d take that moment to say ‘well done’ and congratulate us for what we achieved.
“I think that meant more to me than anything.
“We just hope that our result did give some uplift to the community.
“I’m told it did but as I said before, in terms of perspective, qualifying for the World Cup is great, but it’s not the most important thing in the world.”
Barrett admitted that she was still coming to terms with Ireland’s World Cup qualification.
She hardly had any time to revel in her achievement, as she was straight back to her club and into an unfamiliar right-back role just days after the Glasgow win over Scotland.
Saturday’s draw, however, did make it seem a little more real for the Turbine Potsdam ace.
“That was one of the messages that was put in the group this morning,” she said.
“I think it was Aine O’Gorman who said this is the first time that it has actually felt real, that we’re going to the World Cup, what we’ve achieved, that we’ve qualified for the World Cup.
“It’s difficult to describe the last ten days in terms of, we know what we’ve achieved, but I don’t think we’ve been able to come to terms with it.
“I think on the Wednesday, you’re straight back to your clubs, you’re training on Thursday and unfortunately you have to focus on your club.
“I was straight back into playing right back against Wolfsburg so I had a very humbling comedown from that there.
“It’s not just we know who we’re playing, we know when we’re playing them, and yeah it’s going to be a long nine months to look forward to.”
Barrett expects a bumper Irish support in Australia next summer, when Ireland take on the co-hosts in Sydney, Olympic gold medallists Canada in Perth and Nigeria in Brisbane.
“Two of my best friends have only recently gone out to Sydney and so I’m really looking forward to seeing them,” she said.
“And I think the amount of Irish who are going to be there will be fantastic.
“A lot of people who have been speaking to me over the past few days have been saying that regardless of where the games are, they’re going to be there.
“As much as Australia will have a lot of support, there will be a lot of Irish as well.
“Even going into the game against Scotland the amount of people contacting me personally and other people in the squad and saying, ‘Look when you get to Australia, we’ll be there to support you’.
“And I think that was people talking about travelling over from Ireland.
“But I don’t think we realise the number of people who are in Australia as well.
“Maybe some of them aren’t huge fans of football, but I know when there is an Irish team in town, they will definitely come out to celebrate and support the team as well.
“Honestly, I think the first game against Australia, the tickets will be very difficult to get, playing the Aussies.
“But I think typical Irish, we’ll definitely get our hands on a few.”
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