Stephanie Zambra was on a stage in a crowded room, the nation’s media there to chronicle Irish football's biggest split since Saipan.
There, alongside her, were the remaining members of the Irish women’s national team - each of them risking their international futures.
The year was 2017, the stage was Dublin’s Liberty Hall, the issue was the conditions our national women’s team had to endure under John Delaney’s FAI, and the threat was blunt: to go on strike.
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Had their message been misinterpreted, then it wasn’t just their careers on the line, but also their reputation.
And Zambra, nee Roche, as the squad’s biggest name on the back of her nomination for the 2014 Puskas goal of the year award, felt the fear.
She said: “Definitely, I was (scared). That was something we all talked about - the entire squad.
“The one thing we all thought was ‘The public are going to think we’re a bunch of divas, are they going to go against us and say we should be proud to just play for our country’.
“You see, we were proud, that was always the case, but by the time 2017 came along, we knew as a team that we needed a bit more help to progress.
“A lot of us had been around the squad a long time and had reached a point where we’d heard, year after year, that women’s football is growing, that it is getting better - but in terms of reaching a major championship, we had always fallen short.
“More than that, we all knew teams around us were getting better; Scotland and England for example, were getting help off their football association and were really improving.
“So to keep up, we needed some changes - and we weren’t asking for a lot.
“It was little things that we thought could make a difference.”
Things like proper medical support, gym membership, sports and conditioning coaches, nutritional information for emerging players who needed to be educated on that subject.
But the big thing was to be treated with respect.
They are now - Zambra the first to say as much: “More than anything it was a communication issue with us and the FAI back then. That has since been addressed. The treatment (from today's FAI) is top class."
But back in 2017, it wasn't. There was disparity.
Zambra said: "Like, back then, I was a professional getting paid by my club when I was on international duty, but some of the home-based girls were taking leave from full-time jobs and not getting paid.
“They were renting in Dublin, which as everyone knows, isn’t cheap.
“So for them to not get paid (while on international duty) was a major thing because if you want players to commit and get into the right shape, they can’t be panicking about the financial impact of being off work.”
So it was a battle worth fighting - and a victory worth celebrating.
The FAI initially went on defensive mode before changing tack as soon as they saw they were being slaughtered in the PR battle.
Within days they caved into the women’s requests. The strike was called off.
But it wouldn’t be the last big victory for women’s football in Ireland.
The quality of manager kept improving - first Colin Bell, then Vera Pauw.
Results gradually got better.
That partly stemmed from regular home-based sessions for the younger players in the national league, those getting their education before jetting off abroad.
“Most teams are training three or four nights per week now. That’s the minimum it should be because if we were playing against England, for example, they were training four times per week and we just weren’t at that level.
“There had to be change. The most important thing was the whole squad stuck together and got what we needed.
"And it was worth it because you can see the progress that the team has made in the past five or six years.
“It was a big story at the time, a lot of people were interested in it.
“They weren’t really big issues, but they were small percentages that would help us get to where we needed to get to. On the day of the strike people were shocked. They were saying: ‘you weren’t getting that all along? What the hell?’
“From that moment on, it made people relate to us as a squad and as a team.
“The next week against Slovakia, you could see signs held by kids saying ‘You’ve paved the way for us to have opportunities’. The strike put us in the forefront of people’s minds.”
There has been one major strike since - the right-footed one by Amber Barrett that fired Ireland to a 1-0 win over Scotland in the World Cup play-off last November.
Next stop is Australia, and this summer's World Cup finals, but Zambra, ironically, may miss out on this summer's tournament, after missing the last eight weeks with a hamstring injury.
She still dreams of making it onto the plane - her comeback due within the next fortnight.
Then it is a case of impressing Pauw and getting her luggage on that Sydney-bound flight.
“I never miss the home-based sessions when I’m fit and available so hopefully I can get back there and the manager might see something.
“At the same time realistically it’s probably not going to happen. If I can do well in the national league with Rovers in the last few months, who knows? I will remain positive.”
*Carlsberg 0.0 has teamed up with Ireland international and Shamrock Rovers footballer, Stephanie Zambra to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Republic of Ireland women’s national team and reveal new research into the sports viewing habits of Irish people.
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