Leanne Kiernan - signing on the dotted lineIT'S FAIR to say that the city of Liverpool has always been a special place for the Irish.
Indeed, over the past 250 years the port city has attracted Irish emigrants in their thousands, starting in the end of the 19th century. As a result, Ireland has greatly contributed to Liverpool’s cultural identity including the remit of sport.
Even across the Irish Sea, it’s clear that Liverpool is the most supported Premier League team in Ireland. To demonstrate this you need to look no further than Dublin’s ILAC shopping centre that hosts the Liverpool FC store and sells club memorabilia.
Liverpool FC has recruited multiple Irish players through the years such as Premier league goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher, a Cork-native currently the first choice keeper for the Irish national team.
But Irish players are in even more influential positions in the Liverpool women’s team. In fact, Niamh Fahey who hails from Galway currently captains the WSL side after having taken the reins in 2020.
Leanne Kiernan rising above the opposition (David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)NOW THERE is another Irish prodigy at the club.
Leanne Kiernan spent her formative years in her home county of Cavan on a farm owned by her parents.
This was quite the contrast to her new London home she moved to on signing for West Ham United from Shelbourne in 2018. After her contract with the Hammers ended in 2021, Kiernan was signed to Liverpool where she has remained ever since.
Despite thriving at her new home, the Cavan-native experienced a setback at the 2022 WSL season opener against Chelsea where she picked up an ankle injury. The injury ultimately left Kiernan out of Liverpool’s matches for the remainder of the season as well as Ireland’s 2023 FIFA World Cup squad.
While unfortunate, Kiernan has been thriving since her return to club and international football. In February 2024, in her first game for Ireland since being injured, Kiernan scored against Italy before being deemed offside. In the summer of 2024, Kiernan also played an important part in Ireland’s 2025 Euro qualifiers making appearances against England, Sweden and France.
“My recovery wasn’t as smooth sailing as I would’ve hoped,” Kiernan told The Irish Post.
“I remember when the injury happened I thought it was going to be a few weeks, maybe three months max and it took about fifteen months until I was back on the pitch and then I missed about two or three months after that after my first game being back so it was probably about a year and a half which was mentally very challenging.
“I guess you don’t think about life that much when you’re in football because it makes me happy playing the game but when it’s taken away from you, I think you get to realise that you can’t take anything for granted. Especially being healthy and being able to train every day, I feel like it’s a very important thing to enjoy when you have it.”
As if by fate, Kiernan’s first goal with Liverpool post-recovery took place on St Patrick’s Day 2024.
Even more impressively, Kiernan was named player of the month by Liverpool’s main sponsor, Standard Chartered in June. In September, Kiernan affirmed that she would be staying with the club, announcing on social media that she had signed a new contract with Liverpool.
“I really enjoy it. Liverpool — as I said before in interviews —feels like home away from home. The city’s not too big which I like so you can kind of get around it by foot and I feel like there’s so much to it and so much history obviously with the Irish as well coming over so I feel like it’s a little bit of me.
“London was great at the time and it was very interesting going over there as an 18-year-old but it’s definitely been good.”
Ireland will be facing Georgia later this month in a bid to qualify for the 2025 Euros which, if successful, will be the first Irish women’s national team to feature at the tournament.
Kiernan expressed what this possibility means to her, “I’m really excited, it’s what we want, we want to get into these playoffs and we want to play and show Ireland that we deserve to go so I think Georgia will be a good fixture at home and I’m really looking forward to hopefully, getting my name on the scoresheet.”
On her pride in representing her country at international level she said, “Ireland’s very important to me and my family, I’m Irish through and through and it means a lot to me putting on the jersey so I’m really excited for the coming months because I feel like I can get my name on the scoresheet and get back into playing as well as I know I can in the Ireland jersey so it’s a very exciting time.”
Leanne Kiernan in action(Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
