Galway W.F.C.

Galway Women's Football Club (Irish: Cumann Peile Ghaillimh na mBan) is an Irish association football club based in Galway. Since 2013–14 the club has played in the Women's National League. The club is closely associated with both the Galway Ladies League and the Galway Football Association. The WNL team has its origins in the Galway Ladies League representative team that won the 2007 FAI Women's Cup and then represented the Republic of Ireland in the 2008–09 UEFA Women's Cup. The Galway Ladies League and its member clubs, such as Salthill Devon, Galway Bohemians, Colga F.C. and NUI Galway, are a feeder system for Galway W.F.C.

History

2000s

During the 2000s, representative teams of women's leagues began to enter the FAI Women's Cup. In 2006 a team representing the Galway Ladies League were semi-finalists, losing after extra time and penalties to UCD. A team representing the Mayo Ladies League subsequently defeated UCD in the final. In 2007 the Galway Ladies League reached the final with a team that included Niamh Fahey, Meabh De Burca and Julie-Ann Russell. All three were also playing for Salthill Devon. On 14 October 2007 at Dalymount Park, Galway defeated a Raheny United team that included Niamh Reid Burke and Olivia O'Toole. Fahey's penalty in the 75th minute gave the Galway Girls a 1–0 win. In 2008 Galway were FAI Women's Cup semi-finalists, losing 2–1 to Peamount United. In 2009 they were beaten 3–2 in the second round by St. Catherine's.

2008–09 UEFA Women's Cup

As a result of winning the 2007 FAI Women's Cup, Galway qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland in the 2008–09 UEFA Women's Cup. They were drawn in Group A9 along with Zurich, Universitet Vitebsk and SFK Sarajevo. The competition format saw Galway travel to Sarajevo in September 2008 to play in a mini-tournament to decide who would progress to the next round. With a squad that included Meabh De Burca and Julie-Ann Russell, Galway finished second after bea