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Fans in Croke Park Liam Murphy/Alamy
Women's Sport
For the women in Croke Park, Katie Taylor's biggest night of all is more than a boxing match
Women outside Croke Park today know exactly how much this night means.
THE SCENES AROUND Croke Park today ahead of Katie Taylor’s historic boxing match were jovial, emotional and all-round great craic.
But when The Journal started speaking to people in Drumcondra, one theme firmly stuck out the most: for women, tonight is much bigger than a single boxing match.
During the months and years of speculation about whether this event would happen at all, it inevitably sparked conversations about the importance of a night like this for women in sport.
The last person to box in Croke Park was Muhammed Ali; tonight the sport returns to the stadium but with a woman at the top of the bill. The significance of this is not lost on those enjoying the sun around the stadium this evening.
Stepping out of Drumcondra train station, it was immediately obvious just how many women bought tickets and turned up tonight.
Groups of women of all ages dominated the streets, wearing Katie Taylor hats, t-shirts and decked out in Ireland jerseys.
Every single one The Journal spoke immediately remarked on what a big night this is, not just for women’s sport but for Irish women in general.
Sisters Niamh and Laura Quigely talked about how much Taylor has done for women in sport.
They both play Camogie and football, have watched Taylor throughout her career and said “it’s a great day to be Irish”.
The sisters said Taylor’s humility and appreciation of the support she gets makes women feel like they can achieve their goals as well. The night was already giving them goosebumps when we spoke.
Women of various generations could be seen wandering around the shops and pubs as lots of have made the night a family occasion.
June Mulcahy and her daughter Lily said they saw Taylor when she became the first woman to headline in Madison Square Garden in 2022.
June said they “couldn’t miss” Taylor’s last fight, and she’s a “super role model” for young girls in Ireland.
And it wasn’t just the women that The Journal spoke to that recognised the scale of the occasion, every single man we spoke to remarked on Taylor’s impact on women’s sport.
Several mentioned how instrumental she’s been in normalising and promoting women’s boxing and how there is now a generation of women who have grown up knowing they can be stars on sport’s world stage.
Éanna Greene said he remembers Taylor and her father Pete in the boxing gym he worked in years ago “watching boys boxing”.
Greene said Taylor “pushed out the boundaries” and made boxing for women “the biggest thing ever”.
Katie Taylor is one of our most decorated and celebrated athletes ever, but she is also the one that shattered one of the most persistent glass ceilings.
Never again can people claim that the public just ‘doesn’t want to watch’ women’s sport because there are now over 80,000 arguments to disprove that.
The palpable emotion from the people around Croke Park this afternoon has been intensified by the scale of this occasion and amid the craic there was a real acknowledgement of how special today is.
Thousands of women around Ireland will see Katie Taylor headline a sold-out Croke Park, not only proving that people care about women’s sport but also that they are willing to spend their time and money on it.
Gone are the days when claims that women’s sport doesn’t pull a crowd held any validity (if they ever did).
We saw and spoke to that crowd today, and they conclusively said it’s about time that argument was put to bed.
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