Amber Barrett: Creeslough messages gave me perspective

In the days following her winning goal against Scotland, Amber Barrett received messages from some of the relatives of those who died at the service station explosion in Creeslough, Co Donegal.

Barrett's memorable effort at Hampden Park sent the Republic of Ireland to the World Cup, but there was a poignancy to the moment, which the 26-year-old later dedicated to "those ten beautiful souls who unfortunately perished".

Creeslough is the village where Barrett's grandparents were born; a place she spent childhood summers and Christmases.

Sorrow hung like a cloud over her golden goal but it helped, she says, to put the achievement in perspective.

"It did take me a few days to get back to a lot of the messages," said Barrett, speaking to the press after the World Cup draw that pitted Ireland against co-hosts Australia, Canada and Nigeria.

"Speaking to the family at home, they were saying in Donegal there was a buzz around for what had happened on the Tuesday night but also the badness, of course, of Creeslough. Still the county is reeling from what happened.

"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 kind of caught me off guard. Because you don’t expect when people are going through such a terrible time to 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 gave some uplift to the community. I’m told it did, but you know, 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."

With Ireland