The mother and daughter who helped break the mould in Irish football

Joe Walsh, The Eagles' hard-living guitarist, once said: "You know, there's a philosopher who says, as you live your life, it appears to be anarchy and chaos, and random events, non-related events, smashing into each other and causing this situation or that situation, and then, this happens, and it's overwhelming, and it just looks like, what in the world is going on? And later, when you look back at it, it looks like a finely crafted novel."

In The Story Of The Republic of Ireland Women's Team, World Cup qualification is the triumphant final chapter. There's a lot of pages, and a lot of stories, that lead us to Amber Barrett's famous toe-poked winner in the play-off against Scotland.

The international women's team played their first game in 1973. In those early days, when Ireland lined out in front of tiny crowds to little fanfare, there could be no sense of what was to come. But those players' feats form the DNA that's helped to build Vera Pauw's current team.

After Ireland had qualified for this summer's World Cup, Pauw said: "We stand on the shoulders of the previous generations." And of course they do.

Earlier this week some ex-players gathered at the Davenport Hotel in Dublin to mark the FAI's 50th anniversary celebration of the formation of the women's team. Among them were Jackie McCarthy-O'Brien and her daughter Sam.

They are the first, and so far only, mother and daughter to represent the Republic of Ireland soccer team.

An infectiously charismatic pair, they bubbled with pride as they sat down to reflect on their achievements.

First, there is Jackie's journey.

Born in Birmingham to a Jamaican father and a Limerick mother, she was brought to Ireland when she was six months old.

It was the 1960s, a time when the country