{"id":210228,"date":"2025-12-25T12:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/210228\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T12:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:45:09","slug":"ireland-star-celebrates-special-occasion-with-girlfriend-after-memorable-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/210228\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland star celebrates special occasion with girlfriend after memorable year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cork native has established himself as an important Premier League player\"JakeJake O’Brien and his partner Sophie Lawlor(Image: Instagram)<\/p>\n

Everton FC defender Jake O’Brien and his partner Sophie Lawlor have enjoyed a memorable 2025, welcoming their first child and marking several special milestones. The celebrations continued as Sophie marked her birthday just days before Christmas.<\/p>\n

Taking to Instagram, Jake<\/a> shared a touching family photograph, writing: “Happy birthday and thank you for everything. Love you lots.”<\/p>\n

The Cork<\/a> native made the switch to the Toffees last summer from French club Lyon. Sophie, also from Cork, is a makeup and fashion influencer. The pair have been in a relationship for over four years, having known each other since they were children.<\/p>\n

They announced they were expecting their first baby together in February, reports the Liverpool Echo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to All About Cork earlier this year, Sophie dispelled any misconceptions about her seemingly glamorous lifestyle, revealing: “People don’t see the boring Monday-to-Friday life. Yes, we’re lucky in many ways.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had amazing holidays and great experiences. But day-to-day, I’m walking the dogs, cleaning the house, getting ready for visitors. Because we live away, we have family over nearly every second weekend. It’s lovely, but it can be full-on.<\/p>\n

“It sounds glamorous, and sometimes it is, but the day-to-day can be really hard. Jake might only get a day or two off when the baby’s born, then he’s back to training and there’s a match at the weekend. That’s just our reality.”<\/p>\n

In August, a post was shared announcing the birth of their first child. The message read: “Greyson Thomas O’Brien. Our world.”<\/p>\n

A subsequent post featured O’Brien in his Everton hoodie gazing at the baby, captioned “blessed.”<\/p>\n

At that time, O’Brien expressed: “What a 24 hours.. Yesterday morning we welcomed Greyson into our world (23\/08\/25). Finishing with 3pts and a clean sheet in the HD stadium debut. Appreciate all the support UTT.”<\/p>\n

O’Brien’s initial stint at Everton was marked by frustration, with only 34 minutes of Premier League play to his name as Christmas approached last year. A managerial switch in mid-January saw David Moyes bring O’Brien off the bench in his first game back at the helm of the Blues.<\/p>\n

Recently, O’Brien spoke for the Official Matchday Programme ahead of the Blues’ home game against Arsenal last weekend. He stated: “I’m happy to be part of the team. When you’re not playing, it’s difficult to enjoy it because you don’t feel part of it.<\/p>\n

“As long as you’re playing and for me, even if that’s at right-back, then you’re still going to get up to speed with it and keep improving because you’re out on the pitch. Of course, eventually I’d love to go back to play centre-back week-in, week-out, but as long as I’m playing, I’m going to be happy.”<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cork native has established himself as an important Premier League playerJake O’Brien and his partner Sophie Lawlor(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46,88895,109635,61,60,43,57383,57217,79974,79975],"class_list":["post-210228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork","tag-everton-fc","tag-everton-football-club","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-football-team","tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","tag-republic-of-ireland-soccer","tag-republic-of-ireland-soccer-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}