{"id":629714,"date":"2026-09-19T16:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629714\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T16:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:14:13","slug":"irelands-aoife-dalton-on-growing-up-as-one-of-the-lads-and-winning-over-her-gaa-mad-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629714\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland&#8217;s Aoife Dalton on growing up as \u2018one of the lads\u2019 and winning over her GAA-mad dad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Growing up as the only girl with three younger brothers, Aoife Dalton learned fairly quickly how to hold her own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 23-year-old Ireland rugby star might now have an Olympics and a World Cup under her belt, but back home in Offaly, not all that much has changed.at <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her brothers, she laughs, still see her as \u2018one of the lads\u2019, but she reassures us that at the end of the day, they are her biggest fans!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Aoife-Dalton-5.jpg\" alt=\"aoife dalton\" class=\"wp-image-2198856\"  \/>Aoife Dalton. Pic: Ramsey Cardy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aoife spoke to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.evoke.ie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EVOKE<\/a> ahead of this year&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.world.rugby\/wxv\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">WXV Global Series<\/a>, where Ireland will take on USA at home here in Tallaght.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018I have three younger brothers,\u2019 Aoife admitted, saying there are some perks to being the only daughter in the family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018I\u2019m spoiled \u2014 I\u2019m the only girl, so I can\u2019t really complain! They are [protective] a bit, but they probably see me as one of the lads, to be fair.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her eldest brother Marcus is a devoted GAA man and, for a time, that was very much the sporting language of the Dalton household.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Aoife-Dalton-1.jpg\" alt=\"Aoife Dalton 1\" class=\"wp-image-2198860\"  \/>Aoife Dalton. Pic: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, Aoife\u2019s dad needed a little convincing when his daughter swapped Gaelic football for rugby. Laughing, she highlighted how this changed rather quickly when her talent led to an Ireland contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Looking back, she said, \u2018I think when I said I couldn\u2019t play anymore because I was getting a contract, that kind of made up for it,\u2019 she joked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, she says, her dad is a fully-fledged \u2018rugby diehard\u2019 who doesn\u2019t miss a game, even if GAA will always hold the number-one spot in his heart.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sports11.jpg\" alt=\"Ireland Women's Rugby Captain's Run. Pic: INPHO\/Ben Brady\" class=\"wp-image-2024809\"  \/>Ireland Women&#8217;s Rugby Captain&#8217;s Run. Pic: INPHO\/Ben Brady<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The whole family has been swept up in Aoife\u2019s rugby journey. Her brothers know her Irish teammates and immerse themselves fully in her match days. Her dad has found his own community among the other players\u2019 parents, with the away trips to watch their matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while pulling on an Ireland jersey may still feel surreal to Aoife, she knows exactly who will be watching when Ireland face the USA on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dad might just be the most nervous of them all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up as the only girl with three younger brothers, Aoife Dalton learned fairly quickly how to hold&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-629714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629714","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=629714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}