Rough Girls

’Football is all very well as a game for Rough Girls but it is hardly suitable for delicate boys.’Oscar Wilde

The making of Belfast’s first all-female football team.

This is the untold story of the Belfast women who stepped onto a pitch in society-shocking shorts and footie boots, a ball at their feet and a point to prove. They were the suffragettes of soccer. Rebels with a ball, who kept kicking their way through the outraged defence of a male-dominated game to raise thousands for those returning from war. Set in Belfast 1917 - 1921 in a city divided by war but still united by sport, the play chronicles the courage and determination of those girls.

This original Belfast story based on true events will resonate with the history of the city and chime with the recent equality movements across the sports industry and the cultural sector. This ambitious, large-scale play features an impressive eleven strong female ensemble with live music creating the heartbeat of the city at the time.

This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre in September 2021.

Tara Lynne O’Neil was born and is based in Belfast. Most recently Tara Lynne appeared in the Lyric’s production of The Nativity: What the Donkey Saw. Tara was last seen on stage in Shirley Valentine at the Lyric Theatre. She can also now be seen as Ma Mary in the highly successful Derry Girls. Tara Lynne’s theatre credits include: The Hypochondriac (Lyric), Somewhere Over the Balcony (Balcony Productions), Educating Rita (Lyric), Liverpool Boat (Queens Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bruiser Theatre) and Jane Eyre, Of Mice and Men and Sarah in Translations (Lyric). As a writer, Tara Lynne has recently had her play Rough Girls commissioned by the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.