Amy Boyle-Carr has become the latest Donegal player to be called in to the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team - taking the county’s representation to four.
The Glenties woman has been named in a panel for a friendly double header against Portugal in January.
Boyle-Carr joins Amber Barrett, Roma McLaughlin and Tyler Toland in Colin Bell’s panel.
Boyle-Carr plays for Sion Swifts and had a superb 2017 season with the County Tyrone side.
Highly-rated by Bell, for whom she played for at Under-17 level, this is a first senior call up for Boyle-Carr, who has played for Donegal Town and Lagan Harps in the Donegal Women’s League.
The Ireland WNT have enjoyed a year to remember which was capped off by their historic draw against the European Champions, the Netherlands, to remain unbeaten in their qualifying campaign.
As well as the draw in Nijmegen, wins over Slovakia and Northern Ireland saw Ireland climb to 29th in the latest FIFA World Rankings, up four places, and claim the biggest points haul (48) worldwide in the month of November.
With the qualifying campaign set to continue with a double-header against Slovakia and the Netherlands in April at Tallaght Stadium, the WNT travel to the Azures for two international friendlies. Ireland will fly out on Monday, January 15 to face Portugal on January 18 & January 21 with kick-off times and venues yet to be confirmed.
“We’re delighted to be able to arrange these two friendlies against high-quality opposition such as Portugal,” said Bell.
“They qualified for the European Championships last summer and beat Ireland to a qualification spot in the last campaign so it’ll be a great test for us as we look to continue to improve in the New Year.
“The games will be a good chance to play some of the younger members of the squad as well. We’ve had a lot of young players come into the squad in recent months and its important to get those players the game-time they need to progress.”