PHOTOS Jackie McCarthy O’Brien shares her incredible life story with the launch of ‘We Made It, Kid’

Limerick sporting legend Jackie McCarthy O’Brien launched her memoir “We Made It, Kid’ at O’Mahonys Bookstore Limerick on Tuesday, October 7th, 2025. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

Limerick sporting legend Jackie McCarthy O’Brien launches her memoir ‘We Made It, Kid’ at a special event in O’Mahony’s Booksellers on Tuesday, October 7

Limerick legend Jackie McCarthy O’Brien has officially launched her memoir, ‘We Made It, Kid,’ sharing her extraordinary life story on and off the pitch.

‘We Made It, Kid’ was released on October 2 with an official launch event on Tuesday, October 7, at O’Mahony’s Booksellers to a gathering of family, friends, and supporters.

Born in Birmingham in 1961 to an Irish Mother and Jamaican father, Jackie grew up in Limerick after spending her early years in an industrial school. She was put in an industrial school as a baby by a priest for being an “illegitimate” black child and was not recovered by her mother until she was five.

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As a teen, she excelled at sports and played for Ireland in soccer, but when she was sexually harassed by a coach, she changed to the Irish Rugby team. She got married at 21 before accepting her sexual feelings for women, and leaving the marriage with her three young children. Always a hilarious raconteur, this memoir tells her extraordinary story up until becoming a TikTok star and LGBTQ+ icon in her sixties.

Speaking with I Love Limerick about the launch of her memoir, Jackie said it was a “surreal” moment for her. She told Richard Lynch, “I came into Limerick last Thursday, walked up the streets of Limerick and wow, what an amazing sight to look at the window of O’Mahony’s and see little Jackie…

“But just to see the window full of the books. I grew up here in Limerick, coming in to watch Paul O’Connell sign his book or Brian Driscoll or Keith Hers, all my heroes. I never imagined that one day it would be my book on that window, being a 12-year-old dyslexic kid who left school. But it was a story that needed to come from me, and truth be told, it was a healing journey for me, first and foremost.”

Jackie explained how she wrote the story for herself, but during the process she sat at her kitchen table “writing these little stories”, which she says was a way of “paying homage to my mom and dad, the people of Limerick”.

She said the process made her look at the good and the bad memories, saying, “It wasn’t all sweetness and roses, but those parts are the parts that I needed to heal from and to put it on paper, put it in a book for me. Little did I know that one day the whole of Limerick would be reading it.”

Grateful for the support she received on the evening, and the prospect of so many reading her book, Jackie said, “ I’m looking there tonight and I see so many faces I know, and there are stories in there they don’t know about. They don’t know how I feel because I took humour as a sense of covering up the pain or the anguish or the loneliness that I felt. So they know ‘happy Jackie’.

“ And that’s down to me. I’ve done that; not them. They’re gonna pick up a book and read it, and it’s going to be a, ‘Geez, I didn’t know that happened,’ and ‘Oh my God, she felt that way.’ And I suppose until I can do that and get it out there, I can’t move forward because I’ll keep going back to that trauma, that past.”

The former Ireland soccer and rugby international said the book isn’t “all trauma”, she said, “ There’s some ridiculously funny stories about my dad, even in his death, and you know, I idolised him and my mom, our relationship and how it developed from the start in life to the end.”

Jackie says the book is “an homage” to her parents and a look back on her life in sport and beyond, “To say ‘thanks mom and dad,’ and it’s a look back at little Jackie that was told she’d never make anything of herself.”

“If I could put my arm around little Jackie, because that picture in the book, and I can see the sadness in that child’s eyes. And years ago, when I started to heal, I remember embracing Jackie and going, ‘It’s okay. We made it, kid,’ as only Limerick people can do.”

Jackie was married at the age of 21 before accepting her sexual feelings towards women and coming out later in life, saying she always wanted to be accepted for who she was growing up.

 ”I was everything to everyone to try and fit in,” she said, “Whether it’s the soccer, the rugby, being funny, doing that stuff so that they go, ‘Oh, Jackie’s really nice,’ and stop seeing this. That’s what I want. Stop seeing me for this, see it and say it’s beautiful. Or saying nothing at all.

“But it was like, ‘Why are you black? Why are you this?’ It was easy being gay in the end because like I had done it on all the black stuff. I’m like, I’m not fighting it again. I’m just going to be me. I’m out. End of story.”

We Made It, Kid: Living Life in Full Colour is available now in bookstores nationwide and online. Jacqueline “Jackie” McCarthy O’Brien is a former Irish International and rugby player. She played forward for Republic of Ireland women’s national football team. McCarthy O’Brien represented Ireland 13 times each in soccer (1981-1993) and rugby (1994-1998). She was the country’s first mixed-race player in both games. A vocal advocate against racism, in 2021, she appeared on the Claire Byrne show speaking on the subject. She is openly gay and has participated in Limerick Pride events. Her daughter Sam McCarthy is also a football player.

Pictures: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick