Interview by Sam McMurdock
Casey McCabe, 21, has not had the easiest of lives, but thanks to the Irish Homeless Street Leagues (IHSL), an organisation that uses the power of sport to transform the lives of people affected by social exclusion, she has turned her life around – and now wants to help to change the lives of others.
McCabe grew up in a flat in Constitution Hill, Dublin, Ireland with an older sister and younger brother. She gravitated towards sport and in a bid to harness her energy and draw on that proclivity, her father sent her to a boxing club, which she enjoyed but found quite isolating.
At 14, McCabe’s mother, aware she was more partial to being part of a team, took her up to Home Farm FC in Whitehall after she heard that they were starting a girls’ football team.
This article first appeared in Ireland's Big Issue, a magazine sold on the streets of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by people who have limited other ways of earning an income.