I OFTEN wake up rather disorientated, unsure where I am or what day it is – and that's without a drop of alcohol having been consumed the night before. Not even any Champagne.
On Monday morning, for example, I emerged from a bizarre dream in which my beloved Liverpool had thrashed and humiliated arch-rivals Manchester United 7-0 (SEVEN. NIL.) in a game in which the visitors had come to Anfield cock-a-hoop and bursting with confidence about ending a seven-year wait for a victory at that illustrious venue.
Ridiculous, right? As the King of Wishful Thinking, Gary Neville, often says, 'This is Manchester United'.
Yet after the morning ritual of coffee and toast, and with the kids packed off to school, even having remembered my son's soccer kit, I was still unsure that it was actually a Monday.
Today, I knew in advance, is International Women's Day – yet my Monday emailbox was filling with different stories about developments, investment, and new competition in women's sport.
First up came the announcement that a football-focused leadership programme to boost progression across top level roles for women in Northern Ireland has been launched by the Irish FA, in partnership with Electric Ireland.
The latter are great backers of women's sport in general, now including camogie, and of women's soccer in particular, but this is another important boost.
An event to celebrate women and girls in boxing was held today:
Just over half an hour later it was revealed that the League of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Football League have agreed to introduce a 16-team all-island competition for women's soccer, commencing this summer.
Next up came the news that a trio representing the Republic of Ireland women's national football team has been chosen as Grand Marshals for the 2023 National St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Team Manager Vera Pauw, experienced defender Diane Caldwell and former international Paula Gorham will represent the team and lead out the national parade on Friday March 17.
Clearly women's soccer, the female element of the one truly global game, is booming, helped greatly on this island by Northern Ireland reaching the last Euros (in and won by England last summer) and their Republic of Ireland counterparts qualifying for the World Cup which will take place in Australia and New Zealand this autumn.
Yet it's not just soccer that is embracing its female side.
Another email arrived, outlining that Cricket Ireland has offered 23 women's central contracts for 2023, covering full-time, part-time and casual contracts. As part of the offers, five players will also receive multi-year contracts – Laura Delany, Gaby Lewis, Orla Prendergast, Leah Paul, and Arlene Kelly.
A Dublin GAA/ AIG media event set for today will again embrace all four main Gaelic Games codes, camogie and ladies football as well as hurling and men's football, endeavouring to give the female athletes the same exposure as their male counterparts have long enjoyed.
Very and Yoplait have come on board as sponsors for other camogie and ladies football competitions.
Of course, there are some events which are timed to mark International Women's Day.
The IABA (Irish Athletic Boxing Association) is launching a landmark drive to increase by 50 per cent the number of women qualified to coach boxing by the end of the year.
The '50:24' campaign, led by IABA Women in Sport and Inclusion Officer, Sophie Doolan, will see IABA fund and deliver the Fundamentals: Assistant Coach course to more than 90 women by next year. Fundamentals is the first step on the IABA's Coach Education pathway.
Despite the inspiration provided by Katie Taylor, and the achievements of the likes of Kellie Harrington and Michaela Walsh, at present, only one in eight boxing coaches in Ireland are women.
50:24 aims to increase the proportion of boxing coaches who are women, which will have an immediate impact in clubs throughout the IABA. It will also set these newly qualified coaches on the path to Level One: Club Coach and Level Two: Performance Coach qualifications.
Later today Golf Ireland's International Women's Day Event, supported by KPMG at Druids Glen Hotel and Golf Resort, involves three Irish female sporting greats: soccer star Stephanie Roche, Cork ladies football legend Valerie Mulcahy, and hockey's Nicola Daly.
At the very least, companies and sporting organisations recognise that not supporting women's sport, both financially and structurally, is a bad look.
More positively, many of them actively want to be involved in, and to help, women's sports. Not just for 'the optics', and not just because there are more women in positions of power and influence now.
Women is sport is becoming increasingly normalised, expected.
Why wouldn't women take part in any sport?
There's no doubt that some of the investments and announcement are timed to garner extra publicity in the lead-up to, and on, International Women's Day.
Yet it's also abundantly clear that women's sport is a major growth area, for both participation and spectating.
The Northern Ireland Women's Premiership is going professional, starting next month, with that upgrade in status having unfortunately been delayed for a year.
The promotion and publicity for the Ladies Gaelic Football Associaiton has been impressively professional in recent years.
Women's sport is booming. Get on board, any day of any week.
