A community centre hall in Inchicore in Dublin 8 isn’t the most likely place to find some of the country’s talented athletes preparing for a World Cup, but then there’s never been anything typical about roller derby.
Although the full contact sport played on quad roller skates has shaken off its reputation for spectacle, quirky names and theatrical costumes to become recognised as a legitimate sport, its DIY ethos and “by the skaters for the skaters” mantra endures.
The Roller Derby World Cup 2025, beginning next Thursday, will see a record number of 48 teams and thousands of spectators from across the globe descend on the town of Innsbruck in Austria. It will be the second time Team Ireland captain Elaine Snowden, a 12-year veteran of the sport, has donned the green jersey, having competed in the 2018 World Cup when Ireland took a respectable 14th place, punching above its weight given its small size and scant funding. Alongside her will be 19 of the country’s top roller derby players.
Founded in the United States by Leo Seltzer during the Depression era, roller derby initially involved a roller-skating marathon on a banked track. The sport became hugely popular in the late 1930s, with Seltzer taking the travelling event to more than 50 American cities and five million fans. However, when the US entered the second World War, the sport declined in popularity and seesawed in and out of fashion in the decades that followed before fading into obscurity. Roller derby returned as a sort of punk rock DIY sport in Austin, Texas, around the turn of the century.
The game consists of two teams, each with five skaters who compete on a flat, oval track in a series of two-minute timed plays called “jams”. One player from each team, known as the jammer and identifiable by the star on their helmet, attempts to lap the opposing team’s skaters, known as the blockers. The role of the blocker is to stop the opposing jammer from passing, by using a series of shoulder, hip and body blocks and hits. The game is fast, physical and a lot of fun.
Under the moniker Marilyn Monroadkill, I spent half of my 20s skating around London sports halls as a member of the London Rockin’ Rollers, before a series of injuries – including a broken ankle and slipped disc – forced me into a reluctant early retirement.
The sport had reached a global audience thanks to the 2009 movie Whip It, staring Drew Barrymore and Elliot Page. Although an exaggerated and comic depiction of the sport – in real life, punching opposing players would most certainly land you in the penalty box if not a jail cell – the film introduced a new generation to the joys of skating fast and hitting hard.
As someone who had actively avoided any organised sports as though they were radioactive, discovering that I could get fit on roller skates while wearing fishnets and smoky eyeliner appealed to my inner 1990s riot grrrl. Most of my team-mates were of a similar background, a motley crew of punks and athletic misfits with shared experience of being the last one picked on school sports’ day.
As the game grew in popularity again in the 2010s, competitiveness ramped up and the focus turned to skill, technique and strength. These days, the emphasis is more on fitness than fishnets. In 2020 roller derby was one of eight sports considered by the Olympic Committee for inclusion in the games and, although it didn’t make the final cut, the recognition cemented its position as a competitive sport played by top level athletes.
Like Snowden, Ashley Lowcock has been playing roller derby since 2012, first in Vancouver, Canada, and since 2014 has been a player and head coach of Dublin Roller Derby, as well as a current member of the Team Ireland squad. Sport had always been a part of Lowcock’s life; she played ice hockey and football at school.
“When I first saw roller derby in Kingston, I couldn’t believe it was real,” she says. “It looked like so much fun, and I couldn’t wait to try it.”
An average week for Snowden, who works as a marketing designer for a children’s educational app, includes multiple two-hour training sessions with Dublin as well as solo gym workouts where she focuses on weightlifting, endurance and cardio. Weekends frequently involve travelling for games or intensive boot camp-style training sessions with Team Ireland. Snowden is one of the team’s jammers – a position that requires speed, agility and a complete lack of fear. Is she nervous about injuries?
“I’ve been fortunate,” she says. “The only thing I’ve broken playing derby are a few fingers.”
Although an amateur sport, the commitment required is akin to that of a professional athlete. And that’s before we get to the admin. In Ireland, roller derby is entirely skater run and skater managed, and everybody is assigned additional jobs to ensure the smooth running of operations. Lowcock’s role as head coach with Dublin involves prepping training plans, strategies, and developing drills with the team. Other skaters look after insurance, booking flights and accommodation for away games, finding training halls and fundraising.
For Team Ireland, raising funds is a constant battle; almost all costs involved in training and participating are paid by the skaters themselves. Although the team received some sponsorship from a US-based uniform company in 2018, the company folded during the pandemic and the team are currently without a sponsor. A GoFundMe page has been set up, but the costs of sending 20 players and four coaches to Austria quickly adds up, and the sum raised won’t offset much of the final bill. The team receives no local or Government funding either, despite the fact that they are representing their country on the international stage.
It might seem intimidating, but it’s actually very inclusive and welcoming
In countries like France, government funding for the sport is widespread. In the US, where skating is more established and profitable, some skaters receive sponsorship deals that allow them to give up jobs and focus on skating full time. The US won each of the last four world cups.
The costs involved are also partly responsible for the decline in leagues around Ireland. Given roller derby’s relative obscurity, insurance companies are reluctant to provide cover and most of the Irish leagues previously availed of insurance via a British company. However, following the Brexit referendum, insurance companies began to rethink coverage to leagues based outside Britain and ended their relationship.
“The alternative was to obtain coverage in Ireland, at approximately 10-times the cost of our previous policies, or to skate without insurance,” Snowden says. But without insurance, it’s impossible to rent halls or to practice or stage games. Many leagues were forced to fold.
Dublin remains the largest league in the country and will be represented on Team Ireland by 13 players. Three hail from Belfast Roller Derby and others, like Orla Fitzpatrick who will represent Ireland for the first time in Innsbruck, play for leagues in England and Scotland and travel back and forth to Ireland for training sessions.
Originally from Belfast, Fitzpatrick, who works as a locum doctor, confesses that the move to Manchester just more than a year ago was not so much a career decision, but a roller derby one. Manchester’s Rainy City Roller Derby, where Fitzpatrick skates as a blocker, are currently the number one ranked league in Europe.
Hard work and athletic excellence aside, roller derby hasn’t lost its fun factor, or abandoned its theatrical roots. While some skaters including Snowden, Lowcock and Fitzpatrick use their own name on the track, they’re joined by skaters who prefer to use their chosen nicknames like “Malice in Chains” and “Cardinal Spin”. It’s all about what makes a player comfortable, an ethos at the very heart of the sport. Ask any skater what they love about roller derby, and you’ll hear mentions of community and belonging. The sport has long been synonymous with acceptance and was built on the spirit of inclusivity. Regardless of age, body type, gender or background, skaters are made to feel welcome and supported – there’s a position for everyone, and most leagues will work with you while you figure out what that is.
“It might seem intimidating,” says Lowcock, “but it’s actually very inclusive and welcoming.”
With just days to go until Team Ireland take to the track, they are in the final stages of preparation. How do they feel?
“Proud,” Fitzpatrick says. Pride, like inclusive, is a word that comes up repeatedly when talking to these powerhouse skaters. “I’m still in disbelief that I’m going to the World Cup. I just want to play as well as I can and keep up. And show the world that there is a strong Irish presence.”
