Casey Howe: From Maguiresbridge to Celtic Star
From the narrow roads of Maguiresbridge to the bright lights of Celtic, Casey Howe has crammed a lot into 23 years. A Northern Ireland debut at 17, a treble with Glentoran, a move to Nottingham Forest, promotion with Wolves – each stop a step further from County Fermanagh, and closer to the elite level she always believed she could reach.
Now she is at one of the biggest clubs in Scottish women’s football, and already leaving a mark.
A left foot, a late winner, and a statement
On only her second appearance for Celtic, Howe announced herself. With the clock ticking into the 82nd minute against Montrose in the SWPL, the game still locked at 0-0, she drifted into space and wrapped her left foot around the ball. A curling finish, a broken deadlock, and the first goal in an eventual 3-0 win.
For a player who still talks about being “just a young girl from Maguiresbridge”, it was a moment that felt a long way from home – and yet built on every mile she and her family have already travelled.
Those miles were relentless. Her parents drove her to Ballinamallard, Cookstown and Belfast four or five times a week as she climbed through the youth ranks, chasing better training, better opposition, better chances.
“They wanted to give me the best platform to be the best I can,” she said, reflecting on the hours in the car and the fuel bills that came with them. Without that, she knows, Barrowfield and Celtic Park would have remained distant dreams.
A journey built on sacrifice
The path was not glamorous. It was long roads, late nights, and early starts. But it built a forward who kept moving up.
Linfield. Glentoran. Sligo Rovers. Each club another layer of experience. Then came Athlone Town, where a prolific spell in the League of Ireland Women’s Premier Division pushed her firmly onto radars across the water. A move to England followed, with Nottingham Forest and then Wolves, where she tasted promotion.
Now the green and white hoops. Now a club and a set-up she believes can stretch every part of her game.
“I think as a player, you're always looking to develop in any training session,” she said. At Celtic, she feels that push every day. The tactical detail has gone up a level, the demands sharper, the expectations higher as the squad adapts to how head coach Grant Scott wants them to play.
Freedom in the final third
What really fits Howe, though, is Celtic’s intent. This is an attacking team, built to go forward, and she thrives in that chaos.
“We're trying to play a nice attacking brand of football,” she explained. For a winger or forward who loves to run at defenders, that is the dream: free-flowing, front-foot football, with license to be brave.
She contrasts it with more rigid systems she has known before, where every movement was prescribed and rehearsed, where spontaneity was squeezed out.
Here, she can drift into different areas, alter her runs, drive at opponents. The constant interchanging makes Celtic harder to read and harder to stop – and, crucially for Howe, it tells her she is trusted.
That trust builds confidence. Confidence feeds performances. Performances bring goals like the one against Montrose.
Carrying Fermanagh with her
For all the new surroundings, the connection to home remains strong. Howe knows exactly how hard it can be for a young girl in Fermanagh to even get to a decent pitch, never mind a professional club.
“I think sometimes it's hard because being from Fermanagh you don't necessarily have the facilities on your doorstep,” she said. The travel she once did, many still do. Long journeys just to train, to play, to be seen.
She believes those sacrifices are worth it. Winning, she says, makes every late-night drive feel justified. But she also knows not everyone has the same support she did. That’s why she talks so often about leaving the game in a better place.
A bigger picture: club, country, legacy
Celtic is the here and now. Titles to chase, cups to win, big games to influence. Yet Howe’s ambitions stretch far beyond Glasgow.
Her 14 caps for Northern Ireland are only the start. She wants to help carry on the momentum built by the national team in recent years, to ensure that when she eventually hangs up her boots, the shirt is in a stronger position than when she first pulled it on.
“I want to leave the Northern Ireland shirt in a better place than when I came in,” she said. That idea of legacy drives her, both internationally and at club level.
It also extends to the girls watching from Fermanagh, from across Northern Ireland, and from elsewhere in the UK and Ireland. If her journey – those car rides, those moves, that goal in green and white – can convince even a handful of them that there is a path for them too, she will count that as a win.
“If I can leave women's football in Northern Ireland, in Scotland, in England that 1% better than when I joined it – that's a win for me,” she said. If that inspires the next girl from a small town to keep going, that’s “good enough” for her.
From Ballinamallard United to Barrowfield, from treble wins at home to testing herself at Celtic, Howe has already covered a lot of ground. But with trophies still to chase, a Northern Ireland legacy still to build, and a new generation watching every touch, her journey feels like it’s only just hitting its stride.
