AS a radio presenter and female sports reporter, Amy Irons has been on the receiving end of a fair amount of social media trolling. The presenter from BBC Scotland’s The Nine, observes, “As a woman, certainly, you receive trolling. It can be based more on your looks. It still seems too easy to judge us women on what we wear or how we look and that’s certainly something I have endured online over the years.”

The subject of the climate on social media for women will be one of many football-related topics discussed at our second Cool Conversations, which takes place on April 18 at the Edinburgh Grand, chaired by Gordon Smith, and featuring Si Ferry, presenter of Open Goal, Jacqui Low, chairman of Partick Thistle and Joelle Murray Scottish international footballer. Irons says her way of dealing with trolling, beyond reporting tweets or blocking people, is to talk it over with those close to her, and “try to ignore it”. “I know that’s easier said than done,” she says.

But that became harder last year, when Irons lost a key person she had turned to at those times. In June 2018 her boyfriend, Wayne Ewer took his own life. In the aftermath, she was open about the impact of the loss on her and its effect on her own mental health, and since then she has become a voice for suicide prevention and also support for bereaved families.

Si Ferry talks football in our latest Cool Conversations

At that time she was also shocked to find that, among the messages of support, there were comments out there on articles, and Facebook which were cruel. “There were some horrible messages,” she says, “trying to place blame or nasty things. It really was getting me very upset and I just felt I wanted to write back and get really angry with these people. But then I had a moment when I thought, what does this achieve.”

One of the things she still thinks of, at times like these was a line that Ewer used to say to her. “Wayne used to say, ‘Just ignore it and remember the tallest trees catch the most wind.’”

She is, she says, more able to deal with nasty comments now. “I think if I can ignore comments about my boyfriend’s suicide then I can certainly ignore comments about what my dress looks like. It puts everything in perspective. Losing Wayne has definitely changed the way I think about things, because before I used to look into every single comment and be quite self-critical, whereas I think when you go through something so tragic, things that like in life become quite irrelevant and not a big a deal."

Irons did her final show as host on Capital's breakfast show last Friday – and it was, she says, “tears all round”. She recalls that from early childhood she always wanted to be in the media. Recently she came across an old Primary 7 yearbook, in which she said she hoped in twenty years time she would be "a presenter or have won the lottery". As daughter of Davie Irons, a football legend who played for and managed Gretna, Irons has a knowledge about football that comes from having been on the inside. Football was in her life “in every single way” for as long as she can remember. “It was on the television, in the house,” she says. “It was all the talk in the family because my dad was a player and then a manager and I have five brothers so whenever I wanted to do anything it always involved playing football with my brothers. Football was very much forced upon me from a young age.”

Irons was keen on the game though. She played not only at school, but also at university, where she was the only woman in five-a-side games. “I’ve been used to playing against guys which I think makes me even more competitive. “

As a sports reporter, she knows what it is to have worked in a very male-dominated environment. “It doesn’t really phase me now,” she says. “But in a professional sense it was quite daunting when I started doing any sport reporting just because it was new for me to go into these press conferences and events that were so dominated by men and who were used to familiar faces week in, week out and all of a sudden you’re a new female coming into the fold. It can be quite intimidating and daunting when you first start out.”

The vast majority of the men she dealt with, she observes, were “friendly and welcoming”, but there was always the occasional person who would make a comment. “I’ve had people ask me, ‘What do you know about football?’ Or say, ‘I’m surprised they’ve sent you.’ I’ve had people who question why I would be there and make some sexist remarks and comments, but you can’t really take note of it or let it affect you.”

With The Nine, though, she believes Scotland is delivering news reporting with gender balance at the heart of it. She enthuses about the growth of women’s sport. “When you look at just how much women’s sport it growing, not just in Scotland but across the world. The Scottish women’s football team qualified for their first ever world cup this year. We’re going to a world cup when the men’s team are far from it at the moment. And, on The Nine, we’re very keen to cover as many sports as we can and make sure everything is balanced and fair. The more that you give women’s sports coverage then the more that it will feed to make the sports grow."

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