Ireland made her television debut in 1992 when she made a guest appearance on the Australian television series "Police Rescue". What followed was a number of guesting roles on television series such as "A Country Practice", "Water Rats" and "Murder Call", to name but a few and the feature films "Dallas Dolls" in 1994, which was her film debut; "", "Floating Life", "Idiot Box" and "Thank God He Met Lizzie", with Cate Blanchett; all of which she appeared in throughout the nineties.