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Tag Archives: Republic of Ireland National Football Team


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Founding of the Football Association of Ireland

The Football Association of Ireland (Irish: Cumann Peile na hÉireann), the governing body for association football in the Republic of Ireland, is founded on September 2, 1921.

In the 19th century, association football outside of Ulster is largely confined to Dublin and a few provincial towns. The British Army teams play a role in the spread of the game to these areas, especially in Munster, as local clubs are initially reliant on them to form opposition teams, leading to the nickname “the garrison game.” Association football is played in relatively few Catholic schools as middle-class schools favour rugby union while others favour Gaelic games. The Irish Football Association (IFA) had been founded in 1880 in Belfast as the football governing body for the whole of Ireland, which was then a part of the United Kingdom and considered a Home Nation. The Leinster Football Association was an affiliate, founded in 1892 to foster the game in Leinster, outside of the Ulster heartlands. This was followed by the establishment of the Munster Football Association in 1901.

By 1913, the Leinster FA becomes the largest divisional association within the IFA, displacing the North East Ulster Football Association, yet all but two clubs in the 1913–14 Irish League are based in Ulster. While this largely reflects the balance of footballing strength within Ireland, southern members feel the IFA is doing little to promote the game outside of the professional clubs in its northern province. In the other provinces, association football is also under pressure from the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), which has banned members from playing or watching the sport as it is considered a “foreign” game. Furthermore, there is a growing feeling in Dublin of alleged Belfast bias when it comes to hosting matches and player selection for internationals. This view is not helped by the composition of the IFA’s sub-committees, with over half of the membership consisting of delegates hailing from the North-East, and the International Committee, who chooses the national team, containing just one member from Leinster. The Belfast members are mainly unionist, while the Dublin members are largely nationalist. World War I increases the gulf between the northern teams and the clubs in the south as the Irish League is suspended and replaced by regional leagues, foreshadowing the ultimate split. Tensions are then exacerbated by the Irish War of Independence of 1919–21, which disrupts contact between northern and southern clubs further and prevents resumption of the Irish League. The security situation prompts the IFA to order the March 1920-21 Irish Cup semi-final replay between Glenavon and Shelbourne to be replayed in Belfast, rather than in Dublin as convention dictates. This proves to be the final straw and the Leinster FA confirms their decision to disaffiliate from the IFA at a meeting on June 8, 1921.

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is formed in Dublin on September 2, 1921, by the Leinster FA. The Free State League (originally the Football League of Ireland and now the League of Ireland) is founded in June of that year when the Leinster FA withdraws from the IFA. This is the climax of a series of disputes about the alleged Belfast bias of the IFA. Both bodies initially claim to represent the entire island. The split between Southern Ireland (which becomes the Irish Free State in December 1922) and Northern Ireland (which comes into existence as a jurisdiction in 1921) does not produce a split in the governing bodies of other sports, such as the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). The Munster Football Association, originally dominated by British Army regiments, falls into abeyance on the outbreak of World War I, and is re-established in 1922 with the help of the FAI, to which it affiliates. The Falls League, based in the Falls Road of nationalist West Belfast, affiliates to the FAI, and from there Alton United wins the FAI Cup in 1923. However, when the FAI applies to join FIFA in 1923, it is admitted as the Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS) based on a 26-county jurisdiction. (This jurisdiction remains, although Derry City, from Northern Ireland, are given an exemption, by agreement of FIFA and the IFA, to join the League of Ireland in 1985.) Attempts at reconciliation followed. At a 1923 meeting, the IFA rejects an FAIFS proposal for it to be an autonomous subsidiary of the FAIFS. A 1924 meeting in Liverpool, brokered by the English FA, almost reaches agreement on a federated solution, but the IFA insists on providing the chairman of the International team selection committee. A 1932 meeting agrees on sharing this role, but founders when the FAIFS demands one of the IFA’s two places on the International Football Association Board (IFAB). Further efforts to reach agreement are made through a series of conferences between the IFA and FAI from 1973 to 1980 during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The IFA does not feel obliged to refrain from selecting Free State players for its international team. The name Football Association of Ireland is readopted by the FAIFS in 1936, in anticipation of the change of the state’s name in the pending Constitution of Ireland, and the FAI begins to select players from Northern Ireland based on the Constitution’s claim to sovereignty there. A number of players play for both the FAI “Ireland” (against FIFA members from mainland Europe) and the IFA “Ireland” (in the British Home Championship, whose members had withdrawn from FIFA in 1920). Shortly after the IFA rejoins FIFA in 1946, the FAI stops selecting Northern players. The IFA stops selecting southern players after the FAI complains to FIFA in 1950.

From the late 1960s, association football begins to achieve more widespread popularity. Donogh O’Malley, TD and then Minister for Education, begins a new programme of state-funded schools in 1966, many with association football pitches and teams. The Gaelic Athletic Association’s ban on members playing “foreign” games is lifted in 1971.  RTÉ television, founded in 1962, and British television (available nearly everywhere on cable or microwave relay from the 1970s), broadcast association football regularly. Above all, the increasing success of the international side from the late 1980s gives increased television exposure, more fans, and more funds to the FAI.

However, increased media exposure also highlights some inadequacies of its hitherto largely amateur organisation. In January 1999, the FAI announces a planned national association football stadium, to be called Eircom Park after primary sponsors Eircom. This is to be a 45,000-seat stadium in City West, modeled on the GelreDome in Arnhem. It gradually becomes apparent that the initial forecasts of cost and revenue have been very optimistic. FAI and public support for the project is also undermined by the announcement of the Stadium Ireland in Abbotstown, which would have 65,000 seats and be available free to the FAI, being funded by the state. The Eircom Park project is finally abandoned in March 2001, amid much rancour within the FAI.

During preparation for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the captain of the senior football team, Roy Keane, leaves the training camp and returns to his home. He is critical of many aspects of the organisation and preparation of the team for the upcoming games, and public opinion in Ireland is divided. As a result of the incident, the FAI commissions a report from consultants Genesis into its World Cup preparations. The “Genesis Report” makes a number of damning criticisms regarding corruption and cronyism within the association, but is largely ignored. The complete report is never published for legal reasons. The FAI subsequently produces its own report of itself titled “Genesis II” and implements a number of its recommendations.

In 2002, the FAI announces a deal with British Sky Broadcasting to sell broadcasting rights to Ireland’s international matches, as well as domestic association football, to be televised on its satellite subscription service. The general public feels it should be on RTÉ, the free-to-air terrestrial service, in spite of their offering much lower rates. Faced with the prospect of the government legislating to prevent any deal, the FAI agrees to accept an improved, but still lower, offer from RTÉ.

In 2002, the FAI makes an unsuccessful bid with the Scottish Football Association to host UEFA Euro 2008.

Following the respectable performance of the national team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the team’s fortunes decline under the management of Mick McCarthy, Brian Kerr and Steve Staunton.

In September 2006, Lars-Christer Olsson, CEO of UEFA, is quoted as anticipating that Lansdowne Road in Dublin (actually owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union) will stage the UEFA Cup Final in 2010, and that the FAI and the IFA will co-host the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. The 2010 final is ultimately awarded to Hamburg, but in January 2009, UEFA nameS Lansdowne Road as the host stadium for the renamed 2011 UEFA Europa League Final. In August 2010, an FAI spokesman says they will have repaid all of their stadium debt of €46 million within 10 years despite the disastrous sale of 10-year tickets for premium seats at the Aviva Stadium.

In November 2007, the FAI moves to new headquarters at the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown. Its headquarters since the 1930s had been a Georgian terraced house at 80 Merrion Square, which is sold for a sum variously reported as “in excess of €6m” and “almost €9m.”


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Birth of Mario Rosenstock, Actor, Comedian, Impressionist & Musician

Mario Rosenstock, Irish actor, comedian, impressionist and musician, is born in London, England, on August 31, 1970.

Rosenstock first comes to the attention of the Irish public playing the role of Dr. David Hanlon in the soap opera Glenroe in the 1990s.

However, he is now best known for the popular Gift Grub segments which have featured on The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM since May 1999 which Rosenstock creates alongside Paul McLoone, a radio presenter with Today FM and frontman of the Northern Irish pop-punk/new-wave band, The Undertones.

Gift Grub is a series of comic sketches, impersonations and parodies that featured Rosenstock assuming the personae of Bertie Ahern, Ronan Keating, Colin Farrell and Roy Keane among many others. He also provides the manic voice of Right Price Tiles radio spokesperson “Daft Dave.”

Rosenstock performs an impersonation of José Mourinho in a parody of a song from the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This spreads like wildfire on Internet message boards and eventually it is played on a Sky Sports broadcast. Mourinho hears the song and enjoys the impersonation so much he asks Rosenstock to perform a private show for him and the Chelsea F.C. squad. Rosenstock later releases, with Mourinho’s blessing, a single version of “José and his Amazing Technicolor Overcoat.” He also releases another song (“I Sign a Little Player or Two“) on the internet with a parody of Mourinho in an interview then breaking into song.

In 2005, Rosenstock stars as Keano in the comedy musical play I, Keano, which concerns Keane storming out of the Republic of Ireland national football squad during preparations for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

In 2005, Rosenstock achieves the Christmas number one single in the Irish Singles Chart, with a parody of Will Young‘s song Leave Right Now (which itself is a Christmas number-one in 2003). The parody concerned Roy Keane’s controversial departure from Manchester United and his falling-out with Alex Ferguson. 

Between December 2007 and May 2009, Rosenstock works on a puppet comedy series entitled Special 1 TV (originally known as I’m on Setanta Sports), which is presented as a parody weekly football talk show hosted by “José Mourinho.” He voices all the puppet characters on the sketch, with the exception of “Rafael Benitez,” who is performed by Keith Burke, including the main character Mourinho, his studio co-hosts “Sven-Göran Eriksson” and “Wayne Rooney,” and regular phone-in callers like “Alex Ferguson,” “Arsène Wenger,” “Roy Keane” and “Mick McCarthy,” as well as the non-football-related characters, Nelson Mandela, Willie Nelson, Barack Obama and Tom Cruise.

Rosenstock receives the Outstanding Achievement Award at the 11th annual PPI (Phonographic Performance Ireland) Radio Awards in 2011.

In November 2012 his new show called The Mario Rosenstock Show starts on RTÉ2. A second series of the show begins to air in September 2013.

Rosenstock is married, with two children. His uncle, Gabriel Rosenstock, is one of Ireland’s most notable Irish language poets and member of Innti with Michael Davitt, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Liam Ó Muirthile. Rosenstock’s grandfather George is a doctor and writer from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He never speaks German again after the war out of shame. His grandmother is a nurse from Athenry, County Galway.


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Birth of Peter Farrell, Irish Footballer

Peter Desmond Farrell, Irish footballer who plays as a right-half for, among others, Shamrock Rovers, Everton and Tranmere Rovers, is born in Dalkey, County Dublin, on August 16, 1922. As an international, he also plays for both Ireland teams – the FAI XI and the IFA XI. His playing career follows a similar path to that of Tommy Eglington. As well as teaming up at international level, they also play together at three clubs.

Farrell is born and raised in the Convent Road area of Dalkey and is educated at Harold Boy’s National School and the Christian Brothers in Dún Laoghaire, from which he wins a scholarship. He is playing football with Cabinteely Schoolboys when spotted by a Shamrock Rovers scout and subsequently joins Rovers on his 17th birthday in August 1939. Among his early teammates is the veteran Jimmy Dunne. With a team that also includes Jimmy Kelly, Tommy Eglington, Jimmy McAlinden and Paddy Coad, he later helps Rovers reach three successive FAI Cup finals. They win the competition in 1944 and 1945 and finish as runners up in 1946.

In July 1946, together with Tommy Eglington, Farrell signs for Everton. In eleven seasons with the club, he plays 421 league games and scores 14 goals. He also plays a further 31 games in the FA Cup and scores an additional four goals. In 1951 he is appointed Everton captain and during the 1953–54 season leads them to the runners up place in the Second Division, thus gaining promotion to the First Division. During his time with the club his teammates, apart from Eglington, also include Alex Stevenson, Peter Corr, Harry Catterick, Wally Fielding, Tommy E. Jones, Brian Labone and Dave Hickson. He is never sent off during his time at Goodison Park.

Farrell leaves Everton in October 1957 and follows Tommy Eglington to Tranmere Rovers where he becomes player-manager. He plays 114 league games for Tranmere, before leaving in December 1960. After a time as manager at Sligo Rovers, he becomes manager of Holyhead Town and, helped by a number of former Everton and Tranmere players, guides them to the Welsh Football League (North) title.

In September 1967, Farrell signs a one-year contract to manage St. Patrick’s Athletic F.C. He manages the Pats in their 1967–68 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup ties against FC Girondins de Bordeaux but resigns in March 1968.

When Farrell begins his international career in 1946 there are, in effect, two Ireland teams, chosen by two rival associations. Both associations, the Northern Ireland–based IFA and the Ireland–based FAI claim jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland and select players from the entire island. As a result, several notable Irish players from this era, including Farrell, play for both teams.

Farrell makes 28 appearances and scores three goals for the FAI XI. While still at Shamrock Rovers, he captains the FAI XI on his international debut on June 16, 1946, against Portugal. On September 21, 1949, together with Johnny Carey and Con Martin, he is a member of the FAI XI that defeats England 2–0 at Goodison Park, becoming the first non-UK team to beat England at home. After Martin puts the FAI XI ahead with a penalty in the 33rd minute, Farrell makes victory certain in the 85th minute. Tommy O’Connor slips the ball to Farrell and as the English goalkeeper Bert Williams advances, he lofts the ball into the unguarded net. He scores his second goal for the FAI XI on October 9, 1949, a in 1–1 draw with Finland, a qualifier for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. His third goal comes on May 30, 1951, as Farrell scores the opening goal in a 3–2 win against Norway.

Farrell also makes seven appearances for the IFA XI between 1946 and 1949. On November 27, 1946, he makes his debut for the IFA XI in a 0–0 draw with Scotland. Together with Johnny Carey, Con Martin, Bill Gorman, Tommy Eglington, Alex Stevenson and Davy Walsh, he is one of seven players born in the Irish Free State to play for the IFA XI on that day. The draw helps the team finish as runners-up in the 1946-47 British Home Championship. He also helps the IFA XI gain some other respectable results, including a 2–0 win against Scotland on October 4, 1947, and a 2–2 draw with England at Goodison Park on November 5, 1947.

After returning to Ireland following his retirement, Farrell settles in Dublin and follows his father into the insurance business. He dies on March 16, 1999, following a long illness. He is buried in Dean’s Grange Cemetery in Deansgrange, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, County Dublin.


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Birth of Paddy Coad, Irish Football Player & Manager

Patrick “Paddy” Coad, Irish football player and manager, is born at 100 Lower Yellow Road in Waterford, County Waterford, on April 14, 1920. He plays as a forward for Waterford, Glenavon, Shamrock Rovers and Ireland. Although known, primarily, as a maker of goals, he scores 126 goals in the League of Ireland and a further 41 in the FAI Cup. In 1946–47, he is top goal scorer in the League of Ireland. As a player manager, he also guides Shamrock Rovers to three League of Ireland titles and two FAI Cups, before he returns to Waterford and guides them to their first league title in 1966. He is appointed manager of Limerick in September 1967.

Coad is educated at De La Salle College Waterford and first distinguishes himself as a sportsman playing hurling and table tennis, becoming a Munster champion at the latter sport. He also begins to play football with Corinthians, a local junior club based in the Lower Yellow Road area of Waterford. He is soon spotted by Waterford, making his League of Ireland debut in 1937 at the young age of seventeen. He then moves to the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) club Glenavon but returns to Waterford after the start of World War II. He is a member of the Waterford team that finishes as a runner up to Cork United in both the League of Ireland and the FAI Cup. Waterford could have won the league title, but their players refuse to turn up for a play-off game against Cork after a dispute over bonus payments.

Coad signs with Shamrock Rovers in 1942 and on February 8 makes his debut against Brideville in the FAI Cup. During his early seasons with the club, he plays alongside Peter Farrell, Tommy Eglington, Jimmy McAlinden and Tommy Breen. He also helps Rovers win the FAI Cup three times. In November 1949, after the untimely death of Jimmy Dunne, he reluctantly accepts the position of player manager. He brings in many young players, including Liam Tuohy, and the team becomes known as Coad’s Colts. The Colts win 19 trophies between 1954 and 1959. Under his guidance, Rovers win three League of Ireland titles and the FAI Cup twice. In 1957, they also make their debut in the European Cup. Despite losing 9–2 on aggregate to Manchester United, Coad at the age of 37, dominates the away game at Old Trafford. He makes two appearances in the European Cup. On May 2, 1955, he is rewarded with a benefit game against Chelsea F.C. with Rovers winning 3-2.

Coad returns home to manage the Blues in 1960. In the 1965–66 League of Ireland season Waterford wins the Championship for the first time. Coad reflects on his legacy: “To bring the first title to my native Waterford leaves everything else in the shade.”

Between 1946 and 1952, Coad also makes eleven appearances and scored three goals for Ireland. He makes his debut on September 30, 1946, in a 1–0 defeat to England. On March 2, 1947, he scores his first goal for Ireland in a 3–2 win against Spain. During this game he also sets up both of Ireland’s other goals for Davy Walsh. On May 22, 1949, he scores the only goal, a penalty, in a 1–0 win over Portugal. His third goal for Ireland comes on May 30, 1951, in 3–2 away win over Norway. Ireland is 2–0 down until Peter Farrell and Alf Ringstead level the score. Then in the 82nd minute Coad scores from 20 yards to win the game. He plays his last game for Ireland in a 6–0 away defeat against Spain on June 1, 1952.

Coad wins the Texaco Hall of Fame Award in 1981 and the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI) Merit Award in 1983.

After his professional playing career Coad works for twelve years as a commercial traveler for B. P. Ganley Ltd, a bacon and pork distributor in Waterford. He and his wife, Bud, have two daughters and a son. He is ill for six months prior to his death on March 8, 1992, at his daughter’s home in Waterford.

Coad’s brother, Seamus, plays for Waterford in the late 1960s and manages the team in the 1990s. Seamus’ sons Gary and Nigel Coad continue the family name by lining out for the Blues under their father before both going on to win many trophies locally. Amazingly, both Gary and Nigel become only the third set of second-generation brothers to play together for Waterford, following Paddy and Seamus, the Hales and Fitzgeralds. In 2012, Seamus’ grandson, Conor, becomes the latest Coad to play for Waterford United.

The Shamrock Rovers Player of the Year trophy is named after Paddy Coad.


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Birth of Billy Whelan, Irish Footballer

William Augustine Whelan, known as Billy Whelan or Liam Whelan, Irish footballer who plays as an inside-forward, is born at 28 St. Attracta’s Road, Cabra, Dublin, on April 1, 1935. He dies at the age of 22, as one of eight Manchester United players who are killed in the Munich air disaster.

Whelan is the fourth of seven children born to John and Elizabeth Whelan. His father is an accomplished centre half-back for Dublin club Brunswick and is instrumental in winning the FAI Junior Shield in 1924. His mother is an avid Shamrock Rovers supporter. His father dies in 1943 when Whelan is just eight years old.

Whelan plays Gaelic games, winning a medal for St. Peter’s national school in nearby Phibsborough. After leaving school at the age of fourteen, he works in Cassidy’s, an outfitter on South Great George’s Street. He is an accomplished Gaelic footballer and hurler, but association football is his first love.

Whelan begins his career at the age of twelve when he joins Home Farm before joining Manchester United as an 18-year-old in 1953. He is capped four times for the Republic of Ireland national football team, including a surprising 4–1 victory against Holland in Rotterdam in 1956, but does not score. His brother John plays for Shamrock Rovers and Drumcondra and his eldest brother Christy plays for Transport.

Whelan makes his first appearance for Manchester United during the 1954–55 season and quickly becomes a regular first-team player. He goes on to make 98 first-team appearances in four seasons at United, scoring 52 goals. He is United’s top scorer in the 1956–57 season, scoring 26 goals in the First Division and 33 in all competitions as United wins their second successive league title and reaches the semi-finals of the 1957-58 European Cup. He also gives a commanding display in the 1957 FA Cup final despite losing 2–1 to Aston Villa. Such is the strength of the competition in the United first team that he is soon being kept out of the side by Bobby Charlton. He is a traveling reserve for United’s ill-fated European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade in Belgrade on February 6, 1958, and is one of eight players to die in the subsequent air crash that destroys Matt Busby‘s young team and claims twenty-three lives. Fellow Irishman Harry Gregg, United’s goalkeeper and a survivor and hero of the Munich air crash, recalls Whelan’s last words as the plane is attempting take-off for the third and final time as “Well, if this is the time, then I’m ready.”

Thousands attend Whelan’s funeral on February 12 in St. Peter’s Church, Phibsborough, Dublin, and line the streets as the funeral procession makes its way to his burial-place in Glasnevin Cemetery. In December 2006 Dublin Corporation unveils a commemorative plaque on a bridge at Faussagh Road, Cabra, which was renamed Liam Whelan Bridge.

Although of a cheerful disposition, Whelan is also modest and shy by nature, and a quietly devout Catholic. He has a particular dislike of swearing and tends to fix a look of pained disappointment on teammates who use bad language. Nobby Stiles admits that he “would rather be caught swearing by the pope than by Billy Whelan.” His religious devotion regularly fuels rumours that he is considering being a priest, although at the time of his death he is engaged to be married to Ruby McCullough.


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Death of Peter Farrell, Irish Footballer

Peter Desmond Farrell, Irish footballer who plays as a right-half for, among others, Shamrock Rovers, Everton and Tranmere Rovers, dies in Dublin on March 16, 1999. As an international, he also plays for both Ireland teams – the FAI XI and the IFA XI. His playing career follows a similar path to that of Tommy Eglington. As well as teaming up at international level, they also play together at three clubs.

Farrell is born on August 16, 1922, and raised in the Convent Road area of Dalkey, County Dublin, and is educated at Harold Boy’s National School and the Christian Brothers in Dún Laoghaire, from which he wins a scholarship. He is playing football with Cabinteely Schoolboys when spotted by a Shamrock Rovers scout and subsequently joins Rovers on his 17th birthday in August 1939. Among his early teammates is the veteran Jimmy Dunne. With a team that also includes Jimmy Kelly, Tommy Eglington, Jimmy McAlinden and Paddy Coad, he later helps Rovers reach three successive FAI Cup finals. They win the competition in 1944 and 1945 and finish as runners up in 1946.

In July 1946, together with Tommy Eglington, Farrell signs for Everton. In eleven seasons with the club, he plays 421 league games and scores 14 goals. He also plays a further 31 games in the FA Cup and scores an additional four goals. In 1951 he is appointed Everton captain and during the 1953–54 season leads them to the runners up place in the Second Division, thus gaining promotion to the First Division. During his time with the club his teammates, apart from Eglington, also include Alex Stevenson, Peter Corr, Harry Catterick, Wally Fielding, Tommy E. Jones, Brian Labone and Dave Hickson. He is never sent off during his time at Goodison Park.

Farrell leaves Everton in October 1957 and follows Tommy Eglington to Tranmere Rovers where he becomes player-manager. He plays 114 league games for Tranmere, before leaving in December 1960. After a time as manager at Sligo Rovers, he becomes manager of Holyhead Town and, helped by a number of former Everton and Tranmere players, guides them to the Welsh Football League (North) title.

In September 1967, Farrell signs a one-year contract to manage St. Patrick’s Athletic F.C. He manages the Pats in their 1967–68 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup ties against FC Girondins de Bordeaux but resigns in March 1968.

When Farrell begins his international career in 1946 there are, in effect, two Ireland teams, chosen by two rival associations. Both associations, the Northern Ireland–based IFA and the Ireland–based FAI claim jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland and select players from the entire island. As a result, several notable Irish players from this era, including Farrell, play for both teams.

Farrell makes 28 appearances and scores three goals for the FAI XI. While still at Shamrock Rovers, he captains the FAI XI on his international debut on June 16, 1946, against Portugal. On September 21, 1949, together with Johnny Carey and Con Martin, he is a member of the FAI XI that defeats England 2–0 at Goodison Park, becoming the first non-UK team to beat England at home. After Martin puts the FAI XI ahead with a penalty in the 33rd minute, Farrell makes victory certain in the 85th minute. Tommy O’Connor slips the ball to Farrell and as the English goalkeeper Bert Williams advances, he lofts the ball into the unguarded net. He scores his second goal for the FAI XI on October 9, 1949, a in 1–1 draw with Finland, a qualifier for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. His third goal comes on May 30, 1951, as Farrell scores the opening goal in a 3–2 win against Norway.

Farrell also makes seven appearances for the IFA XI between 1946 and 1949. On November 27, 1946, he makes his debut for the IFA XI in a 0–0 draw with Scotland. Together with Johnny Carey, Con Martin, Bill Gorman, Tommy Eglington, Alex Stevenson and Davy Walsh, he is one of seven players born in the Irish Free State to play for the IFA XI on that day. The draw helps the team finish as runners-up in the 1946-47 British Home Championship. He also helps the IFA XI gain some other respectable results, including a 2–0 win against Scotland on October 4, 1947, and a 2–2 draw with England at Goodison Park on November 5, 1947.

After returning to Ireland following his retirement, Farrell settles in Dublin and follows his father into the insurance business. He dies on March 16, 1999, following a long illness. He is buried in Dean’s Grange Cemetery in Deansgrange, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, County Dublin.


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Birth of Noel Cantwell, Irish Footballer & Cricketer

Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell, Irish football player and sometime cricketer, is born at 2 Illen Villas, Mardyke Walk, Cork, County Cork, on February 28, 1932.

Cantwell is one of five sons and a daughter of Michael Cantwell, a master tailor, and his wife Hannah (née Daly). He is educated at St. Joseph’s national school and the Presentation Brothers College in Cork. He plays as a full-back for Western Rovers, Cork Athletic, West Ham United and Manchester United.

While at West Ham, Cantwell features in the London XI side that competes in the 1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final on May 1, 1958. He captains the Hammers to winning the Division Two championship in the 1957–58 season thereby leading the club into the topflight for the first time since 1932.

In November 1960, Cantwell joins Manchester United for £29,500 which at the time is a record for a full-back. He helps the club win the 1965 and 1967 league titles and captains United when winning the 1963 FA Cup Final – just as his fellow countryman Johnny Carey had done in United’s previous FA Cup win fifteen years earlier.

Cantwell also serves as Chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

During his International career (1953-67), Cantwell wins 36 full International caps for the Republic of Ireland, typically playing at left full-back and on several occasions at centre-forward. He makes his debut against Luxembourg in October 1953, with his final appearance coming away to Turkey in February 1967. He scores fourteen goals including five from penalties and also captains the Republic on several occasions including a match against England at Wembley Stadium.

In his first managerial role at Coventry City, Cantwell has the onerous task of following Jimmy Hill who had taken the club into the First Division for the first time in their history. He narrowly keeps the Sky Blues in the top in his first two seasons before taking them to a sixth-place finish in 1969–70, earning them qualification for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (a year before it is replaced by the UEFA Cup).

Cantwell departs Highfield Road on March 12, 1972, but within seven months is back in English football as manager of Peterborough United. He helps Peterborough win the Fourth Division title in his first full season as manager, before leaving on May 10, 1977, to manage the New England Tea Men.

Cantwell returns to Peterborough on November 19, 1986, for a second stint as manager, remaining in this role until he becomes general manager on July 12, 1988. He is general manager at London Road for a year until he quits football to become licensee of the New Inn at Peterborough, where he remains for ten years until he retires in 1999. He also is landlord of the Bull and Swan in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

Cantwell also plays cricket for Cork Bohemians Cricket Club and Ireland as a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler. He plays five times for Ireland, making his debut in what is his sole first-class match versus Scotland at Edinburgh in 1956, scoring 31 and 17. His last match for Ireland is against Lancashire in July 1959.

Cantwell dies from cancer at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, not far from his home in Peterborough, on September 8, 2005. He is survived by his wife Maggie, a native of Belfast, and two daughters, Liz and Kate. A 22-year-old son, John Robert, is killed in a car crash thirteen years earlier.

Cantwell’s former teams each hold a moment of silence for him before their next matches.


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Birth of Steve Heighway, Irish Footballer

Stephen Derek Heighway, former Irish footballer who plays as a winger, is born in Dublin on November 25, 1947. He is part of the successful Liverpool F.C. team of the 1970s. Following his eleven-years with the club, he is ranked 23rd in the 100 Players Who Shook the Kop poll.

Heighway’s early education takes place in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where he attends Ecclesall Junior School until 1959, followed by High Storrs School and latterly Moseley Hall Grammar School for Boys in Cheadle, near Stockport.

Heighway’s early promise as a winger is not spotted by professionals. Instead, he concentrates on his studies in economics and politics at the University of Warwick in Coventry achieving a 2:1.

In 1970, Heighway is studying for his final exams and playing for Skelmersdale United F.C. when he is spotted by Liverpool’s scouting system. With manager Bill Shankly keen to rebuild his ageing, underachieving team of the 1960s, Heighway is signed up swiftly in May of that year. It is due to his academic achievements that he gets his nickname “Big Bamber,” while teammate and fellow university graduate Brian Hall is dubbed “Little Bamber” – both after the television programme University Challenge host Bamber Gascoigne.

A strong and fast left winger with two good feet, Heighway settles into topflight football after making his debut on September 22, 1970, in a League Cup 2nd round replay at Anfield against Mansfield Town F.C. (3-2). He opens his goalscoring account in the 51st minute of a 2–0 home league win over Burnley F.C. on October 1, 1970.

A month later, Heighway scores against Merseyside rivals Everton F.C. in a hard-fought 3–2 win, after his team had found themselves down 2–0 early in the second half. He stays in the side for the rest of the season as Liverpool’s new charges finish the league campaign strongly and also defeat Everton in the semi-finals of the FA Cup to reach the final at Wembley Stadium.

Their opponents are Arsenal F.C., who are after a coveted “double” having won the Football League First Division championship. Heighway plays confidently in a match that is goalless after 90 minutes and therefore needs a period of extra-time. Just two minutes into the added half-hour, he receives the ball wide on his left flank from substitute Peter Thompson and starts a run toward the Arsenal penalty area, with Gunners full back Pat Rice tracking his run but unwilling to put in a tackle. With a swift turn outside, he gains a yard on Rice and hits a low drive into the net past Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson, who had committed the cardinal goalkeeping sin of coming out too far from his near post to anticipate a cross, thereby leaving a gap that Heighway exploits. Sadly, for Heighway and Liverpool, their opponents scored two goals in response.

Heighway settles into the Liverpool team for the next decade, winning the first of four League titles in 1973, along with the UEFA Cup. He returns to Wembley for another FA Cup final a year later as Liverpool faces Newcastle United F.C. He scores again with 16 minutes remaining in the match to make the score 2–0, latching on to a flick from John Toshack after a long clearance from goalkeeper Ray Clemence to slot a right-footed shot into the far corner. The game ends 3–0.

By now, Heighway is a regular for the Republic of Ireland national football team, making his debut on September 23, 1970, against the Poland national football team. He remains so for the whole of the 1970s, winning a total of 34 caps but never managing to score. He does have a goal disallowed in a qualifier for the 1978 FIFA World Cup against the Bulgaria national football team in Sofia. On the domestic front, he attains another League and UEFA Cup double with Liverpool in 1976 and then forms part of the side which comes so close to the “treble” of League, FA Cup and European Cup.

Liverpool wins the League by a single point and again defeats rivals Everton in the semi-final to reach the FA Cup final, this time to face bitter rival Manchester United F.C. at Wembley. Liverpool loses 2–1 and the “treble” dream is dead.

Heighway scores his first goal of the 1977 European Cup in a 5–0 first round second leg win over Crusaders F.C. He then scores in a 3–0 second round win against Trabzonspor and in the 3–1 semi-final first leg win over FC Zürich. Liverpool beats Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1 to win their first European Cup, with Heighway setting up both outfield goals for Terry McDermott, a defence-splitting pass, and Tommy Smith, a corner.

In 1978, Heighway is on the bench as Liverpool retains the European Cup with a 1–0 victory over Club Brugge KV at Wembley, coming on as a substitute for Jimmy Case. The following year he is again in the side frequently as Liverpool wins another League title, but from 1980 onward his opportunities in the side diminish.

Heighway stays for two more seasons, appearing only occasionally in the team and missing out on two more League title medals, another European Cup triumph and a first EFL Cup medal, which is successfully defended a year later. He leaves Anfield in 1982 after 444 matches and 76 goals.

Heighway then prolongs his career with a move to the United States, joining the Minnesota Kicks for the 1981 season. He plays 26 games, scoring four goals. He then joins the coaching staff of Umbro, which leads to a position with the Clearwater Chargers where he pioneers the role of director of coaching in the United States. In 1989 he is asked to rejoin Liverpool to run their youth academy, bringing promising youngsters up through the system until they were ready for the professional game. Among his successes are Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Dominic Matteo, David Thompson and Michael Owen.

On September 4, 2006, a poll on Liverpool’s official web site names Heighway 23rd out of 100 Players Who Shook the Kop.

Heighway announces his retirement from Liverpool on April 26, 2007, immediately after the side he manages won the FA Youth Cup for the second year running. He comments, “I don’t know what the future holds just yet, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Heighway returns to working at Liverpool’s Academy part-time in 2015, at the request of Academy Director Alex Inglethorpe, before taking up a full-time consultancy role later that year. After seven years in this position, he retires for a second time in December 2022.

Heighway also features in the popular Liverpool chant, The Fields of Anfield Road, which is frequently sung by Liverpool fans during matches.


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Birth of Eamon Dunphy, Media Personality & Journalist

Eamon Martin Dunphy, Irish media personality, journalist, broadcaster, author, sports pundit and former professional footballer, is born in Dublin on August 3, 1945.

Dunphy grows up in Drumcondra, Dublin, in what he describes as “a one-room tenement flat [with] no electricity, no hot water.” He attends Saint Patrick’s National School, Drumcondra. In 1958, he gets a one-year government scholarship to Sandymount High School but has to work as a messenger at the tweed clothing shop Kevin and Howlin.

A promising footballer, Dunphy leaves Dublin while still a teenager to join Manchester United as an apprentice. He does not break into the first team at United, and subsequently leaves to play for York City, Millwall, Charlton Athletic, Reading and Shamrock Rovers. It is at Millwall that he makes the most impact. He is considered an intelligent and skillful player in the side’s midfield. He is a member of “The Class of ’71,” the Millwall side that fails by just one point to gain promotion to the Football League First Division.

Dunphy plays 23 times for the Republic of Ireland and is Millwall’s most capped international footballer with 22 caps, until surpassed by David Forde and Shane Ferguson. He makes his Ireland debut on November 10, 1965, in the playoff at the Parc des Princes in Paris for the 1966 FIFA World Cup which Spain wins 1–0, thanks to a José Ufarte goal. He goes on to become, in his own words, “a good player, not a great player.”

Dunphy accompanies Johnny Giles back to Ireland to join Shamrock Rovers in 1977. Giles wants to make the club Ireland’s first full-time professional club and hopes to make Rovers into a force in European football by developing talented young players at home who would otherwise go to clubs in England. Dunphy is originally intended to be in charge of youth development. However, despite an FAI Cup winners medal in 1978, his only medal in senior football, and two appearances in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, he becomes disillusioned with the Irish game and drops out of football altogether to concentrate on a career in journalism.

After retiring from the game, Dunphy first begins writing on football for the Sunday Tribune and then contributes regular columns on both football and current events for the Sunday Independent. He currently writes a column on football for the Irish Daily Star. He coins the term “Official Ireland” to refer to the establishment. He also works for Ireland on Sunday (now the Irish Daily Mail), The Sunday Press (now defunct), and the Irish Examiner.

Since the 1980s, Dunphy has written a number of books. His first and most widely praised book is Only a Game? The Diary of a Professional Footballer, which is an autobiographical account of his days playing for Millwall. Written in diary form, it records events from the dressing room of his 1973–74 season, which begins well for him at Millwall but subsequently ends in disillusionment: after being substituted in an October 27, 1973, home loss to eventual league winners Middlesbrough, he does not play another game all season, the club finishing mid-table.

In 1985, rock band U2 and manager Paul McGuinness commission Dunphy to write the story of their origins, formation, early years and the time leading up to their highly successful album The Joshua Tree. His book Unforgettable Fire – Past, Present, and Future – The Definitive Biography of U2 is published in 1988. It receives some favourable reviews, but critics close to the band speak of many inaccuracies. A verbal war erupts in the press during which he calls lead singer Bono a “pompous git.”

Dunphy also writes a biography of long-serving Manchester United manager Matt Busby and in 2002 ghost writes the autobiography of Republic of Ireland and Manchester United player Roy Keane.

Since the mid-1980s, Dunphy has regularly appeared as an analyst during football coverage on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). Since RTÉ acquired the rights to show English football, he has been a regular contributor to Premier Soccer Saturday. He also contributes to analysis of UEFA Champions League games and, in international football, RTÉ’s coverage of FIFA World Cups, UEFA European Football Championships and qualifying matches involving the Republic of Ireland national football team.

In 2001, Dunphy becomes the first male host of the quiz show The Weakest Link, which airs on TV3, for just one series. In 2003, he is hired again by TV3 to host their new Friday night chat show, entitled The Dunphy Show. Pitted head-to-head with RTÉ’s long-running flagship programme, The Late Late Show, Dunphy’s show loses what is a highly publicised “ratings war,” and is cancelled before its original run concludes.

Dunphy is the first presenter of a made-for-mobile television show on the 3 mobile network in Ireland. His rants and “Spoofer of the Week” are watched by thousands of 3 Mobile customers. The shows are awarded “Best Entertainment Show” at Ireland’s Digital Media Awards. He admits he never uses a mobile himself but enjoys filming for a mobile audience from his living room in Ranelagh.

In July 2018, Dunphy announces that he is leaving RTÉ after 40 years with the broadcaster, and that he intends to focus on his podcast The Stand with Eamon Dunphy.

Dunphy has also has a prominent radio career with several stations, including Today FM, Newstalk and RTÉ Radio 1. He is the original host in 1997 of the popular current affairs show The Last Word on Today FM. In September 2004, he takes over The Breakfast Show slot on the Dublin radio station Newstalk 106 from David McWilliams. The show tries to court controversy and listeners in equal measure. He fails to attract the large listenership predicted, with only a few additional thousand tuning in. He announces in June 2006 his intention to leave Newstalk 106, citing an inability to sustain the demands of an early morning schedule. After his departure from Newstalk 106, he confirms he is suffering from a viral illness from which he later recovers.

In July 2006, RTÉ announces that Dunphy will present a new weekly programme as part of the new RTÉ Radio 1 autumn schedule.

Dunphy rejoins Newstalk but leaves again in 2011 “due to interference from management and a push to put a more positive spin on the news.” On his last show he accuses his boss, Denis O’Brien, of “hating journalism.” He quits after Sam Smyth is sacked from Today FM (also owned by O’Brien) and says management at Newstalk is trying to remove “dissenting voices” like Constantin Gurdgiev from the airwaves.

Dunphy is a daily Mass-goer until he is preparing for marriage to his first wife, Sandra from Salford, when he is 21. He is Catholic and she is Protestant. The priest instructing them for marriage disapproves strongly of the mixed couple, saying that he should not marry her because she is “not a proper person.” Dunphy’s observance is already weakening but he quits his daily Mass-going at this point. He and Sandra have two children, a boy and a girl, and he is now a grandfather. His first marriage ends, and he moves to Castletownshend in County Cork for two years in the early 1990s. He lives with another partner, Inge, before meeting his second wife, RTÉ commissioning editor Jane Gogan, in the Horseshoe Bar in Dublin in 1992. They marry at the Unitarian Church on St. Stephen’s Green on September 24, 2009.

In an interview with An Phoblacht, Dunphy, who had previously written highly critical articles on the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin, states that he is now a Sinn Féin supporter and declares he had voted for them in the 2011 Irish general election. He describes their representatives as “incredibly hard-working and incredibly intelligent.”

Dunphy publishes his autobiography entitled The Rocky Road in October 2013.

Today, Dunphy generally resides at his home near Ranelagh in Dublin. He also owns a holiday home in Deauville, France.

(Pictured: Éamon Dunphy at the Sinn Féin Summer School, 2013)


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The Lansdowne Road Football Riot

The Lansdowne Road football riot occurs during a friendly football match between the Republic of Ireland and England in Lansdowne Road Stadium in Dublin on February 15, 1995.

The last time England had played Ireland at Lansdowne Road was a UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying Group 7 match on November 14, 1990. After that match, there were clashes between some Irish and English fans and the Gardaí on O’Connell Street in Dublin. Before the 1995 friendly match, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) holds talks with The Football Association (The FA) to review security arrangements to avoid a similar episode. The FA is offered 4,000 out of approximately 40,000 tickets, for English fans.

In pubs near Lansdowne Road stadium some English fans chant “No surrender to the IRA,” “Fuck the Pope” and “Clegg is innocent.” Irish fans are goaded, spat on and attacked. Pub staff find British National Party (BNP) literature left behind and, in some cases, pro-Loyalist graffiti in toilets.

The match begins at 6:15 p.m., and after 22 minutes, David Kelly scores a goal for Ireland. When a David Platt goal is disallowed for England in the 26th minute due to Platt being offside, some of the English fans begin throwing debris down into the lower stands, including parts of benches which they had ripped out earlier in the match. When this happens, the referee immediately stops the game, and brings the players off the pitch. When Jack Charlton, the Irish manager and former England player, walks off the pitch, the mobs “Judas, Judas.” The fans in the lower stands then spill out onto the pitch to escape the missiles from the English fans. Some Irish fans had mistakenly been put into the area where the English fans are when the FA returned a number of tickets to the FAI.

After the teams leave the pitch, the frequency of missiles intensifies, and after 12 minutes, the game is called off, and the fans are evacuated, with the exception of 4,500 English fans, who are kept in the stadium until the Garda Public Order Unit attempts to escort them out, at which time more violence breaks out. The Gardaí are slow to reach the area where the rioters are, and there is some confusion as to the exact location of the English fans between the Gardaí and the stewards. Twenty people are injured during the rioting, and forty are arrested.

The rioting is condemned on both sides of the Irish Sea. England manager Terry Venables says, “It was terrible. I have no words strong enough to describe how we feel about this. There could be repercussions.” Jack Charlton says, “I have seen a lot in football but nothing like this. It is a disaster for Irish football, but I didn’t want the game abandoned because what do you do with 2,000 English fans running around the town? The English fans were being bombarded by some of their own. And they brought out the worst in some of ours.” The rioting brings into question England’s hosting of UEFA Euro 1996, with Ireland’s Minister of State for Youth and Sport, Bernard Allen asking, “How can people from Ireland and from other countries go to England and expect to be safe watching matches in the presence of people like those who were here tonight?” The Garda handling of the match is criticised in the press when it is revealed that the Gardaí had been informed of the plans of some of the English fans to cause trouble by the British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS). The decision to seat the English fans in an upper tier is also questioned in the press.

After questions are raised about the conduct of the Gardaí, former Chief Justice of Ireland, Thomas Finlay, is appointed to investigate the events. He finds that the rioting was entirely caused by the English fans without any provocation. The investigation finds that the head of the NCIS had offered help to the Gardaí in dealing with the hooligans, an offer which the Gardaí refused. Gardaí failed to act on a warning that 20 supporters of the England team who wore insignia of Combat 18 were travelling to the match. The segregation of the fans was also found to be insufficient, and this was found to be a contributory factor to the incident.

The next meeting between the two sides does not take place until Wednesday, May 29, 2013, a friendly at Wembley Stadium, and the next meeting in the Republic of Ireland is on Sunday, June 7, 2015, at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. Both games pass without major disturbances.