Paddy Moore

Born in Dublin in 1910, Paddy Moore has often been described as being second only to George Best as the greatest footballer that the island of Ireland has ever produced. Growing up in Ballybough on the north side of Dublin city, the small (he was just shy of five foot six), rotund youngster began playing as an inside-right for schoolboy side Clonliffe Celtic, and soon gained a reputation for having a tremendous amount of skill and flair, prompting people to come and watch Clonliffe matches purely just to see him in action. After spells with Leinster Senior League outfits Bendigo and Richmond Rovers, Moore signed for Shamrock Rovers (Bohemians had tracked him for a time but stopped short of offering him a contract) towards the end of the 1928-29 season.

Scoring twice on his debut in a 2-0 Free State Shield win over Brideville, he followed it up with a hat-trick against St. James’s Gate later the same week, and Moore’s goals (he was now operating as a centre-forward) proved the single-biggest factor in the Hoops’ eventual victory in the shield competition. The young forward’s displays came to the attention of several cross-channel clubs, and so by the time the new football season kicked off in 1929, Moore was on the books of Cardiff City. Denied any real opportunities to impress, however, he made just one appearance in the English Second Division, and returned to Glenmalure Park in the summer of 1930.

Scoring on his return to the Shamrock Rovers side, Moore struck up a productive partnership with David ‘Babby’ Byrne, and while the club could only manage a mid-table finish in the league, Moore bagged a semi-final hat-trick against Bohemians as the Hoops progressed to their third successive Free State Cup final. Netting the Rovers goal in the drawn match, and also in the replay victory over Dundalk (he would later admit that he had used his hand on the way to scoring this goal), Moore’s form was rewarded with a call-up to the Irish Free State international side for the visit to Spain in April of 1931. Included in the side because Sheffield United refused to release Jimmy Dunne, the 21-year old debutant stunned the 100,000-strong crowd by putting Ireland ahead with an audacious chip over the head of Spanish goalkeeper Zamora (considered to be the best in Europe at the time), as Ireland achieved a famous 1-1 draw.

Despite a two-month injury lay-off during the 1931-32 season, Moore bagged 48 goals in all competitions to confirm his status as Ireland’s premier football talent, and to help Shamrock Rovers to a domestic treble of league, Free State Cup (scoring the winner in the final against Dolphin, his ninth of the cup campaign) and shield. His international career was advanced with a goal in his second Irish Free State cap against Holland in May of 1932, and his subsequent transfer to Aberdeen paved the way for an I.F.A. appearance against England in October of that year. His move to Scottish football had quickly turned into a very successful one, and Moore scored 27 goals in 29 league appearances for Aberdeen, including a club record-equalling six in one game against Falkirk.

Some 21 months passed between the Holland match and Ireland’s next international outing, a World Cup qualifying tie against Belgium at Dalymount Park in February of 1934. This match, more than any other, would cement Paddy Moore’s place in football history. Enjoying supremacy in most areas of the park, the Belgians raced into a 2-0 lead, before Moore pulled a goal back, and although the visitors added another early in the second half, the Dubliner produced a magnificent solo effort to bring it to 3-2, and then added an equaliser for the Irish not long afterwards. The Belgians took a 4-3 lead just after the hour, but with 15 minutes to go, Moore thwarted them once more to head his side level at four goals apiece. It was the first time that a player had scored four goals in a World Cup match, and Moore left the pitch having achieved almost God-like status.

The esteem that Dubliners held Paddy Moore in was such that, even prior to his move to Aberdeen, he could scarcely enter a pub in his native city without having several drinks purchased for him. Homesickness whilst in Scotland had seen his consumption of alcohol increase, and by the time Moore returned to Shamrock Rovers for a third spell in 1935, he was a confirmed alcoholic. Despite this affliction, he would continue to produce some dazzling performances on the pitch, most notably in the 1936 Free State Cup final against Cork (Moore scored in each of the four finals he lined out in), and an international match against Germany six months later, where he set up four of Ireland's goals in a famous 5-2 victory. Despite the fact that he had been slumped over a hotel bar just a few hours before kick-off, his display prompted the German officials to offer him a coaching role within their own national set-up (Moore declined the offer).

The international cap that would prove to be his last (he made one inter-league appearance, scoring twice) came in Ireland’s next match against Hungary, and after a transfer to Shelbourne in 1938, Moore had a short spell with Brideville before returning to the ranks of junior football for a time. A move back to Shamrock Rovers in 1942 came to very little, with Moore lacking the discipline and enthusiasm to make another real go of things. His best footballing days long behind him, Moore disappeared from the football radar soon afterwards, and emigrated to Birmingham.

The destructive impact alcohol had on Moore’s career can not be overstated (his career was all but over by the age of 26), and the dearth of Irish international matches that took place during the early 1930s limited his opportunities to really showcase his talents (he won just nine caps, scoring seven goals). As his battle with alcohol intensified after his career had wound up, Moore, unfortunately, sold off his medals and international caps in order to finance his drinking. Although his family later recovered many of them following a newspaper appeal in 1984, Moore himself had died in 1951, at the age of just 41. A player with the full set of footballing attributes (speed, positioning, control, shooting, heading, distribution), however, the pride that he brought to Irish Free State football was immense, and a player with his amount of natural flair and wizardry might never grace the Irish game again.