Bob Fullam

Bob Fullam, born in Ringsend on the south side of Dublin in 1897, was without doubt the first superstar of the Irish Free State League. Beginning his football journey with junior clubs St. Brendan’s and North End, Fullam (then working as a docker) was sensationally plucked from the stand to fill a place on the Shelbourne team for a Leinster Senior League match against Bohemians in 1918 (Bohs’ victory in the game meant they did not see fit to file an objection). He subsequently signed for the Ringsend club, and operating as an outside-right (he would also feature as an inside-forward and a wing-half later in his career), won an Irish Cup medal in 1920. A brief spell with Olympia F.C. followed, before Fullam joined Shelbourne’s emerging local rivals Shamrock Rovers.

Fullam’s role in the fracas that followed the 1922 Free State Cup final replay against St. James’s Gate saw him being suspended for the early part of Rovers’ debut Free State League season, but in spite of this, he scored 27 league goals (it remains a club record) to finish the league’s top scorer, and help the club to claim the league championship trophy in their very first year. Interest from Leeds United saw Fullam and his Rovers colleague John Joe Flood being transferred to the Yorkshire outfit in the summer of 1923, but following a year that saw limited first team opportunities (Fullam did manage two goals in seven league games), both players returned to Rovers in time for the start of the 1924-25 season. The famous “Four F’s” (Fullam, Flood, Farrell and Fagan) forward line was assembled for the first time this year, and inspired by their scoring exploits, Rovers stormed to a domestic treble of league, cup and shield, remaining unbeaten through all three competitions. Fullam contributed 20 league goals, and scored Rovers’ first in their 2-1 Free State Cup final victory over Shelbourne.

Having already gained notoriety for both his fearsome left foot and his deeply competitive nature whilst on the pitch, Fullam famously backed out of a challenge with Fordsons’ goalkeeper Billy O’Hagan in the Free State Cup decider of 1926. The score was level at 2-2, and having had his penalty kick parried, the ball broke loose, but fearing that he might cause a serious injury to the Corkman, Fullam decided not to contest the 50-50 ball. Although the Cork club lifted the trophy on a 3-2 scoreline, Fullam insisted that he had no regrets, later describing the incident as the “best decision of my life”.

The Dubliner entered Irish footballing folklore again in 1927, as a member of the Irish Free State side that faced the Italian ‘B’ team (the Azzuri’s first team had won a one-sided contest in Turin 3-0 the previous year; Fullam had been part of that historic side) at Lansdowne Road. Fullam not only had the honour of scoring the Free State’s first international goal, but also gained infamy for knocking the Italian defender, Zanello, unconscious with a free-kick. The incident prompted the other members of the Italian team to beg their opponents and the referee not to let Fullam strike any more dead balls.

A one-year stint in the United States during 1927-28 precipitated Fullam’s second spell as a Shamrock Rovers player, and having won league and shield medals in 1927, he added further Free State Cup winners’ medals in 1929, 1930 and 1931, and was part of the Hoops’ second treble-winning side of 1932 (“Give it to Bob” had long since become a favoured catchphrase of the Shamrock Rovers faithful). Fullam retired at the end of this season, having scored 94 Free State League goals, and having collected six Free State League representative caps (scoring two goals). Fullam’s association with Shamrock Rovers or the inter-league team was by no means over, however, and he would later lend coaching expertise to both of those sides. Having helped Rovers to F.A.I. Cup wins in 1944 and 1945, he emigrated to London soon afterwards, where he died in 1974. Fullam’s place in Irish football history, however, had long since been secured.

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.

Paddy Coad

Paddy Coad, widely considered to be the best player never to leave League of Ireland football, was born in Waterford in April 1920. Having impressed for local junior side Corinthians (he had already become a Munster champion at table tennis), he made his debut for Waterford F.C. in a League of Ireland Shield match against Brideville in October of 1937, but would have to wait another six months before being used in the league itself. By the time the 1938-39 season rolled around, however, the youngster had become a key part of the squad, and though the club finished bottom of the League of Ireland table that year, Coad finished as the club’s joint top goalscorer.

A financial crisis at Waterford meant the club were unable to guarantee adequate pay to their players for the 1939-40 season, and having previously rebuffed their approach, Coad agreed to join Irish League outfit Glenavon in time for the beginning of the new campaign. The outbreak of the Second World War threw the northern league into uncertainty, however, and Coad returned to his hometown club not long afterwards. Although the side were again struggling in the league, eventually finishing eleventh, the following season would be a very memorable one for Blues fans, but perhaps not for all the right reasons.

A season-long struggle between Waterford and Cork United resulted in a tie at the top of the League of Ireland table, and though Waterford had the stronger goal average, a play-off was scheduled to decide the destination of the title. But with the Waterford players seeking remuneration for the extra match, and the club chairman not willing to accept this, several players, including Coad, made themselves unavailable. Waterford consequently withdrew from the play-off, and the championship was awarded to Cork. Other repercussions included Waterford being fined heavily, their enforced absence from the following season’s league, and Coad and the others being suspended from league action for one year. This compounded the disappointment of losing an F.A.I. Cup final replay to Cork a number of weeks earlier.

Though unable to contribute to anybody’s league campaign, Coad’s suspension did not apply to the F.A.I. Cup, and having joined Shamrock Rovers in January of 1942, he made his first team debut the following month in a first round cup tie against Brideville. Scoring in the Hoops’ 3-1 victory, he went on to score three more as the club progressed to the semi-finals, gradually endearing himself to the Rovers faithful. Finishing as top scorer for the club in five of the next six seasons (and joint top scorer in the League of Ireland in 1947), he won F.A.I. Cup winner’s medals in 1944, 1945 and 1948 (scoring in the 2-1 win over Drumcondra), and so when the unexpected death of Rovers’ coach Jimmy Dunne occurred in 1949, Coad (now a son-in-law of the Shamrock Rovers’ owners, the Cunninghams) was asked to step into the breach.

Reluctantly accepting the player-manager mantle, Coad soon began signing up young players from Dublin’s junior and schoolboy football leagues (it was said he signed virtually the entire Irish schoolboys’ team), hoping to mould the Rovers squad into one capable of once again making a challenge for the title (the Hoops had not won the league since 1939). Between 1950 and 1953, players like Paddy Ambrose (who had been one of Jimmy Dunne’s last signings), Ronnie Nolan, Liam Hennessy and Liam Tuohy began maturing into very useful footballers, and with the help of Coad’s progressive training methods (he attended F.A. coaching courses at Rhyl and Lilleshall) and his introduction of a passing style to replace the traditional “kick-and-run” tactics, the league championship pennant returned to Milltown in April of 1954.

In a decade seen as the “golden era” for League of Ireland football, “Coad’s Colt’s” (a nickname first used by W.P. Murphy of the Irish Independent in 1953) were the most successful team of the 1950s, with the trophy haul including three league championships (1954, 1957, 1959), two F.A.I. Cups (1955 and 1956), five League of Ireland Shields (including four in a row between 1955 and 1958), four Dublin City Cups and two Top Four Cup victories. Coad himself was as crucial to these successes as a player (he turned up at inside left, inside right, outside right and wing-half during his time with the club) as he was as a manager (unlike his predecessors at Glenmalure Park, he had the final say over team selection), and by the time he left Milltown to return to Waterford as player-manager in January 1960, he had scored 104 goals for the Hoops in the league and 37 in the F.A.I. Cup, with his total of 41 in the cup being a record that still stands.

Masterminding an F.A.I. Cup win over Rovers at Milltown in 1961, Coad led his hometown club to the league runners-up position in 1963, before overseeing Waterford’s unlikely league championship victory in 1966, the first time that the trophy had ever come to the south-east. Parting company with the Blues soon after this, he had laid the foundations for the remarkable league success that the club would achieve in the forthcoming seasons.

While Coad enjoyed remarkable success at club level, he also made an important contribution as an Irish international player. Cutting short his honeymoon to win his first cap against England in 1946 (he would probably have been capped much earlier only for the war), he played a starring role in Ireland’s next match against Spain, scoring one, and laying on two more for his fellow Waterford man Davy Walsh, as Ireland recorded a 3-2 victory at Dalymount Park. Although Ireland would lose their next five international matches, Coad was retained in the side throughout all these games (he was the only home-based player in the team for two of them), and his goal from the penalty spot against Portugal at Dalymount in May of 1949 saw the team’s winless streak come to an end.

Lining out in a World Cup qualifying defeat against Sweden the following month, he was then squeezed out of the international picture for a period of two years, but announced his return with the winner in a 3-2 victory over Norway in Oslo, having come on as a first-half substitute for Limerick’s Tim Cunneen (he was the first substitute to score for the national side). It was not enough to secure him a berth in any of the next three games, however, and Coad was to win his eleventh and final cap in a disastrous 6-0 defeat by Spain in Madrid in 1952. He proved he still had much to offer at the highest levels of the game some five years later, though, when he turned in a man-of-the-match performance for Shamrock Rovers in their European Cup second leg match against Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1957.

A professional, disciplined footballer, with vision, skill, and leadership qualities in abundance, Paddy Coad died in Waterford in 1992, aged 71. Capped 26 times by the League of Ireland representative side, his Shamrock Rovers testimonial in 1955 saw the Hoops famously hand English League champions Chelsea a 3-2 defeat at Milltown. Seen as a legend by both Rovers fans and the natives of Waterford city, Coad received a P.F.A.I. Merit award in 1983 for “services to the game in Ireland”, and was one of three inaugural members of the League of Ireland Hall of Fame in 1991. The Shamrock Rovers “Player of the Year” trophy is named in his memory.

Sean McCarthy

Born a few miles outside Dunmanway in West Cork in January 1922, “Big Seanie” (a name used to distinguish him from another, smaller member of the Cork United squad) McCarthy played for a number of youth and junior clubs (helping Clifton F.C. to the Munster Minor Cup in 1939 and 1940) in Cork city before signing for Cork United in time for the beginning of the 1940-41 season. The 18-year old made his mark instantly, scoring on his league debut in a 1-1 draw with Shamrock Rovers at Milltown, and contributing 14 league and cup goals in a season that saw United become the first side from outside Dublin to achieve a League of Ireland and F.A.I. Cup double. McCarthy himself scored one of the goals in the 3-1 cup final replay victory over Waterford, and the following season, he netted 19 times (13 in the league) as United retained the league championship, but were beaten by a determined Dundalk side in the F.A.I. Cup decider.

Despite his club nickname, McCarthy was not quite six feet tall, and was quite a lean player during the early part of his career. Skill, bravery and intelligent positioning were considered to be his most telling attributes. A third league title in 1943 helped to cement Cork United’s place as the greatest League of Ireland team of the 1940s, and McCarthy’s 16 league goals (enough to crown him that season’s top scorer) seemed to confirm him as the top centre-forward of the time. That issue would be put beyond doubt during the following two league campaigns, as McCarthy became the first player to top the League of Ireland goalscoring charts in three successive seasons. In 1944 he netted 16, while in 1945, the striker’s incredible haul of 26 goals in just 14 games (the closest any player has ever come to achieving a season average of two a game) propelled his club to a fourth League of Ireland title in just five years.

McCarthy transferred to the famous Belfast Celtic club in 1945, and amassed a remarkable 56 goals during an eventful first season in the north. As well as winning a Gold Cup medal, the centre-forward was capped by the Irish League, and also by the I.F.A., in a victory international against England (but for the war, McCarthy would almost certainly have been capped by the F.A.I.). He soon sought a move back to Cork, however, and rejoined Cork United in time to score seven goals (from the inside-right position, with Paddy O’Leary being firmly established at centre-forward) in their march to victory in the 1947 F.A.I. Cup. He followed this by topping the league’s goalscoring charts for a fourth time in the 1947-48 season, but Cork United’s subsequent demise prompted McCarthy to emigrate to the U.K. during the months that followed.

Taking up a job at the famous Ford factory in Dagenham, “Big Seanie” began playing Southern League football for Dartford F.C., and somewhat ironically, now began making more money from the game than he ever had before, repaying the club by finishing the league’s top scorer with 21 goals. His displays saw him attract the attention of Bristol City, but a one-year stay at Ashton Gate never really came to anything, and McCarthy returned to Cork in 1950, where he linked up with ambitious Munster Senior League outfit Evergreen United. As part of their inaugural League of Ireland squad in 1951, he soon proved the old magic was still there, and McCarthy’s 15 goals helped the club to an impressive fifth place finish in their debut national league campaign. He was a crucial part of the side again the following year, and helped the club progress to the F.A.I. Cup final, where McCarthy came face to face with many of his old Cork United teammates, now appearing in the guise of Cork Athletic. Denied a third winners’ medal, the forward found himself on the fringe of the club’s plans in the seasons that followed, and by 1956, he had seen his last League of Ireland action. McCarthy would depart for the U.K. again in the late 1950s (again settling in the London area), this time remaining for good.

As well as the quantity of goals that he accumulated in his heyday in the 1940s (he was surprisingly not capped by the League of Ireland until 1944, responding with three goals in three games), McCarthy was also fondly remembered for the quality of his goals, regularly stunning league crowds with moments of sheer brilliance. One instance of his penchant for the spectacular was an F.A.I. Cup semi-final against Drumcondra in 1942, where, with his back to goal, he volleyed the ball in from 25 yards, and reputedly did not even turn around to confirm that it had hit the net (he scored all four in United’s 4-2 victory on the day). A superb individual goal in a league game against St. James’s Gate at the Mardyke, meanwhile, was said to have drawn a flurry of applause and congratulations from his opponents, and from the visiting fans.

Liam Tuohy

Born in Dublin in April of 1933, Liam Tuohy’s footballing talent came to the attention of Shamrock Rovers when he competed against them in an F.A.I. Youth Cup match with St. Mary’s, of East Wall. Signing for the club in August of 1951, Tuohy initially struggled to break into the Hoops’ first-team plans (despite finishing top scorer for the u-21 and reserve sides, and the fact that Rovers had no out-and-out left-sided forward), so much so that he began lining out for the St. Mary’s club again in 1953. A selection crisis at Milltown saw him handed a League of Ireland berth against St. Patrick’s Athletic in March of 1954, however, and Tuohy would go on to make a telling contribution to what was Shamrock Rovers’ first league championship success for 15 years, scoring the winner in the title decider against Evergreen United.

As part of Paddy Coad's “Colts”, Tuohy won further League of Ireland medals in 1957 and 1959 (finishing as club top scorer in this latter season), was part of the F.A.I. Cup-winning sides of 1955 (scoring in every round of the competition, and the only goal of the final against Drumcondra, the club he had supported as a youth) and 1956, and also picked up four League of Ireland Shield medals between 1955 and 1958. His intuition, pace and great eye for goal saw him attract the attention of a number of English clubs, and in 1960, Tuohy was signed by Newcastle United. Intense competition for the outside-left berth at St. James’s Park saw his first-team opportunities being limited, however, and after three largely unspectacular years (he did manage to score nine English League goals), he was back with Shamrock Rovers in time to make an important contribution (scoring 13 league goals, and also seeing out the F.A.I. Cup final replay despite sustaining two cracked ribs) to their “Grand Slam” success of 1964.

With the controversial departure of Sean Thomas as Rovers’ manager at the end of that historic season, Liam Tuohy was a natural choice to take over as player-manager in time for the beginning of the 1964-65 campaign. Under Tuohy’s guidance, the Hoops won the F.A.I. Cup for each of the next five years to complete an incredible six-in-a-row. Tuohy retired as a player after the 1967-68 season, but not before he had amassed a total of 87 League of Ireland goals (he finished as the league’s joint-second highest scorer for the 1965-66 season) and 20 F.A.I. Cup goals for Shamrock Rovers, and scooped the Irish Soccer Writers’ “Personality of the Year” award for 1966.

Having scored European goals for Rovers in clashes with O.G.C. Nice, Valencia, Zaragoza and Bayern Munich (the latter a tremendous individual effort), Tuohy also had hugely impressive international and inter-league careers. But while the League of Ireland selectors rewarded him with 24 inter-league caps over the course of his playing career (his total of seven goals for the representative side is a record shared with Donal Leahy), the F.A.I. international selection committee only saw fit to name Tuohy on the Irish team a total of eight times. Having been handed his Ireland debut as far back as October 1955 in a friendly defeat by Yugoslavia at Dalymount Park, Tuohy found himself excluded from the first 11 until April of 1959 (he won three ‘B’ caps in the meantime), when he scored his country's first ever European Championship goal in a 2-0 win over Czechoslovakia. Although retained for the next outing against the same opposition, he was squeezed out of the side again after this (the lack of regular first team football at Newcastle would not have helped), not returning until a Dalymount Park friendly against Austria in April 1962, where he scored in a 3-2 defeat. Retained for two subsequent European championship matches against Iceland, Tuohy scored in both, ensuring that he was responsible for Ireland’s first home and away goals in the European international competition. But despite three goals in these three successive matches, Tuohy was subsequently dropped (he was never dropped by Shamrock Rovers after that appearance against Pats in 1954) by the international selection committee, and was destined to win just two more caps for the Irish national side.

His job as a H.B. Ice-Cream regional manager having taken him to the north-east of the country in 1969, Tuohy took over as manager of Dundalk F.C. (he also sat on the club’s board of directors) soon afterwards, and succeeded in balancing the Louth club’s precarious finances, as well as reviving their youth and local player policies. Mick Meagan’s resignation as Republic of Ireland manager in 1971 gave Tuohy the opportunity to combine club and international management, but this stint as dual-manager took in only one Ireland match, a disappointing 6-0 defeat by Austria in October 1971. Leaving his Dundalk post at the end of the 1971-72 season, Tuohy took an Irish squad to a “mini-World Cup” tournament in Brazil, where victories over Iran and Ecuador represented Ireland’s first international wins since 1967.

Despite beginning a second spell as Shamrock Rovers manager on his return, Tuohy remained international boss for Ireland’s qualifying campaign for the 1974 World Cup, where a win and a draw were accrued against France, but two defeats against a strong Soviet Union side would cost his team a place in the finals. He resigned as manager in May 1973 (he would, however, manage a “Shamrock Rovers XI” all-Ireland team against Brazil at Lansdowne Road two months later) citing work pressures, but having been in the running for the Ireland job on a couple of subsequent occasions, he was controversially overlooked in favour of Eoin Hand in 1980. Tuohy did (after a brief spell as Shelbourne manager) take control of the Irish youth teams a few years later, and a very successful stint (with future Ireland manager Brian Kerr as his assistant) saw him lead the u-19s to the semi-finals of the European Championships in 1984. This achievement was just the latest in a series of services that Tuohy had performed for the game of football in Ireland.

Alfie Hale

Alfie Hale was born in Waterford in August 1939, and as a member of a family that already had a proven track record in League of Ireland football (his father and three uncles had all played for Waterford in the 1930s), he was accepted into the ranks of Waterford F.C. at the age of 16. The diminutive but dynamic forward was given his League of Ireland debut in March of 1957, scoring in a 3-1 win over Bohemians, a game that also saw another future Waterford and Ireland star, Peter Fitzgerald, scoring on his debut. When older brother George signed for Cork Hibernians for the 1957-58 season, Alfie Hale followed suit, but having been given little or no opportunity to impress, he returned to his hometown to spend the rest of the season in junior football, before re-signing for Waterford F.C. in time for the beginning of the 1958-59 campaign.

The centre-forward made a huge impact in his first season back, helping the club to victory in the League of Ireland Shield (he finished as the club’s top league goalscorer the same season, with 18 goals; another brother, Richard ‘Dixie’ Hale, scored seven), and his absence from the F.A.I. Cup final (and subsequent replay) through injury was cited as a major reason for the team’s unexpected loss to St. Patrick’s Athletic. Continuing to impress after his recovery (he hit hat-tricks in his inter-league debut against the Hessen League, and in an Olympic qualifier against Holland), Hale was signed by Aston Villa for £4,500 in June 1960, and although he made only seven first team appearances (scoring two goals) for the Birmingham club during the following two seasons, he was handed a first full international cap (he had previously represented his country at schoolboy, youth and amateur levels) for Ireland in a 3-2 friendly defeat by Austria in April 1962. He signed for Doncaster Rovers soon afterwards, and went on to score 42 goals in 119 league appearances (receiving three further international caps in European championship ties with Iceland and Spain), before transferring to Newport County in time for the 1965-66 season.

Hale scored 21 goals in 34 league appearances for the Welsh outfit, before returning to his native Waterford at the end of the season, where the local team had just secured their first ever League of Ireland title. Although the club slipped to fifth in 1967, Hale’s good form during the campaign did see him recalled to the Irish international team, albeit briefly, for another European championship encounter against Spain. The next three seasons would prove to be fantastic for Hale and his club, with the league trophy coming to Kilcohan Park at the end of each of those campaigns. He finished as the club’s top scorer in 1968, joint-top scorer in 1969, and as player-manager in the 1969-70 season, scored 12 important goals in his last 13 league matches. Meanwhile, a substitute appearance for the Irish national side in a friendly against Poland in May of 1968 saw Hale register his first senior international goal, and winning three more caps before the end of the year, he scored a second goal in another friendly against Austria in November (Hale would win five more international caps before the end of 1973, bringing his total to 14).

Waterford missed out on a historic “four-in-a-row” in 1971 by just one point, but Hale and his club regained the championship in dramatic circumstances the following year, coming from two goals down to defeat rivals Cork Hibernians 3-2 in the last match of the season. Hale scored in the Flower Lodge encounter (with a header; he scored a surprisingly large amount of goals with his head) to draw level with Hibs’ Tony Marsden on 22 goals, and finish the season as the League of Ireland’s joint-top goalscorer. Collecting a fifth league-winner’s medal in 1972-73, he again had to share the season’s goalscoring accolades, this time with Finn Harps’ Terry Harkin (both finished with 20 league strikes). Financial difficulties at Waterford forced them to sell Hale to Munster rivals Cork Celtic midway through the 1973-74 season, and he picked up yet another League of Ireland championship medal at the end of that campaign. Taking over as player-manager of Celtic for much of the following season, he joined up with St. Patrick’s Athletic in the summer of 1975, before moving on to Limerick F.C. for the 1976-77 season. Leaving the league scene for a number of years, Hale re-surfaced as player-manager of the doomed Thurles Town for the 1981-82 season, where he made history by becoming (at 42) the League of Ireland's oldest ever goalscorer, and also the only player to score in four different League of Ireland decades.

Taking over as the first manager of the newly-renamed Waterford United in 1982, he led the club to victory in the League Cup in 1985, and reached an F.A.I. Cup final in 1986, losing to the all-conquering Shamrock Rovers. Taking charge of Cobh Ramblers in 1988, he was unable to prevent them from being relegated from the Premier Division, and resigned his position in September 1989 (Hale had, however, introduced one Roy Keane to the Ramblers squad). Hale later renewed acquaintances with Waterford United, and led them to promotion to the top flight in the 1991-92 season at the expense of the Cobh outfit. As manager of Kilkenny City, Hale called upon the services of several of his former Waterford charges (including his son Richie) in guiding the Cats to the 1997 First Division championship. A poor season in the top flight saw Kilkenny being relegated the following year, but as was the case with his native Waterford, Hale’s legendary status amongst the city’s football fans had already been secured.

Al Finucane

Born in Limerick in 1943, Al Finucane is regarded as possibly the greatest defender ever to feature in League of Ireland football. Signed by Limerick F.C. from local youth side Reds United, a 17-year old Finucane made his debut for the club in a 2-2 draw with Shamrock Rovers in the League of Ireland shield. Playing primarily as a wing-half (he would become more associated with the centre-half berth in later years), his reputation among his Limerick teammates became such that he was handed the captaincy of the Shannonside club while still in his early 20’s, and amongst opponents, too, Finucane garnered tremendous respect. Eschewing many of the more traditional, overly-physical aspects of defensive play, his positioning, composure and distribution were among his most celebrated attributes.

As part of a largely local Limerick team, Finucane was the losing captain in the 1965 and 1966 F.A.I. Cup finals, with Shamrock Rovers denying the Shannonsiders on both occasions. Having been voted Irish Soccer Personality of the Year in 1967, he led his side to a first Dublin City Cup in 1970, before the club finally got their hands on Irish football’s greatest prize the following year, Finucane climbing the Dalymount steps after Limerick’s 3-0 F.A.I. Cup final replay victory over Drogheda.

Already established in the inter-league side (regularly captaining the selection, most notably in the 1971 League of Ireland “Jubilee” match against the English League, he would win a total of 16 caps), Finucane was drafted into the senior international team in 1967, being deployed as a sweeper in a disappointing 2-1 European Championship qualifier defeat in Turkey (the player's own performance was singled out as one of the few positives for the Irish team). Although retained for the next outing, Finucane’s culpability for both Czechoslovakian goals in a 2-0 defeat at Dalymount Park saw him being excluded from the international reckoning for a period of two years, before being recalled in the midst of a four-match winless streak for Ireland for a World Cup qualifier against the same opposition, at the same venue. While the Czechs again took the spoils, Finucane would remain a key player for his country over the next two years, but unfortunately, without being part of a winning Irish side. By the time Finucane won his eleventh and last cap as captain (11 other League of Ireland players also featured that day) in a 6-0 European Championship qualifier defeat against Austria in Linz, the team had gone 20 matches without a victory.

Denied any real success in the League of Ireland itself, Finucane transferred to the all-conquering Waterford side in 1973, hoping to contribute to what would be an incredible seventh championship win for the Suirsiders in just nine seasons. A win over Finn Harps in the final of the inaugural League Cup was the highlight of that first year, however, and although Waterford would play their part in many league races in the second half of the decade, championship honours would ultimately escape Finucane. His greatest day as a Waterford player came in 1980, when (at the age of 37) he captained them to their first F.A.I. Cup win in 43 years, becoming only the second player (after Johnny Fullam) to skipper two clubs to victory in that trophy.

A return to his hometown club in 1981 was rewarded with a third F.A.I. Cup medal in 1982, before Finucane departed for Waterford again in 1986. The defender made history in the club’s European Cup Winners’ Cup tie against Bordeaux that year, when at 43, he became the oldest ever player to appear in a European match. A subsequent stint at Newcastlewest saw Finucane cement another record, as the player with the greatest total amount of League of Ireland appearances. Perhaps equally remarkable was the fact that in a 28-year League of Ireland career, Finucane never once received a red card, and indeed was only booked on three occasions.

Turlough O'Connor

Born in Athlone in July 1946, Turlough O’Connor began playing junior football for local side Gentex at the age of just 15. Although lining out at outside-left, O’Connor’s goalscoring instincts were soon obvious, and his performances saw him secure two F.A.I. Youth caps, which in turn led to a move to League of Ireland side Limerick. Despite scoring on his debut in a 1-0 shield win over Sligo Rovers, the young forward never fully settled at the Munster club, and soon returned to Co. Westmeath to play for Athlone Town in the League of Ireland ‘B’ league.

Having previously been beaten to his signature by Limerick boss Ewan Fenton, Bohemians manager Sean Thomas finally succeeded in bringing O’Connor to Dalymount Park in February 1965. Another debut goal in a 1-0 win over Cork Hibernians precipitated seven more league strikes that season (enough to install him as the club’s top scorer), and O’Connor’s goals helped propel the Gypsies to third place in the table, their best finish for 24 years. He was in the scoring groove again the following year by the time that Fulham scouts arrived to watch his teammate Jimmy Conway, and both players were soon on their way to the west London outfit.

Despite spending two seasons with the Cottagers, O’Connor was limited to just a single first team appearance for the club, and had to make do with being the top scorer for the Fulham reserve side. A debut international appearance for Ireland against Czechoslovakia in Prague (in which O’Connor scored a dramatic late diving header to deny the eastern Europeans a place at the 1968 European Championships) was the only real highlight of a dour tenure, and although two hernia operations had certainly not helped his cause, the centre-forward was put out of his misery with a £4,000 transfer to Dundalk in 1968. The move was an instant success, with O’Connor finishing as the Lilywhites’ top marksman in the 1968-69 campaign (second only to Mick Leech in the overall league standings), and he scored twice in the club’s Dublin City Cup final win over Shamrock Rovers (O’Connor also scored on his inter-league debut against the Irish League). Although severely restricted by a cartilage operation the following year, he did score four goals (two of them audacious efforts from inside his own half) for Dundalk in a 6-1 league victory over Waterford, in the season that the Blues completed a championship “three-in-a-row”.

O’Connor topped the club’s goalscoring charts in 1970-71 and 1971-72 (bagging another league hat-trick against champions Waterford in March 1972), and scored in Dundalk’s 5-0 shield final win over local rivals Drogheda, before financial problems at Dundalk forced them to offload O’Connor to Bohemians in time for the start of the 1972-73 season. As the club’s top scorer, he helped them to a third consecutive top four finish, before topping the overall League of Ireland goalscoring charts (along with teammate Terry Flanagan) in 1974 with 18 goals. Those strikes were not enough to prevent Cork Celtic from becoming champions, but despite O’Connor missing much of the following campaign through injury, the league title, and also the League Cup, came to Dalymount Park during the 1974-75 season.

Despite his contribution to that victory in Prague (which would actually come to represent Ireland’s only win over the course of a 24-match stretch) O’Connor had to wait four years for his next cap, when he lined out in an almost exclusively home-based team against Austria in Linz. Although the side was hammered 6-0 by their hosts, O’Connor himself was included in Liam Tuohy’s squad for the Brazilian Independence Cup (seen as a mini World Cup), and gaining caps against Iran, Chile (unfortunately being sent off in this game) and Portugal, he also scored a 40-yard winner in a 3-2 victory over Ecuador. Two further substitute appearances (as a Bohemians player) in a World Cup qualifier against France and a friendly against Poland brought the curtain down on O’Connor’s international career.

With the former Ireland striker as one of the side’s most influential members, Bohs (with Billy Young having taken over from Sean Thomas in 1973) continued to enjoy success as the 1970s progressed, taking the F.A.I. Cup in 1976, another league title in 1978 (O’Connor scoring a club record 24 goals to top the league’s scoring charts for a second time), and, with O’Connor scoring both in a 2-0 win over Shamrock Rovers, a second League Cup in 1979. At the end of the 1978-79 season, having installed himself as not only the top league goalscorer in Bohemians’ history (120 goals), but the top scorer in the history of the League of Ireland (he would later be overtaken by Brendan Bradley and Pat Morley), O’Connor returned to Co. Westmeath to become player-manager of Athlone Town.

With two of his brothers in the side as well (Padraig had also been a teammate of Turlough’s at Bohemians; both Padraig and Michael would manage Athlone later), the managerial reign of Turlough O’Connor began very satisfactorily, with the League Cup (the club’s biggest coup since the Free State Cup of 1924) and the Tyler Cup being captured in that first campaign. The club also finished third in the 1980 league table, but it was still a huge surprise when they managed to hold off Dundalk to take a very first league title the following season, and O’Connor was presented with the Irish Soccer Writers’ “Personality of the Year” award. Although a vast amount of goalscoring talent at the club (Eugene Davis, Frank Devlin, Larry Wyse, Michael O’Connor, Noel Larkin etc.) prevented him from making a real playing contribution, the team went from strength to strength in the seasons that followed, reaching three consecutive League Cup finals (winning two), and, with a 100% home record at St. Mel’s Park, taking a second League of Ireland title in 1983. Two further third-placed finishes brought the curtain down on O’Connor’s reign as Athlone Town manager (he also retired as a player at the end of 1984-85, having scored 178 League of Ireland goals), before he took the reigns at Dundalk in June 1985.

With the Lilywhites having grown accustomed to success under Jim McLaughlin, O’Connor responded well to the pressure of his new post, and by the 1986-87 season, had built a very formidable outfit. That season brought a League Cup final win over Shamrock Rovers (O’Connor’s men had lost the previous year’s decider to Galway United), but the Hoops prevented Dundalk from taking the year’s most coveted prizes, winning the F.A.I. Cup final 3-0, and finishing nine points clear at the top of the league to capture their third successive “double”. With Rovers handicapped by the Milltown saga the following season, however, the way was clear for O’Connor’s Dundalk to step into the breach, and a 1-0 win over Derry City in the cup final combined with their besting of St. Patrick's Athletic in the league title race meant that the Oriel Park club recorded a double of their own.

Edged out by Derry City in the league and the League Cup final the following year, O’Connor masterminded his fifth managerial League Cup win in 1990 when the Brandywell club were beaten on penalties. Better was to follow, however, with a Tom McNulty goal at Turner’s Cross ensuring another league championship success in 1991. An F.A.I. Cup final defeat to Shelbourne in 1993, however, would prove to be O’Connor’s last flirtation with honours at Dundalk, as he took over the vacant Bohemians hotseat later that year.

Despite spending five years at the Dalymount Park helm, an increasingly competitive championship meant that two league runners-up finishes (1996 and 1997) and four successive F.A.I. Cup semi-final defeats (three of them at the hands of Derry City) were as good as it got for O’Connor as Bohemians’ manager. He left the post in 1998, but his reputation as one of the League of Ireland’s most successful players, and managers, remained wholly intact.

Mick Leech

Mick Leech, also known as “Mr. Goals” and “the Jimmy Greaves of Irish soccer”, was born in Dublin in August of 1948. Showing great promise as a Gaelic footballer, he played at corner-forward for the Dublin schools side (his club was Rialto Gaels), but having lined out for St. Brigid’s F.C. as a 14-year old, and appearing in the Leinster Senior League at the age of 16 with Ormeau, he gradually began to commit himself to soccer. His form in the L.S.L. had seen him go to the European Youth Championships in West Germany with Ireland in 1965, and also led to an apprenticeship with Northampton Town in the early part of 1966. Returning home after just four months, Leech scored three times for Ormeau in a friendly against Shamrock Rovers in October 1966, and signed for Liam Tuohy’s side in November of that year.

After spending just six weeks in the Rovers reserve team (he scored four goals on his debut for the reserve side), the young centre-forward was handed his League of Ireland debut in a 2-1 win over Dundalk on New Year’s Day 1967, and by March of that year he had firmly cemented his place in the side. Leech made a huge contribution to what was the Hoops’ fourth consecutive F.A.I. Cup success that season, scoring three goals in his side’s semi-final matches with Dundalk, and also netting in the decider against St. Patrick’s Athletic (the club he had supported as a boy), the first ever F.A.I. Cup final to be broadcast live on Irish television.

A key role in Rovers’ F.A.I. (including two goals in the semi-final and again in the final) and Blaxnit Cup wins the following year meant that Leech’s status as a Shamrock Rovers crowd favourite was assured by the end of the 1967-68 season. The striker’s sideburnt, George Best-style appearance, combined with the flamboyance and audacity of his play (epitomised by his cheekily patting a dejected Waterford goalkeeper Peter Thomas on the head after scoring past him in the 1968 cup decider) meant that by the end of the campaign, he was one of the league’s most prominent personalities.

The 1968-69 season was a truly remarkable one for Leech. Beginning with 10 goals in the Hoops’ 11 League of Ireland Shield games, the forward went on to score an incredible 56 goals in all competitions, equalling the haul of Drumcondra’s Dan McCaffrey in 1960-61. Leech’s tally included 19 in the league itself (ensuring he finished as the championship’s top scorer) and two in the F.A.I. Cup final replay victory over Cork Celtic. He was rewarded with a call-up to the Irish international team for World Cup qualifiers against Czechoslovakia, Denmark and Hungary (he would win five further caps, scoring against Iran and Portugal in the Brazilian Independence Cup of 1972), and also snared the coveted Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland “Personality of the Year” award for 1969.

A defeat in the 1970-71 championship play-off against Cork Hibernians (Leech had had an apparently valid goal disallowed during a 0-0 draw between the sides during the run-in) meant that league honours continued to elude Leech, and even a move to Waterford in December 1973 did not change that pattern. After helping Waterford to victory in the inaugural League Cup final in 1974 (and also scoring the only goal in Waterford’s 1-0 F.A.I. Cup first round win over Rovers the same season), he returned to Milltown in September 1976, and his spectacular last-minute goal in that season’s League Cup decider against Sligo Rovers was his 250th in senior football.

The arrival of Johnny Giles to Shamrock Rovers in 1977, however, signalled an end to Leech’s Milltown career, with Giles’ full-time, professional structures not particularly appealing to the striker. A short spell at Bohemians did see Leech make a small contribution to the club’s title success, but having largely been a fringe player at Dalymount, he moved to Drogheda United for the 1978-79 season. Proving he still had a lot to offer, he registered 13 league goals to help the Louth club to their third consecutive top three finish (he scored twice in his Drogheda debut in a League Cup match), but a move to St. Patrick’s Athletic midway through the following campaign precipitated Leech’s retirement as a player in 1981.

Leech ventured into coaching in the 1982-83 season (Leech also acted as Secretary of the Players Union during the early years of his retirement) as an assistant to Jim McLaughlin at Dundalk, and under his tutelage, the Lilywhites’ reserve side stormed to the League of Ireland ‘B’ championship with 17 points to spare. Leech subsequently coached Ballyfermot United and the Garda soccer side, before taking the job as Athlone Town manager in 1990, and helping the club to prolong their Premier Division status for one more season.

Despite retiring what he himself felt was a few seasons too early, Leech’s opportunism, positioning and ball control meant that he remains high on the League of Ireland’s list of all-time highest scorers, with 132 goals. Many felt he could have enjoyed a good career in the English league, but scrutiny by West Ham in 1967 (the Cunningham family opposed the move) and Middlesbrough in 1971 (Leech was deployed in an unfamiliar midfield role on the day) ultimately came to nothing. The winner of four inter-league caps, Leech was inducted as a “Shamrock Rovers Legend” in 2006.

Brendan Bradley

Born in Derry in June 1949, the footballing talents of Brendan ‘Beezer’ Bradley were apparent from an early age, and having lined out in the Derry and District League as a mere 15-year old, it wasn’t long before he had joined the ranks at Derry City F.C. Despite impressing for the Candystripes’ reserve team, however, and also making a handful of first team appearances (he had even scored on his debut in a North-West Cup final against Coleraine), City were happy to accept an offer of £100 for the seemingly lethargic, somewhat unassuming striker from Finn Harps manager Patsy McGowan in August of 1969.

Harps had just gained admission to the League of Ireland, but a 10-2 drubbing in their opening Dublin City Cup match against Shamrock Rovers prompted many to believe that the decision to admit them to the senior ranks had been extremely ill-advised. Bradley wasn’t listening, however, and having scored on his debut in a 3-3 shield draw with Dundalk, he went on to finish as the League of Ireland’s top goalscorer in the 1969-70 season, and propel the Donegal club to a respectable top-half finish.

Bradley repeated the trick the following season, and having finished in the top three of the scorers’ list again in 1971-72, he also fired the only the goal of the game (a piledriver from 35 yards) in the Dublin City Cup final against Cork Hibernians, to give Harps their first trophy as a League of Ireland club. A move across channel, to Lincoln City, followed in July of 1972, and 12 goals in his first 19 appearances for the Fourth Division side made a mockery of the £6,000 that Harps had received for his services. Harps, however, were faring surprisingly well in Bradley’s absence, being locked in a battle for the 1973 league title with the great Waterford team of the time.

A bad run of results and a change of manager at Lincoln City, as well as a dip in Bradley’s own form, saw the striker seek a return to his old club, and before the end of the season, Bradley rejoined his teammates in Ballybofey (McGowan had somehow managed to bring the striker back for just £4,000). Despite scoring in a 3-2 win over Waterford at Finn Park on the second last day of the season, Bradley was to be denied a championship medal, the Blues doing enough to take yet another league title, just one point ahead of Harps.

Normal service was resumed for Bradley in 1973-74, finishing joint-third in the League of Ireland goalscoring stakes as Harps finished fourth, but it would be his contribution in another competition this season that would prove far more significant. Bradley scored three goals as Harps made their way to their first F.A.I. Cup final, and scored two more in the decider itself, as the Donegal club lifted the trophy after a 3-1 win over St. Patrick’s Athletic. It would be the Derryman’s finest hour.

Having netted for Harps in their European Cup Winners’ Cup tie with Bursaspor of Turkey, Bradley proceeded to top the league goalscoring charts for a third time in 1975, and for a record-equalling fourth time the following year (he also won the 1976 Irish Soccer Writer’s “Personality of the Year” award), with a personal best season haul of 29 (including all six in a 6-1 win over Sligo Rovers) in 26 matches on this latter occasion. It was not enough to secure a league title for Harps, however, with a strong Dundalk side ensuring a second set of runners-up medals for the Finn Park club. A similar fate befell them in 1978 as well, when Bohemians edged them out by just two points. Bradley moved to Athlone at the end of this season, but left for Sligo Rovers the following year, to link up with Patsy McGowan. Bradley finished as the league’s second highest scorer in 1981 (he also picked up an F.A.I. Cup runners-up medal), before returning to Finn Park to once again join McGowan in 1982. He accounted for almost half of Harps’ league goals in 1982-83, and one more strike would have seen him share the top spot with Athlone’s Noel Larkin, and overtake Sean McCarthy to become the only man to head the list in five different seasons. Bradley had already moved clear as the most prolific striker in the league’s history, however, and by the time he wound up his career at his hometown club Derry City in 1986 (winning a First Division Shield medal, and scoring twice in a 3-0 F.A.I. Cup win over Finn Harps), he had amassed an incredible 235 League of Ireland goals. It seems something of an injustice, therefore, that despite his outstanding achievements, Bradley would never be capped by Northern Ireland, and was honoured by the League of Ireland representative side on just three occasions. Still a regular patron of Finn Park, Brendan Bradley was inducted into the F.A.I. Hall of Fame in 1999.

Jim McLaughlin

Born in Derry in December 1940, Jim McLaughlin began his playing career with Derry City, before signing for Birmingham City in 1958. Although confined to the reserves during his time with the midlands club, he gained a reputation as a tricky and tenacious winger, and after enjoying more productive spells with Shrewsbury Town, Peterborough United and Swansea City, he eventually scored 126 goals in 456 English League appearances. He gained 12 caps for Northern Ireland, scoring an impressive tally of six goals, including two in a 4-3 defeat by England at Windsor Park in 1964 (having sustained a dislocated finger earlier in the match), and both in a 2-0 win over Greece in a World Cup qualifier in Belfast in 1961.

Having gained some coaching experience with Swansea, McLaughlin joined Dundalk as player-manager upon his return to Ireland in 1974. Many would have seen the job as a poisoned chalice, as the club had gone through six managers in as many seasons, and had been experiencing considerable financial difficulties for much of the early 1970s. A shock 1-0 defeat in the F.A.I. Cup against lowly Home Farm suggested that McLaughlin would have his work cut out at the Co. Louth club, but despite this setback, he managed (with essentially the same squad) to bring the club to fifth in the league table, eight places higher than the previous season.

Operating within a very tight budget, McLaughlin added a number of players during the summer (Irish international Tommy McConville was the only particularly costly acquisition), and after bringing in former league top scorer Terry Flanagan from Bohemians a few months later, a 21-match unbeaten run saw the Lilywhites stride to their fourth League of Ireland championship four points ahead of Finn Harps. McLaughlin (who himself played a key role as full-back) was hailed as a hero by the fans, and with success generating extra capital, former Irish international Mick Lawlor was added to the squad during the close season.

Having achieved a 1-1 European Cup draw with P.S.V. Eindhoven (featuring Dutch international superstars Rene and Willie van der Kerkhof) at Oriel Park, McLaughlin’s men surprisingly lost six of their first eight matches to all but surrender any chance of retaining the title, but a great run of form in the second half of the league (the club eventually finished fifth) was allied to a place in the final of the F.A.I. Cup, where a 2-0 win over Limerick gave McLaughlin another piece of highly-prized silverware. The Leinster Senior Cup was also garnered, and with Hajduk Split being beaten (McLaughlin himself was one of the best players on the night) in the first leg of a European Cup Winners’ Cup tie the following year (another former international, Paddy Dunning, had been added during the summer), the Derryman’s achievements were augmented by a League Cup final penalty shootout win over Cork Alberts, and a retention of the Leinster Senior trophy. Although the club slipped to eleventh in the league table (not helped by the sudden and unexpected death of squad member Brian McConville), the sale of three promising young players to Liverpool (including a new Irish international cap, Synan Braddish), gave McLaughlin the monies to launch a fresh assault on the transfer market.

With the uncompromising Home Farm defender Dermot Keely being drafted in, Cathal Muckian joined from local rivals Drogheda United (having scored a club record 21 league goals the previous season), and Finn Harps star Hilary Carlyle also joined the Oriel Park payroll. Despite strong challenges from Bohemians, Drogheda and Waterford, the title was wrapped up on the second last day of the season, and with Waterford (who had done a league double over Dundalk) being dispatched in the F.A.I. Cup decider, McLaughlin (in his last season as a player, and with three other players from the 1976 squad) had overseen the Co. Louth club’s first ever league and cup double. He was, therefore, an obvious choice for the Irish Soccer Writers’ “Personality of the Year” award for 1979.

It could scarcely have gotten any better for McLaughlin, but new heights were reached in the European Cup campaign of the following season, when victories over Linfield and Hibernians (of Malta) set up a second round tie with Glasgow Celtic, with a place in the quarter-finals of the world’s premier club competition being the reward for the winners. After achieving a remarkable 3-2 defeat at Parkhead in the first leg, 21,000 people were in Oriel Park to watch McLaughlin’s side almost achieve the 1-0 victory (despite endless pressure, they could not break the Celtic rearguard) that would have seen them progress on the away goals rule. Instead the club would have to be content with the league runners-up position (Eoin Hand’s Limerick United finished just one point ahead), and a new League of Ireland defensive record of just 13 goals conceded in 30 league games.

Another penalty shootout win in the final of the League Cup (this time against Galway Rovers) was the prelude to McLaughlin’s third F.A.I. Cup victory in 1981, with Sligo Rovers being beaten 2-0 at Dalymount Park. By the time McLaughlin oversaw a third league championship success with Dundalk the following season, the club had also remained unbeaten at Oriel Park over the course of eight European club ties. Although Liverpool would put a blemish on this record the following season, McLaughlin’s belief that his side should “forget reputations, go at them, but give nothing away at the back” had clearly produced results.

Seeking a new challenge, McLaughlin was appointed manager of Shamrock Rovers in the summer of 1983, and his impact at Glenmalure Park was immediate, with signings like Dermot Keely, Noel King (both of whom he had previously brought to Dundalk) and Pat Byrne ensuring the club won their first League of Ireland title since 1964. Over the course of the next two seasons, players like Noel Larkin, Mick Byrne, Liam O’Brien and Paul Doolin contributed to two successive league and F.A.I. Cup doubles, as McLaughlin’s position as the league’s most successful ever manager continued to be re-inforced.

Leaving to take the reigns of his hometown club Derry City in May 1986 (for the first season, he acted in a co-managerial capacity with Noel King), he secured promotion for the Candystripes at his first attempt, as the club won all nine of their away games on their way to the First Division championship. Derry were beaten in the following year’s F.A.I. Cup final by Dundalk, but in 1989, they swept all before them on their way to a remarkable domestic treble, incorporating league, F.A.I. Cup and League Cup honours. Denied the league title by St. Patrick’s Athletic the following season, and the League Cup by Dundalk on penalties, a victory over Limerick City in the 1991 League Cup final was McLaughlin’s last trophy as manager at the Brandywell.

Joining up with Pat Byrne at Shelbourne for the 1991-92 season, their partnership immediately delivered the club’s first League ofIreland title for 30 years, finishing five points ahead of McLaughlin’s most recent employers. The club’s first F.A.I. Cup for 30 years arrived the following season, before Byrne and McLaughlin were controversially relieved of their positions in late 1993. The Derryman took over as manager of Drogheda United soon afterwards, but was unable to prevent the Louth club from losing their Premier Division status. Although the club bounced straight back up the following year, McLaughlin’s good work could not be built on, as United experienced their seemingly inevitable relegation again in 1996. Persuaded to come out of managerial retirement by Dundalk in 1997, McLaughlin struggled to reverse the downward spiral the Lilywhites had been sucked into, and their relegation to the First Division for the first time in their history in 1999 was an unfortunate way for McLaughlin to end his managerial career.

Manager of the League of Ireland representative side on a number of occasions, McLaughlin also took charge of the Irish Olympic side (essentially another League of Ireland XI) for the 1988 qualifying tournament. In 2002, he was presented with the F.A.I.’s Special Merit Award, for his achievements within the domestic game. Incorporated into the Shamrock Rovers Hall of Fame later in the year, he became a Shamrock Rovers “Legend” in 2005. With wins in 1979, 1984 and 1989, McLaughlin is also the only person to win the S.W.A.I. “Personality of the Year” award on more than two occasions.

Although McLaughlin was often criticised during his time at Shamrock Rovers for being something of a “chequebook manager” (Rovers became infamous for offering large signing-on fees), it is hard to argue with his record of eight league titles, seven F.A.I. Cups and four League Cups. His time with Dundalk was probably the best illustration of his capabilities, with his man-management skills and tremendous understanding of the part-time football mindset being very much in evidence. Extremely modest in the midst of his success, McLaughlin was always quick to play down the role of a manager in a winning football team, at all times laying the credit for his achievements at the doors of his players.