Tony Grealish RIP

[paul_oshea]

i dont know if its a private affair but his funeral is at 12 in kilburm on quex road Friday if anybody was thinking of going.

[paul_oshea]

lovely bit of skill there from brady around 4.48

[Junior]

A couple of good headed chances for us, text book stuff, just great saves from the keeper.

Great footage, thanks for posting that.

[Junior]

Another piece, I read on one of the other forums.


Dave Hannigan

Ireland's Viking warrior heads to Valhalla

In the days before everybody had a camera in their phone, a journalist named Bob Hennessy kept his own photographic archive of Irish international football. Among the many gems in his private collection was a shot of a party at the Icelandic manager’s house in Reykjavik following a European Championship qualifier in 1983. It captured Eoin Hand and his opposite number Johannes Atlason sitting on a couch in the later stages of the evening, captivated by the sights and sounds of Irish captain Tony Grealish skilfully playing the spoons on his knee.


A single photograph that contained multitudes, it was a portrait of a different time and a very different game. Imagine a journalist today casually taking snaps of Giovanni Trapattoni and Robbie Keane having a few post-match beers with Joachim Low? No, of course you can’t. That could never happen now. It would never happen now. Better yet, imagine a journalist putting the photograph away in a scrapbook as a treasured keepsake of a magical night spent celebrating a 3-0 Irish victory, rather than uploading it onto Twitter in seconds.


When news broke last Tuesday that Grealish had lost his battle with cancer, an entire generation of Irish fans took a collective intake of breath. He was part of the first Irish team many forty-somethings were old enough to get to know and his passing at 56 makes us all a little more aware of our own mortality. It also dredges up bittersweet memories of Ireland sides which, in so many glorious failures under the seemingly snake-bitten Hand, endeared itself to supporters in a way that far more successful outfits in recent years, have never quite managed to do. The return of Grealish and his distinctive beard to the sports pages this week resurrected the disallowed goals and the dodgy refereeing of another era.


Born in London to parents from Galway and Limerick, Grealish was, as the spoons-playing would indicate, one of those children of the diaspora who was truly more Irish than the Irish themselves. If his uncompromising style of play was honed on Hackney Marshes where he was spotted by Leyton Orient’s George Petchey, the abundant facial hair made him look like he’d just arrived in from fishing off the Aran Islands. Of course, his ancestral origins didn’t stop supporters of the many English clubs he played for from dubbing him “the bearded Viking warrior”.


Every obituary has rightfully mentioned Grealish’s unique claim to fame. Being the only man to play Gaelic football and soccer at the old Wembley Stadium is the type of footnote that will make him a trivia question forever, especially when he could also boast an outing at Croke Park. His family was steeped in the GAA. His father Pakie came from from Lisheenkiel, Athenry to London in the 1950s, was instrumental in founding St. Gabriel’s hurling club in 1960, and helped thousands of Irish arrivals in the city get a start over the ensuing decades. Tony’s cousin John scored the winning goal for Gabriel’s in the final of the London hurling championship last year.


As a boy, Grealish and his brother Brian often accompanied their father in a car full of expatriates driving around Paddington, searching for higher ground so they might better eavesdrop the crackling RTE radio signal for championship matches on Sunday afternoons. The kind of background that ensured when the England U-17s called him up, Grealish was quick to pass on what everybody else thought would be an honour.


Petchey, who had put him in a formidable Orient youth team that also featured Laurie Cunningham and Glenn Roeder, was among those advising him to throw his lot in with Ireland Later, the same man wasn’t thrilled to discover Grealish was still playing GAA on Sundays in New Eltham, long after he’d become a first-team regular at Brisbane Road.


“He (Petchey) said, ‘You’ve got to knock this on the head, especially the hurling, let alone the Gaelic football because you’re in the first team now, you’re playing two days a week,’” recalled Grealish in Paul Rowan’s classic The Team that Jack Built. “’All those mad fxxkers can do what they like but you’re not playing with them!’”


For whichever of his many clubs and for his country, there were always better players than Grealish yet few who were so honest in their toiling for the cause. He wasn’t a superstar but he was more than a journeyman. The other day, a Brighton fan recalled his role in their best ever top flight season and described him accurately as the type you noticed and appreciated more when he wasn’t there. Suddenly, gaps started to appear in the midfield and you realised the amount of hard labour he put in so more gifted colleagues, the likes of Jimmy Case at Brighton, Steve Hunt at West Brom, and Liam Brady with Ireland, could wreak havoc going forward.


Although mostly remembered in green for holding down the midfield in a time, as Opel once put it, before the band joined the wagon, Grealish started his Ireland career at full-back when Johnny Giles gave him his debut as a 19 year old against Norway in a friendly at Dalymount Park in 1976. He went on to captain the side 17 times in his 45 caps over the next nine years.


On the biggest day of his professional career, Grealish led Brighton out at Wembley in the 1983 FA Cup final against Manchester United. Steve Foster, the club captain, was suspended for the game and when the team emerged from the tunnel, Grealish was wearing a white headband, exactly like the one Foster was famous for. Some saw this as him giving two fingers to the FA for the ban, others saw it as him acknowledging the club’s spiritual leader. All agreed it was a gesture typical of the type of man he was.


He had a career trajectory typical to the pros of that era. After a good spell at West Bromwich Albion, there was a short stint at Manchester City but, his powers on the wane, there was the inevitable drift down the divisions, Rotherham, Walsall, Bromsgrove Rovers, and a bizarre loan spell in Portugal with Salgueros, the club of his former Irish team-mate Mickey Walsh. Later, he did some managing and coaching off-Broadway and, like all players of his generation, he worked in the real world, dabbling, amongst other things, in insurance.


A few years back, Grealish was the subject of one of those “where are they now?” features. At that time, he was working in Birmingham in a business that described itself as specialising in aluminium recycling.


“I still call it scrap metal,” said Grealish.

No fuss. No pretence. Calling it like was. Exactly how he played.



http://www.davehannigan.com/2013/05/irelands-viking-warrior-heads-to.html


Dave Hannigan is a columnist with the Evening Echo (Cork), the Irish Echo (New York) and the Irish Mail on Sunday (Dublin). An adjunct professor at SUNY Stony Brook and Suffolk County Community College, he's the author of seven books, including Terence MacSwiney: The Hunger Strike that Rocked an Empire, and the newly-released children’s novel Runt of the Litter. He lives on Long Island.

http://thegoldstonewrap.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tonygrealish1.jpg

[paul_oshea]

A couple of good headed chances for us, text book stuff, just great saves from the keeper.

Great footage, thanks for posting that.

Interesting that we had only won 3 times in 50 years away from home, which Jimmy pointed out. We never win away from home so why does anyone think we are always due one. Me included.

[geysir]

Interesting that we had only won 3 times in 50 years away from home, which Jimmy pointed out. We never win away from home so why does anyone think we are always due one. Me included.
Probably that's for another thread but in the meantime you could do some homework, if you understood why you think like that, you would understand the answer to the question you pose and could explain it to the rest of us.
It would certainly be beyond my experience to figure out why you think like you do.

As soon as we won our first significant qualifier away from home, we did manage to qualify.

[BonnieShels]

More from Off The Ball with Kevin Moran and Eoin Hands memories of Tony.......

Starts at 08:15 and goes through to 17:20
http://media.newstalk.ie/newstalk/media_uploads/upload_mp3/2304_fs.mp3

Have to say the more I listen to and read about Tony, the more I wished I could have seen him play in the flesh for Ireland. I mentioned earlier he sounded like a Kevin Kilbane only a couple of decades earlier. However, he played in a time where we were less successful and it sounds like he was much more of a leader on the pitch. The passion and commitment he showed sounds inspirational. No doubt if he was playing today he would be a firm favourite with all Ireland fans but particularly the 2g/3g striking the chord that KK has done in more recent times.

I completely agree Junior.

It's at times like this where I regret that I was born 10 years too late to see that team in action. I love reading anything about the Hand and Giles eras because they happened just as I was born.

I have bare rememberance of Euro 88 and that's because my dad had the Dutch game on VHS and my first real memory was Italia 90 I would say.

Tony RIP

[OwlsFan]

I completely agree Junior.

It's at times like this where I regret that I was born 10 years too late to see that team in action. I love reading anything about the Hand and Giles eras because they happened just as I was born.

I have bare rememberance of Euro 88 and that's because my dad had the Dutch game on VHS and my first real memory was Italia 90 I would say.

Tony RIP

Trust me you wouldn't have enjoyed it. We qualified for nothing. We had close shaves and we were miles away. It was utterly frustrating despite the obvious talent on the field. Some tremendous games though and the atmosphere in Dalymount was second to none for the big matches. How thousands weren't crushed to death there I don't know. Queuing up for the turnstiles with no place to escape to, hemmed in by concrete walls on both sides. As a kid I didn't give it a thought but looking back now....phew. Beating Turkey 4-0 and the Soviet Union 3-0 but none will ever match Bulgaria 0-1 Scotland or Ireland 1-0 Holland.

The "Giles era" did not go down well with the fans in the end. He tried to change the team in to a passing side and it didn't work although he did improve things we came close enough I think. There is one away game I vaguely remember (Strutts where are you?) where Mick Martin was caught fannying around at the back trying to play out of defence, lost possession and the opposition scored. As a player Giles is the best passer of a ball I have seen and it must be hard in a way for him to see players who wouldn't be fit to tie his laces earning €50k a week. However, perhaps I am different, but I don't enjoy watching players for the sake if it. I want them to succeed with my team/club. I would get no enjoyment if the critics rave over a performance by McCarthy and yet we lose. I don't regret not having seen great Irish players of an era before I went to games because the team wasn't successful. I can enjoy watching Messi and did Pele but as regards my own players only in so far as what they do for my team/club.

Apologies for the ramble.

p.s. I was at that game where East Terracer posted the photo. Some great talent mixed with the mediocre.
pp.s. As regards the picture of Tony G leading the Brighton team out at the Cup Final, he is wearing a head bandage as a tribute to the Brighton captain Steve Foster who was either injured or suspended (Foster wore a bandage in the semi-final). Lovely gesture by Tony.

[BonnieShels]

Trust me you wouldn't have enjoyed it. We qualified for nothing. We had close shaves and we were miles away. It was utterly frustrating despite the obvious talent on the field. Some tremendous games though and the atmosphere in Dalymount was second to none for the big matches. How thousands weren't crushed to death there I don't know. Queuing up for the turnstiles with no place to escape to, hemmed in by concrete walls on both sides. As a kid I didn't give it a thought but looking back now....phew. Beating Turkey 4-0 and the Soviet Union 3-0 but none will ever match Bulgaria 0-1 Scotland or Ireland 1-0 Holland.

The "Giles era" did not go down well with the fans in the end. He tried to change the team in to a passing side and it didn't work although he did improve things we came close enough I think. There is one away game I vaguely remember (Strutts where are you?) where Mick Martin was caught fannying around at the back trying to play out of defence, lost possession and the opposition scored. As a player Giles is the best passer of a ball I have seen and it must be hard in a way for him to see players who wouldn't be fit to tie his laces earning €50k a week. However, perhaps I am different, but I don't enjoy watching players for the sake if it. I want them to succeed with my team/club. I would get no enjoyment if the critics rave over a performance by McCarthy and yet we lose. I don't regret not having seen great Irish players of an era before I went to games because the team wasn't successful. I can enjoy watching Messi and did Pele but as regards my own players only in so far as what they do for my team/club.

Apologies for the ramble.

p.s. I was at that game where East Terracer posted the photo. Some great talent mixed with the mediocre.
pp.s. As regards the picture of Tony G leading the Brighton team out at the Cup Final, he is wearing a head bandage as a tribute to the Brighton captain Steve Foster who was either injured or suspended (Foster wore a bandage in the semi-final). Lovely gesture by Tony.

I know what you're getting at but they are memories you have that I could never have. I'm jealous of that.

To know what the name Gary Mackay means is one thing. To know what it felt like is something else and you, geysir, Stutts and your ilk are lucky people for having it.

[ArdeeBhoy]

The Irish Post tribute.
http://www.irishpost.co.uk/sport/tony-grealish-the-pride-of-irish-london

Go well Tony, the morra. RIP.

[paul_oshea]

Good old Ambrose.

[gastric]

I completely agree Junior.

It's at times like this where I regret that I was born 10 years too late to see that team in action. I love reading anything about the Hand and Giles eras because they happened just as I was born.

I have bare rememberance of Euro 88 and that's because my dad had the Dutch game on VHS and my first real memory was Italia 90 I would say.

Tony RIP

Bonnie, I think you might be romanticising this period prior to Euro 88 a bit as the continuous failure to qualify for major tournaments, despite gallant performances, was incredibly frustrating.
I remember when MacKay scored for Scotland being at work in Dublin and no one was interested in that game as we all thought we were out.
Our qualification was met intially with complete disbelief and no celebrations as we really did not know how to react to such success. I think it was just prior to the Euro Finals that excitement grew and it was only after the famous win over England that the country got behind the team. The days of packed pubs watching the boys arrived and jeez it was great!

[SkStu]

Bonnie, I think you might be romanticising this period prior to Euro 88 a bit as the continuous failure to qualify for major tournaments, despite gallant performances, was incredibly frustrating.
I remember when MacKay scored for Scotland being at work in Dublin and no one was interested in that game as we all thought we were out.
Our qualification was met intially with complete disbelief and no celebrations as we really did not know how to react to such success. I think it was just prior to the Euro Finals that excitement grew and it was only after the famous win over England that the country got behind the team. The days of packed pubs watching the boys arrived and jeez it was great!

Wow. I remember it so differently. For me, it felt like the country stood still...

[BonnieShels]

Bonnie, I think you might be romanticising this period prior to Euro 88 a bit as the continuous failure to qualify for major tournaments, despite gallant performances, was incredibly frustrating.
I remember when MacKay scored for Scotland being at work in Dublin and no one was interested in that game as we all thought we were out.
Our qualification was met intially with complete disbelief and no celebrations as we really did not know how to react to such success. I think it was just prior to the Euro Finals that excitement grew and it was only after the famous win over England that the country got behind the team. The days of packed pubs watching the boys arrived and jeez it was great!

I know it was a period of gutwrenching what-iffery but I still would have loved to remember the Mackay goal and to see the likes of Brady and Stapleton before they finished up.

[geysir]

Bonnie, I think you might be romanticising this period prior to Euro 88 a bit as the continuous failure to qualify for major tournaments, despite gallant performances, was incredibly frustrating.
I remember when MacKay scored for Scotland being at work in Dublin and no one was interested in that game as we all thought we were out.
Our qualification was met intially with complete disbelief and no celebrations as we really did not know how to react to such success. I think it was just prior to the Euro Finals that excitement grew and it was only after the famous win over England that the country got behind the team. The days of packed pubs watching the boys arrived and jeez it was great!
For football fans, Mackay's goal and the significance was tectonic, maybe for another sector in Irish society they didn't wake up to the reality of that, until Ireland beat England at the Euros.
Any fan knew this game was on, what might be and at least would have had half an ear on the proceedings, wasn't it televised on rte?
But it was also a case of deja vu, in with a slim chance of qualifying, depending on an unlikely result happening on a foreign field.
And with that game being played in Bulgaria, unlikely meant GUBU fantasy. I have only watched the last 8 minutes of that game and in those 8 minutes, Bulgarians with their sneaky elbows in the back of the head, bizarre offside decision, 2 red card scything tackles with no action taken by the ref and a blatant dive for Bulgaria's last free kick. The Scots were hard féckers, that Gordon Drury was brutally hacked down twice, just got up and limped back into position.

[paul_oshea]

Its a funny old world. I was just going to get a Tea with a colleague, I've sat across from the same guy for about 2 years. He asked me on the way down where I was at lunch. I said I was at a funeral and told him Liam Brady was at it(we had a little argument about his and Bradys height :D). So then he asked me whose Funeral, I said Tony Grealish he used to play football for Ireland. He then told me that his uncle was married to Tonys Aunt. Small world( I work in an industry where you don't meet too many Irish or those with Irish connections) and he obviously didn't know he had died.

There was a big presence from London GAA and in particular from St Gabriels GAA club which was great to see. So much you hear about foreign games etc yet they turned out for one of their own here.
Anyway, it was a lovely mass and a great eulogy from Ambrose. Even in the 70s the women weren't allowed on the trips :)

[Stuttgart88]

i was away on work this week but thanks to a text from Paul saying that TG's funeral was in my local church in Kilburn we both went to the funeral today and a very moving occasion it was.

The Order of Service brochure had pictures from his playing days and the coffin was adorned with one of his Irish jerseys and a FAI Youth cap. His family had made a wreath in the shape of a green shirt with no 8 and Eire written on the back. There was also a framed photo of him, one of those inconic images of him with his hirsute face and O'Neill's track suit lining up for the anthem at Lansdowne.

I was seated behind Liam Brady and Michael Robinson, his Ireland teammates, and in front of them was quite a collection of old pros who all knew each other, though I only recognised Danny Wilson.

The London Irish supporters club was well represented and a few old codgers - 60 if they were a day - wore green jerseys. One Leyton Orient fan was there and he was in tears. Irish football journalists Paul Rowan and Dion Fanning were also there. St Gabriel's GAA was very well represented.

The eulogy told how he was brought up and schooled less than a mile from where I live and how his father Packie was a legendary figure in local GAA, at St Gabriels in Cricklewood. TG was a keen GAA player and represented London against New York at Wembley. Even when as a soccer pro at Orient he'd still play GAA on Sundays and have pints after. He became the only player to play both soccer and GAA at Wembley. His parents Packie and Nora went to all his Irish games, home and away, Nora being the only woman allowed. Many of Packie's mates were publicans who insisted on traveling without wives!

The ceremony finished with the Fields of Athenry, his father being from Athenry.

It all brought back a very special sense of time and place for me, my pre-teen and teenage years watching Giles and Hand's Ireland at Lansdowne and Dalymount, some of my favourite childhood moments. It also provided a very moving description of that era of Irish immigrants in the NW London area, something Paul is acutely aware of with his work his the Aisling Return to Ireland charity where he volunteers to provide company on Friday evenings to the old Irish from that era, still living here but maybe lonely and without family. Fair play to ya Paul.

[OwlsFan]

For football fans, Mackay's goal and the significance was tectonic, maybe for another sector in Irish society they didn't wake up to the reality of that, until Ireland beat England at the Euros.
Any fan knew this game was on, what might be and at least would have had half an ear on the proceedings, wasn't it televised on rte?
But it was also a case of deja vu, in with a slim chance of qualifying, depending on an unlikely result happening on a foreign field.
And with that game being played in Bulgaria, unlikely meant GUBU fantasy. I have only watched the last 8 minutes of that game and in those 8 minutes, Bulgarians with their sneaky elbows in the back of the head, bizarre offside decision, 2 red card scything tackles with no action taken by the ref and a blatant dive for Bulgaria's last free kick. The Scots were hard féckers, that Gordon Drury was brutally hacked down twice, just got up and limped back into position.

I must have been one of the few people who took the afternoon off to watch the game. Anyone who hasn't seen those last few minutes after Mackay scored (I send him Christmas cards for a few years afterwards :)) does not know the meaning of the word tension. Picture the scene: The Bulgarians have chance after chance to equalise as George Hamilton is talking about opening champagne bottles and getting German reisebucher (travel books). I screamed at the inanimate object known as the television asking him to please shut the f*** up but on he went tempting fate: "Open the champagne bottle - ohhhh, it's off the post". I don't exaggerate. He, the match, the Scots, the Bulgarians took years off my life that day which I have gladly surrendered. I have the game on tape someplace but it is well worn as I replayed it about 50+ times like you would a great porno scene (I believe). The greatest sporting moment of my years supporting Ireland and strangely they weren't playing. Qualified at last - we had arrived on the world stage.

[EastTerracer]

It also provided a very moving description of that era of Irish immigrants in the NW London area, something Paul is acutely aware of with his work his the Aisling Return to Ireland charity where he volunteers to provide company on Friday evenings to the old Irish from that era, still living here but maybe lonely and without family. Fair play to ya Paul.

Glad to hear foot.ie was so well represented at the funeral today. Well done lads!

It is a small world though. A cousin of mine (a Geordie Kerryman) is one of the main organisers behind the Aisling Project and he has worked in Arlington House for many years. No doubt Paul knows who I am talking about.

[EastTerracer]

I must have been one of the few people who took the afternoon off to watch the game. Anyone who hasn't seen those last few minutes after Mackay scored (I send him Christmas cards for a few years afterwards :)) does not know the meaning of the word tension. Picture the scene: The Bulgarians have chance after chance to equalise as George Hamilton is talking about opening champagne bottles and getting German reisebucher (travel books). I screamed at the inanimate object known as the television asking him to please shut the f*** up but on he went tempting fate: "Open the champagne bottle - ohhhh, it's off the post". I don't exaggerate. He, the match, the Scots, the Bulgarians took years off my life that day which I have gladly surrendered. I have the game on tape someplace but it is well worn as I replayed it about 50+ times like you would a great porno scene (I believe). The greatest sporting moment of my years supporting Ireland and strangely they weren't playing. Qualified at last - we had arrived on the world stage.

I remember it well. Jack was off fishing but RTE had a weird panel of (I think) Maurice Setters, Don Givens and Chris Morris (who had only made his debut against Israel the night before in Dalymount in front of a tiny crowd). They were sitting in the middle of a load of pot-plants so looked like they couldn't even get a proper studio that day.

Michael Lyster presented the programme and they were jumping around the place at the final whistle. The absence of Giles, Billo etc. shows how little expectation there was of that game. Geysir and Owlsfan have similar memories of my own.

[Grafter]

I remember it well. Jack was off fishing but RTE had a weird panel of (I think) Maurice Setters, Don Givens and Chris Morris (who had only made his debut against Israel the night before in Dalymount in front of a tiny crowd). They were sitting in the middle of a load of pot-plants so looked like they couldn't even get a proper studio that day.

Michael Lyster presented the programme and they were jumping around the place at the final whistle. The absence of Giles, Billo etc. shows how little expectation there was of that game. Geysir and Owlsfan have similar memories of my own.

God sounds like the Twilight Zone... Michael Lyster, Chris Morris and Pot Plants.... this would be diamond footage if anyone taped it on betamax back then? They did explain to Lyster what the offside rule was beforehand I assume?

[CraftyToePoke]

Any fan knew this game was on, what might be and at least would have had half an ear on the proceedings, wasn't it televised on rte?

Yeah, fairly sure it was carried live by RTE.

[Stuttgart88]

I've posted my memory of the Mackay moment here before, but here goes again. I was watching in UCD bar but halfway through the second half I felt it was going to be same-old, same-old so I left. Bear in mind that Irish footy fans at that stage were used to waiting on / watching / listening to the last game of the group and the required result never came.

I was supposed to be meeting a girl I was keen on, along with some friends, in Trinity's Buttery Bar that night so to save money I walked the 4 miles home to Rathfarnham. I got home and asked dad was it 0-0, Dad was very clever and said yes, but turned on the VHS and told me to look out for the goal Scotloand had disallowed near the end. I saw the goal and only after ten seconds or so did I realise dad was having me on. I still nearly crapped myself thopugh when Bulgaria very nearly scored afterwards. Lyster then tore up his script and opened the champagne. Great stuff.

I went into the Buttery as planned, met an old pal also interested in footy and the girl I was supposed to be seeing never got a look in. nI didf buy her a drink - a half rather than a pint - so on top of the incessant footy talk that put paid to that relationship and she started dating a pal shortly after, even uglier than me. She was quote cute actually but some things are more important.

Bonnie is right though: in a way the older guys here had an apprenticeship supporting Ireland that the post-Charlton generation would never have had. I feel lucky in that regard.

[Drumcondra 69er]

I've posted my memory of the Mackay moment here before, but here goes again. I was watching in UCD bar but halfway through the second half I felt it was going to be same-old, same-old so I left. Bear in mind that Irish footy fans at that stage were used to waiting on / watching / listening to the last game of the group and the required result never came.

I was supposed to be meeting a girl I was keen on, along with some friends, in Trinity's Buttery Bar that night so to save money I walked the 4 miles home to Rathfarnham. I got home and asked dad was it 0-0, Dad was very clever and said yes, but turned on the VHS and told me to look out for the goal Scotloand had disallowed near the end. I saw the goal and only after ten seconds or so did I realise dad was having me on. I still nearly crapped myself thopugh when Bulgaria very nearly scored afterwards. Lyster then tore up his script and opened the champagne. Great stuff.

I went into the Buttery as planned, met an old pal also interested in footy and the girl I was supposed to be seeing never got a look in. nI didf buy her a drink - a half rather than a pint - so on top of the incessant footy talk that put paid to that relationship and she started dating a pal shortly after, even uglier than me. She was quote cute actually but some things are more important.

Bonnie is right though: in a way the older guys here had an apprenticeship supporting Ireland that the post-Charlton generation would never have had. I feel lucky in that regard.

Funny reading that Lyster presented the show, I only saw the last 10 minutes of the game and my memories were of Bill presenting it. Funny how your memory can get muddled. Remember the champagne and Morris being there alright and looking a bit bemused by it all, he said he wasn't sure if he'd make the squad when asked how it felt to be going to Germany.

I'd been at the Israel game with my Da the previous night in Dalyer, I was in first year of college at the time but had a free day Wednesdays so was working in an office on Leeson St one day a week for some extra pocket money. Couldn't get out of the job to watch the match but was allowed leave at half 4 so ran down to the 51 on Haddington Road where my Da was watching it, it was still nil all when I got in with about 10 minutes left. Had just got a pint and found a spot beside the old fella when Mackay let his strike go, pub errupted! Very nervy after that and just a sense of disbelief when the whistle went, things like that didn't happen us. Remember the Da and his workmates all being delighted that it was Bulgaria who missed out after the WC campaign 10 years before under Giles.

Agree about the apprenticeship, it's why those of us if a certain vintage are nowhere near as hysterical about Trap as some of our younger brethren.....

[BonnieShels]

When you say hysterical?

[geysir]

Hard times when Stutts walked all the way from Belfield to Rathfarnham (via Windy Arbour,Dundrum, Churchtown?) to save on the price of a nr 17 bus ticket.

[tetsujin1979]

Fanning's report on Grealish's funeral is in today's Independent: http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/londons-exiles-bid-farewell-to-monarch-in-their-midst-29243173.html

[Stuttgart88]

Hard times when Stutts walked all the way from Belfield to Rathfarnham (via Windy Arbour,Dundrum, Churchtown?) to save on the price of a nr 17 bus ticket.

The price of ten John Player Blue too.

[OwlsFan]

Came across this photo in the Ireland vs USSR programme for the World Cup Qualifier Sept 12 1984:

1909

[oriel]

Very late in my comments, but god bless you Tony. memories of school trips to games in the 80's

RIP

[paul_oshea]

Glad to hear foot.ie was so well represented at the funeral today. Well done lads!

It is a small world though. A cousin of mine (a Geordie Kerryman) is one of the main organisers behind the Aisling Project and he has worked in Arlington House for many years. No doubt Paul knows who I am talking about.

Yes I know well who you are on about. His accent is a little flatter now though. He always has some interesting stories related to Aisling.

Thanks stutts for putting that bit up there - not for me but for mentioning the charity.

They are always looking for volunteers, but you can also donate if you like. I know first hand they do great work. Its a charity obviously, with social workers employed, but they give a lot of their own time to the "clients". And the trips are a real boost for the lads. I was very moved when I first read their website about 5/6 years ago(actually it could be more now!) about some of the lads and having never been home for many different reasons, but one word was always prominent - shame. Anyway take a look and if you think you or know of anyone who could help out, please do.

http://www.aisling.org.uk/drupal/index.php

The lad I went with, used to be TGs parents local butcher, but also a frequent visitor to their pub too! He knew them all really well back in the day!