As someone who lived through his career both nationally, internationally and also a sports travel agent putting packages together to see Ireland play abroad, I remember Ray with great fondness and he was literally a man of the people. One of my friends missed his flight home following an away game and Ray put him on the team plane. Another friend comments as follows:
".....and my abiding memory is of a late night in his suite in the Holiday Inn on July 4 1994 after we had lost to the Dutch in Orlando...while some of the hordes of the "You'll-never-beat-the-Irish" brigade pointed their mouths towards Mc Dougall Street, or whatever that downtown drinking street was called, to celebrate the loss...tear-wept others fell back to the solitary silent drinking at the bar in the hotel ...Treacy went around and invited a few of us up to his suite for the fireworks over Disney Studios from his balcony and for the eats and drinks on tap in his room. The crowd sized bath had bottles and bottles of spirits bobbing in a massive ice flow and the hotel manager and his missus were cooking spare ribs and such in the en suite kitchenette..Paddy Reilly and others were there, including Ray's then pulchritudinous daughter, and sing song and japes ultimately drowned and doused the football blues...".
He had a good career across the water, came home to play for the Hoops and others and even scored for Ireland while in the LoI.
Thanks for the memories, Ray.
13/04/2015, 11:05 AM
KK77
Very sad news indeed. John Giles was on the radio over the weekend and it seems he got no time at all from when he was told. Very sad.
I remember the 1994 Rovers team he managed. Went on trips with his travel company once or twice. Seemed a down to earth man.
RIP
13/04/2015, 11:37 AM
jbyrne
treacy and grealish were two of the familiar names when I first started following the Ireland team as a kid. both now sadly gone too early.
RIP
I have to say that Twitter comes into its own on sad occasions such as the passing of the great Ray Treacy and I’m sure it must come as some considerable consolation to his nearest and dearest to see the outpouring of affection and admiration on the internet which has shown no sign of drying up since the shocking news of his death emerged.
Not that, in life, I ever heard anyone say a bad word about him.
That’s a cliché, of course, but in this case it’s actually the truth. Ray was hugely popular, an engaging personality with a great sense of humour and the irresistible touch of the loveable rogue about him, so that any time spent in his company was time exceedingly well spent.
His achievements on the pitch have been well-documented over the weekend, the tributes from West Brom, Charlton, Swindon and Preston providing eloquent testimony to this brave and bustling goal-scorer’s contribution to the game in England. And closer to home, there was his huge input as, first player, and later manager, of Shamrock Rovers, from his FAI Cup-winning penalty of 1978 to his inspirational stewardship of the team which won the 1994 league title and, for one season at least, made the RDS feel like a home fit for football as it should be played.
Most of all, of course, fans here will remember him for his career in the green shirt. Again, Twitter has been a boon on this front with, to pick just one lovely example, Kieran Cunningham posting a link to evocative black and white footage of Ray’s famous goal against France at Dalymount in 1972. And it’s a real, trademark Treacy effort too, the genuine article, as he hurls himself across his marker to send a looping header from an Eoin Hand cross over the ‘keeper and under the bar.
Personally, I cherish the memory of being on the terraces with my schoolboy ticket, again at Dalymount, to see an all-action Treacy more than play his part in that celebrated 3-0 victory over the Soviet Union in 1974, the day that Don Givens got his hat-track and a young fella by the name of Liam Brady made his debut in midfield alongside Johnny Giles.
When Ray wasn’t having fun at someone else’s expense — he was a master of the acerbic put-down — he favoured a nice line in self-deprecation so that, while he’d acknowledge that he’d won 42 caps for Ireland, he would insist that 41 of them were for “playing the banjo”.
(Or, in another popular version, 41 were in friendlies against Poland, whose hospitality back in the day was much appreciated by the blazers, as he liked to recall).
He loved his music and his sing-songs, did Ray, and often recalled with relish those post-game sessions in Dublin when the likes of Luke Kelly would turn up to entertain the troops. And he was the merriest of pranksters too. Only recently, Paddy Mulligan had been telling me of the time in Paris when Ray phoned a then newcomer to the Irish team, Gerry Daly, pretending to be David Meek of the Manchester Evening News. By the time Ray had completed his expert impersonation, he had not only manipulated Gerry into saying that, yes, he fancied himself as the next John Giles but had even convinced him to put on his whole kit and go down to the lobby where a photographer from ‘L’Equipe’ — actually a hotel staffer primed by Treacy — was ready take pictures of Irish football’s newest star.
Later in life, we journalists got to know Ray well as his travel company ferried the Irish team, fans and hacks around the world. We’re the moaniest minnies going, if truth be told, and must have driven him mad at times with our whinging about some petty detail or other. But part of the beauty of Ray was that he always gave as good as he got, and the truth is that I don’t think there was one among us who didn’t brighten up when, upon arriving in some distant airport in the wee hours of the morning, we’d find Ray already positioned at the arrivals gate to cheerfully curse us from a height and ensure we got on the right bus to the right hotel.
After Ray closed down his travel business in 2009, I arranged to interview him in the now deserted premises on Store Street. In his own little office at the back, the wall was still adorned with a framed Irish jersey, an item which turned out to be a curious one-off — it was, he explained, the shirt which Colin Healy would have worn had his belated call-up as a replacement for Roy Keane come through at World Cup 2002.
Now is neither the time nor place to rehash Saipan again, although Ray — who, as the FAI’s travel agent, was very close to the eye of that storm — had plenty to say about it, including the admission that he was the man who first came up with Saipan as Ireland’s World Cup warm-up destination.
“Yeah, I’m the one,” he told me. “I would take 100% responsibility for Saipan.” And he remained unrepentant, even though he had to accept that the name of the island had become a byword for hell in Irish football history. “If there was a World Cup in Japan tomorrow or anywhere out there, I would, in the blink of an eye, do Saipan again,” he maintained.
But, for now, I’d prefer to end this piece with another quote from that interview. As he contemplated what then looked like being a long and happy retirement after so many hard-working and successful years as a footballer and businessman, Ray was able to reflect: “Not bad for a stupid little **** that got expelled from Westland Row school at 13 years of age. Basically for playing soccer. The Brother started beating me up and I kicked him back, volleyed him out the door. So that was my first red card.”
He went on to say that, whatever else the future might hold for him, it wouldn’t — more’s the pity — include a book.
“It would be unbelievable,” he agreed, “but I couldn’t name names — because I was the greatest pup of all.”
In fact, Ray Treacy was a terrific character, much loved by many, and at this desperately sad time my heartfelt condolences go out to his family and many, many friends.
14/04/2015, 6:03 PM
Charlie Darwin
Very sad to hear. Rough couple of weeks for Rovers with George Byrne and now Johnny Fullam unwell.
14/04/2015, 9:04 PM
mark12345
Remember Ray Treacy with great fondness. My abiding memories of him were scoring one or two great goals (goals he had no right to get his head to) for West Brom, and a particular moment in a European Nations Cup qualifier against Switzerland. We had been packed into Lansdowne Road four hours before kick off. Packed like sardines on that Saturday afternoon, such was the appeal of the Irish team shortly after they had trounced Russia. Ray got away from his marker in the penalty area and with the defender stretching the elasticity of Ray's shirt to the maximum, the Irish striker somehow managed to get a shot in on goal. It beat the keeper and cannoned off the post. I still wish he fell to ground and got the penalty, but that was ray, full of passion for the cause. We ended up winning the game 2-1 and were strong favourites to qualify from our group. But alas it wasn't to be.
15/04/2015, 12:51 PM
Stuttgart88
Remember that game well.
16/04/2015, 9:27 PM
punkrocket
Nice heart felt tributes from JG, LB and ED on RTE last night.
Great pic of them in their youth as well.
