The senior international recognition of local talent (players from the area or ones who formerly played with Derry City) lately has been great to witness; McCourt, McGinn and Ferguson with the IFA and Gibson, McClean, Duffy and Forde with the FAI.
The Cregganite's words contrast starkly to the words of the Eglintonian. You win some, you lose some.
I haven't seen Ferguson play at left back but I thought he was a tremendous little winger. At the minute though, he sees McGeady, Duff, Hunt, Fahey and now McClean (not to mention Robbie Brady) in front of him in the pecking order. Still glad to see a Derry man doing well for himself.
End Apartheid Now! One Team in Ireland!
The senior international recognition of local talent (players from the area or ones who formerly played with Derry City) lately has been great to witness; McCourt, McGinn and Ferguson with the IFA and Gibson, McClean, Duffy and Forde with the FAI.
Not to forget Éamon Zayed, of course!
Michael O'Neill is lining up a prime poached goalkeeper in Gerard Doherty too it seems, while Daniel Lafferty could soon be in contention for one of those left back spots.
End Apartheid Now! One Team in Ireland!
Funnily enough, last weekend I was in a taxi here in Manchester and, as you do, got talking to the driver about where I was from and all that. As it so often does in these situations, discussion turned to football after he made a connection and mentioned that he'd driven Danny Lafferty to Burnley just the day before. Seems he'd been picking him up fairly frequently since his move from Derry. I was going to ask him to pass on a message, but you know how it is; I'd only have left myself open to accusations of intimidation, threatening behaviour, underhand FAI activity and being a poaching-enabler...
It transpired the driver had also picked up Chris McCann, Edwin van der Sar and Stephen Ireland on occasion in the past. After having told me about driving Van der Sar to Liverpool Airport once, he then proceeded to ridicule the "£100,000-a-week" player for catching the £25 EasyJet flight to Amsterdam. He also said Stephen Ireland was a lovely fellow.
As they say, you learn something new every day.
On the basis of this thread 'Doire' is surely the new Cork??
But like all those people a certain poster enquires about dream wise;did even his ma know??
You can't go claiming David Forde DI, he's a connacht man, one of the very few. Him and Greg Cunningham and holding up West of the Shannon.
But fair play to Shane, hope he does well. He obviously had a problem with Worthington, and I'm glad he stuck to his guns and played for NI. They need good characters like him.
But sure, it was only a friendly.
He can still change back...
Runs...
I stretched it a bit with McGinn too, in fairness. Rumour once had it that Fordey was actually Welsh.
Actually, a list of senior international players by county would be an interesting one. Which counties have never been represented at senior level?
Indeed, best of luck to him. For one thing, his example goes to show what a load of balls the alarmist "defections will spell the end of the cross-community nature of the NI team" claim is.But fair play to Shane, hope he does well. He obviously had a problem with Worthington, and I'm glad he stuck to his guns and played for NI. They need good characters like him.
Thought about this before, still a good few by my reckoning . . .
Kerry, Clare, Mayo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Offaly, Laois, Kilkenny, Carlow, Kildare, Meath?
The nearest some counties seem to come is a qualifying grandparent (Liam Lawrence [Kerry], Paul Green [Mayo]).
Last edited by freewheel30; 04/03/2012 at 9:20 AM.
High hopes that Noe Baba is the first Castlebar man to make it. Can we(Mayo) claim him? Just had a training session with him actually. I'm 13 years older but he's about the same size. Touch of class about him even though he was probably only in 2nd gear.
I see #Irish Eunan O'Kane scored the winner for Torquay against Crawley. Certainly seems to have outgrown League 2.
Both of Kevin Foley's parents are from Kerry. Same with Gary Breen (well at least one is from Beaufort, probably the other). Gary Doherty's mother is from Ballyheigue in north Kerry, as far as I know. Actually, Andy Townsend qualified through a Kerry-bornn grandmother.
Don't think we have had any senior internationals born and bred in Kerry. The closest have been Brendan Moloney, Diarmuid O'Carroll and the Dennehy brothers (Billy and Darren) getting capped at under 21 level in the last few years.
Our most likely prospect seems to be John Egan, even though he was born in Cork, he's still son of a Kerry great with the same name.
Tony O'Connell is the only Kerryman to have played for Ireland in a Euro qualifier vs Spain in 1966.
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