The forgotten men of Irish football

Football Nation’s Stephen Turner looks at the forgotten men of Irish football

The Republic of Ireland take on France tonight in what is perhaps the country’s most important game since their second round clash with Spain in the 2002 World Cup. Their fate rests in the hands of stars such as Robbie Keane, Damien Duff and Shay Given, all experienced players who have won 273 international caps between them. Yet for every Keane, Duff or Given there are dozens who, at one time or another, looked likely to achieve a similar level of success but for one reason or another failed to make the grade. This week we remember some of Irish football’s forgotten men; those who looked set to establish themselves as international footballers but fell at the final hurdle.

Graham Barrett

Around the turn of the century, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Graham Barrett, and not Robbie Keane, would be the man to lead the line for Ireland for the next decade. A promising youth career at Arsenal culminated in an FA Youth Cup winners medal in 2000, but despite his obvious potential, Barrett failed to make the step up to Arsene Wenger’s first team during his spell at the North London club.

Disappointing loan spells at Bristol City and Crewe Alexandra did little to enhance his reputation, but Barrett’s career looked to be back on track following a season at Colchester United, where he scored four goals in 20 appearances. His first senior cap for Ireland soon followed, as did a permanent to move to Coventry City the following year. Again, however, Barrett failed to live up to expectations, scoring a disappointing six goals in 55 games for the Championship side. Barrett won six caps for Ireland between 2002 and 2004, scoring against Finland and Jamaica in friendly games. Chances of adding to this tally look slim, however, as Barrett now plies his trade for League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers.

Ronnie O’Brien

Perhaps best remembered now for a couple of high-profile media stunts (in which O’Brien himself actually played no part), Ronnie O’Brien’s career has been interesting to say the least. After two years in Middlesbrough‘s youth side, he was released from the club and looked set for an early exit from the game when Italian giants Juventus offered him a five-year contract in 1999. O’Brien never made a first-team appearance for Juventus, however, and loan spells in Switzerland, Italy and Scotland did little to convince the football world that he could become a top-level player.

O’Brien’s career only really took off following a move to America in 2002. Despite his time at the club being heavily disrupted by injury, a spell at MLS side Dallas Burn was a successful one, and culminated in O’Brien being named in the MLS Team of the Year in 2005. He moved to Toronto in 2007 after falling out with management at Dallas, and although he is currently without a club, he remains a fans’ favourite at both Dallas Burn and San Jose Earthquakes, where he last played.

Despite a call-up to the national side, O’Brien unfortunately never made a senior appearance for the Irish side. Steve Staunton, Ireland manager at the time, offered him a spot on the side’s tour of the USA in 2007, but O’Brien turned the opportunity down, opting to focus on his club football with Toronto FC. Despite his potential as a youth player and a relatively successful MLS career, it is a sad fact that O’Brien will most likely be remembered for winning Time magazine’s ‘Man of the Century’ online poll in 1999, ahead of the likes of Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King. After being removed from the poll due to being a ‘whimsical candidate’, however, his place in the 2005 MLS Team of the Year remains his sole achievement to date.

Keith O’Neill

Back in the summer of 1996, when the attention of the football world was focussed on Wembley, and more specifically on Gareth Southgate, a young Dublin-born footballer made his debut for Ireland, scoring twice in an energetic performance against Bolivia. Keith O’Neill went on to make his senior club debut for Norwich City the following year, quickly becoming one of the most highly-rated left-sided players in the country.

The rest of the 1990′s were good to O’Neill; Reported bids from Newcastle United, Tottenham and Arsenal were all turned down before he was eventually sold to Middlesbrough for a knock-down price of £700,000 after repeatedly turning down contract offers from Norwich. His time at the Teesside club was a successful one and saw him win the bulk of his 13 international caps. At a time when England were desperately short of left-sided players, a handful of respected broadsheet journalists even voiced their frustration that O’Neill was not born on the opposite side of the Irish Sea.

The last of O’Neill’s international caps came in Skopje, Macedonia during a vital Euro 2000 qualifier. As a last-minute corner came in, O’Neill slipped, letting Macedonia score an equaliser which denied Ireland qualification for the tournament. Although Mick McCarthy, Ireland manager at the time, never publicly blamed O’Neill for the goal, the player never played for his country again. It was also around this time that injuries started to play a major role in O’Neill’s career; a spinal condition from childhood caught up with the winger, finally forcing him to retire in 2003. Despite his short career, O’Neill made the most of his time in the spotlight, with many pundits suggesting that he was perhaps enjoying himself a bit too much. Even his announcement that he was retiring from the game hinted at the pleasure he had gained from football, as he left the football world with the following words:

‘I retire content that I have had the opportunity to play football for the greatest nation in the world.’

Colin Healy

It is inevitable that any tough-tackling central midfielder born in County Cork is going to be compared to Roy Keane. Colin Healy’s arrival on the international stage as Keane’s replacement in the 2002 World Cup squad, then, had the obvious but unfortunate result that he would forever be associated with perhaps the greatest player ever to play for Ireland. After a delay in the call-up, however, Healy was not actually allowed to join the squad in the Far East.

With the possible exception of Graham Barrett, Healy is the only player in this list who could easily have been one of the senior players in tonight’s Irish line-up had his career taken different paths at crucial stages. A promising spell with Celtic led to a move to Sunderland in 2003. His opportunity at the highest level was heavily disrupted by a series of serious injuries, however, including two broken legs in the space of twelve months. Spells at Livingston, Barnsley and Bradford City followed, before a move to League of Ireland side Cork City was quickly tarnished by FIFA transfer regulations which stated that he could not play for three clubs in the same season, even though he joined the club at the start of the Irish football season, which takes place at a different time of year to the English leagues. The associations with Keane continued earlier this year as the former Irish captain brought Healy to Ipswich Town.

Considering the current lack of strength in the centre of the Irish midfield, it is unfortunate for both Healy himself and the entire Irish nation that injuries have all but destroyed the career of the man who at one time seemed the natural successor to Keane in the national side. Based on ability alone, however, there is absolutely no doubt that Healy should have far more than just 126 senior club appearances and 12 caps for Ireland to his name.

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