THE selection of the knowledgeable Peter Byrne as official chronicler of the first seventy five years of the Football Association results in an absorbing football work, summarising three quarters of a century of the game in this country, together with an insight into its beginning before the foundation of the State. The fact that it was the FAI which commissioned Byrne necessarily precludes him from delving too deeply into his rich anecdotal fund of first hand experience of all the goings on; one suspects that, were the author to have recounted the story warts and all, a quite different work might have been the outcome.
This is not to criticise this colourful publication, which tells the footballing tale in a most readable manner but also reflects the social and political times in which the game it developed and the great void filled "in the lives of those at the lower end of the social order". A far cry from the "suits" in the stand.
The author traces the emergence of the FAI from its stormy early passage as the Leinster Football Association, then under the rule of the IFA in Belfast, to the inevitable split in 1921 when the FAI as we know it today was born. He takes us through the years, most of them filled with frustration and disappointment - and the occasional flourish right up to the halcyon days of the Charlton decade, arguably the finest chapter in any Irish sporting history. He tells the story by focusing on the famous players and personalities of every era, providing a brief biography of each and throwing in some colourful cameos.
There is the portrait of Jimmy Dunne, before Ireland played Germany in Bremen prior to the outbreak of war in 1939. The Nazi speeches and chants before the game made the occasion more akin to a political rally than a sporting event. Dunne countered the nationalistic chanting of the German crowd. "Remember Aughrim, Remember 1916," he exhorted his team mates. Then there is Mick O'Flanagan's call up for his first cap. The younger of the famous O'Flanagan brothers, who ran the family pub in Dublin, got a summons a few hours prior to Ireland's match against England in September 1946. With no one available to replace him, he closed the pub, cycled home to collect his boots and then cycled on up to Dalymount Park where he duly lined out for his country.
The legendary names of Irish football are highlighted, including Bob Fullam of the famous left foot; Paddy Moore, whose skills and lifestyle made him the George Best of his generation; the immortal Jackie Carey, the "most patriotic of Irishmen"; Paddy Coad, who "had his finger on the pulse of Irish football for twenty years and John Giles, the "supreme professional", who, Byrne suggests, interestingly, should receive the credit for installing the system on which Jack Charlton subsequently built his success.
As official biographer of Charlton, Peter Byrne is best qualified to present a fascinating account of the Golden Years, but I am not altogether convinced by his inference that the resignation of Charlton was the catalyst which sparked off last year's behind the scenes infamous set of events in Irish football.
The legislators and the officials in general get off lightly. The contributions of the great Joe Wickham and the amiable Peadar O'Driscoll are recorded, but as the work is an official history, very little of the "off the field" events can be told. However, Byrne does recount the incident in the Eoin Hand era when the team manager was refused permission to hire a video machine in a London hotel to enable Hand and his players to view the forthcoming opposition, the Treasurer of the day preferring Hand to borrow one from the Treasurer's relatives in London, in order to cut costs! Passing reference is made of other officials, one of whom was responsible for the famous comment (although Byrne does not recall it) when, frustrated at the lack of movement at a Merrion Square meeting, declared: "Gentlemen, we must make progress, whether its backwards or forwards."
And speaking of progress, one line in the book stands out when at the beginning the writer refers to the first international game (pre FAI) in Dublin in 1900, against England: "with no suitable soccer venue available the game was played at Lansdowne Road". Nothing changes.
All the famous names of the modern era are featured, as are the milestones of Irish soccer: that famous victory over England at Goodison Park in 1949, the first time England were ever beaten on home soil by a foreign team; the 1955 controversy when the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, tried to boycott the visit by Yugoslavia to play Ireland; the silence that greeted John Atyeo's last gasp equaliser for England in the 1957 World Cup qualifier at Dalymount Park. The colour and the incidents in Irish footballing history are vividly captured, culminating in the welcome that greeted the Irish squad on their return from Italia 90. Ireland's involvement in their first World Cup finals had, says Byrne, "moved the masses and even in defeat, succeeded in uniting the nation like nothing before".
Just for good measure, the publication includes thirty seven pages of international team line ups, all the international players and their caps, match results, records and other statistical data which make the book a must, not only for all Irish soccer followers, but for anyone with even a passing interest in sport.