Dual stars

Republic Of Ireland and Sunderland striker Niall Quinn (left) presents a BBC Northern Ireland sports documentary, The Irish Game, on Sunday May 30th on BBC's Radio 5 Live. The documentary looks at Gaelic football and hurling and Quinn talks to other Irish soccer players who moved from Gaelic and successfully pursued careers with professional clubs in Britain.

One of the striking differences that former Dublin footballer and Manchester United player Kevin Moran noticed after his move was the physical nature of the two games. When he arrived at Old Trafford the other players immediately began to call him `Big Fella'. His observation was that he had just come from a Dublin team where he was one of the smallest players on the field. When he showed the United players a video of a match, they couldn't believe how rough it was, with Moran commenting "it was a kinda normal game".

Denis Irwin, Kenny Cunningham and Martin O'Neill all make contributions, with Irwin reminding Quinn of their meeting at Croke Park when the United defender represented Cork and the Sunderland striker Dublin at schools level. At that time Irwin's over-ridding ambition was to play senior hurling for Cork. The match ended 1-4 to 1-4, with Quinn scoring a point off Irwin.