Tributes paid after passing of Ollie Byrne

Irish football lost one of its best known characters yesterday morning when Ollie Byrne, owner and long-time driving force behind Shelbourne football club, passed away after a seven-month battle with illness. Funeral arrangements had yet to be confirmed last night but it is expected his funeral will not take place until Thursday morning.

League and FAI officials paid tribute to the 63-year-old whose passion for his own club sometimes resulted in his making the lives of Merrion Square officials rather difficult. Officials at rival outfits will also be saddened by his passing despite most having had at least one occasion to dread a phone call or face-to-face encounter with him.

At times, indeed, he could generate a good deal of ill-will but few who dealt with him could have questioned the fact that he was motivated, first and foremost, by what he believed to be in the best interests of Shelbourne. Within the club itself there was always considerable warmth expressed towards him.

"He was an intriguing character in so many ways," said Gary Brown, a former player with Shelbourne who went on to work closely with Byrne when he served as the club's chairman. "Ollie always fought hard to further the interests of the club and he alienated some people along the way but he had a very big heart too, and on a personal level, showed a great deal of kindness to a great many people.

"Yes, he was unorthodox, ebullient, sometimes over the top but I hope he'll be remembered as the man who kept Shelbourne alive because when I was playing for the club in the seventies it was very much on its knees.

"Every bit of success that the club enjoyed since was made possible by the work he did for the club and while people will say that his dream of making an impact at European level didn't work out, I'd contend that the progress that has been made by all Irish clubs on that front in recent years is in large part down to Ollie having the vision to see those competitions in a different way and others then following his lead."

Byrne, whose father Andrew had previously been the club's secretary, joined the board himself in 1976. By the mid-1980s he had become the central figure at the club with his friend Tony Donnelly funding the purchase of Tolka Park and a transformation of the operation both on and off the pitch.

Shelbourne went on to win six leagues titles, four FAI Cups and one League Cup in the years that followed. Byrne, though, began to place an increasing emphasis on achieving success in Europe and spent heavily in pursuit of his goal.

Over the years, especially when the Donnelly family withdrew their financial support in the wake of Tony's death, his ambition for the club increasingly outstripped his ability to generate cash.

In the end, he adopted a high-risk strategy that involved striking a deal to sell Tolka Park for redevelopment, relocating to a greenfield site and drawing down portions of the purchase price from the buyer, Ozzie Kilkenny, to finance continued squad strengthening.

The promise of a site fell through, though, after a change of heart by local elected representatives and the big breakthrough in Europe failed to materialise, leaving the club ever more dependent on Kilkenny's chequebook.

The relationship between the pair was strained and right up until the time he became ill last January, he continued to seek alternative backers and a new home for the club. At times during his last few difficult months around Tolka, the scale of the pressure he was under became apparent even to outsiders.

Ollie often spoke about retiring before the job took its toll on his health but few who knew him ever believed he'd be able to walk away. Others in his position would have justified it on the rather obvious basis that: "there's more to life than football," or "it's only a game". It's hard to imagine, however, that either could have ever been made to ring true coming from his lips.