The playing and working conditions of League of Ireland footballers in a part-time-professional football Euro 2021 host nation: the Republic of Ireland’s League of Ireland

ABSTRACT

In 2021, the Republic of Ireland is scheduled to host four European Championship finals matches for the first time. However, studies of players’ experiences of top level soccer there are scarce. This paper discusses playing and working conditions within League of Ireland football. In particular, it explores the non-football related work experiences of part-time League of Ireland professional footballers. It discusses how a number of players have coped with having to work part-time and illustrates how they have utilized various forms of employment in order to play for professional clubs in a more homely environment. It will show that players have faced tough challenges in match and training preparation and have had at times to temporarily step down, or in some cases, retire from the game to fulfil non-football related work duties during the playing season. It demonstrates that some players have also turned down full-time League of Ireland football.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the players who took part in the interviews and would also like to acknowledge the encouragement of Brendan Teeling and Aoife McSwiney of Dublin City Council, who funded this research as part of a Euro 2020 Legacy Project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the author(s).

Player interviews

Interview with Shane Supple, Dublin, September 24, 2019.

Interview with Mick Meagan, Dublin, September 30, 2019.

Interview with Seamus Kelly, Dublin, October 2, 2019

Interview with Paddy Mulligan, Dublin, October 4, 2019

Interview with Turlough O’Connor, Dublin, October 10, 2019.

Interview with Chris Bennion, Dublin, October 21, 2019.

Interview with Stephen McGuinness, Dublin, October 22, 2019.

Interview with Dave Henderson, Dublin, October 22, 2019.

Interview with Sean Prunty, Dublin, October 23, 2019.

Interview with Chris Deans, Dublin, November 15, 2019.

Interview with Brian O’Shea, Dublin, November 21, 2019.

Interview with Harry McCue, Dublin, December 10, 2019.

Interview with Gary Kelly, Dublin, December 12, 2019.

Interview with John Coady, Dublin, January 20, 2020.

Interview with Alf Girvin, Dublin, January 27, 2020.

Interview with Frank O’Neill, Dublin, January 30, 2020.

Interview with Pat Fenlon, Dublin, February 7, 2010.

Interview with Paul Byrne, Dublin, February 26, 2020.

Interview with Mick Lawlor, Dublin, February 29, 2020.

Interview with Liam Buckley, (Telephone) March 24, 2020.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Sport, November 17, 1883.

2. Evening Herald, June 21, 2010.

3. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 27–38.

4. Ibid.

5. Irish Times, September 18, 2014.

6. ‘Dublin dazzles for UEFA Europa League Final’. Retrieved from https://www.fai.ie/domestic/news/dublin-dazzles-for-uefa-europa-league-final (accessed April 28, 2020).

7. ‘UEFA.Com History’. Retrieved from https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/history/index.html (accessed April 28, 2020).

8. Cronin and Higgins, Places We Play, 92.

9. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 95–9.

10. Ibid., 81–95.

11. ‘UEFA.Com History’. Retrieved from https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=1988/matches/all/index.html (accessed April, 28 2020).

12. Smyth, Erikson, Gibbons, Danish Dynamite, 77–9.

13. Cronin, Sport and Nationalism in Ireland, 133.

14. Ibid., 136.

15. Sport, November 5, 1892.

16. Garnham, Association football and society in pre-partition Ireland, 4–5 and Moore, ‘The origins of association football in Belfast’.

17. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 23, 26 and 220.

18. Garnham, Association football and society, 190–1.

19. See, for example, Elliott, ‘Football’s Irish exodus’ and Adams and Darby, ‘Precarious pursuits, broken dreams and “immobility” among Northern Irish Soccer Migrants’.

20. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 114–5.

21. Garnham, Association football and society in pre-partition Ireland, 95–6 and Mason, Association football and English society,1863–1915, 90–1.

22. See Toms, ‘“Darling of the Gods”’; Ó Maonaigh, ‘“Who were the Shoneens?”’ and Hunt, ‘Harry Cannon’.

23. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 273–317 and Curran and Kelly, ‘Returning Home’.

24. Keane, Gods Vs Mortals, 214–49.

25. See, for example, online websites such as https://www.balls.ie/; https://www.the42.ie/and https://www.sportsjoe.ie/ where ‘hard luck’ stories about Irish players in England can be regularly found.

26. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 38.

27. Curran, ‘“Ireland’s Second Capital”?’

28. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 285–6.

29. Interview with Turlough O’Connor, Dublin, October 10, 2019.

30. Curran, Irish Soccer Migrants, 126.

31. Interview with Dave Henderson, Dublin, October 22, 2019.

32. Interview with Stephen McGuinness, Dublin, October 22, 2019.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Interview with Mick Lawlor, Dublin, February 29, 2019.

37. Ibid.

38. McGrath, Back from the brink, 110.

39. Interview with Dave Henderson, Dublin, October, 22 2019.

40. Ibid.

41. Ibid.

42. Interview with Gary Kelly, Dublin, December 12, 2019.

43. Interview with Brian O’Shea, Dublin, November 21, 2019.

44. Ibid.

45. Ibid.

46. Ibid.

47. Interview with Stephen McGuinness, Dublin, October 22, 2019.

48. Ibid.

49. Interview with Sean Prunty, Dublin, October 23, 2019.

50. Interview with John Coady, Dublin, January 22, 2020.

51. Ibid.

52. Interview with Paddy Mulligan, Dublin, October 4, 2019; Interview with Seamus Kelly, Dublin, October 2, 2019; Interview with Alf Girvin, Dublin, January 27, 2020; and Interview with Mick Lawlor, Dublin, February 29, 2020.

53. Interview with Paul Byrne, Dublin, February 26, 2020.

54. Interview with Seamus Kelly, Dublin, October 2, 2019.

55. Interview with Chris Deans, Dublin, November 15, 2019.

56. Ibid.

57. Ibid.

58. Ibid.

59. Ibid.

60. Interview with Sean Prunty, Dublin, October 23, 2019.

61. Interview with Mick Lawlor, Dublin, February 29, 2020.

62. Interview with Dave Henderson, Dublin, October 22, 2019.

63. Interview with Harry McCue, Dublin, December 10, 2019.

64. Ibid.

65. Interview with John Coady, Dublin, January 20, 2020.

66. Ibid.

67. Interview with Stephen McGuinness, Dublin, October 22, 2019.