Ireland’s football trendsetter across so many eras, writes Liam Mackey

Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny and Cork City goalkeeper Mark McNulty were the big winners at the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Association of Ireland annual awards ceremony on a night which also saw Irish football legend Liam Tuohy honoured.

Des MacHale is right (Letters, Nov 18). A single team could represent Ireland North and South in soccer.

I’M sure Giovanni Trapattoni doesn’t need any additional pressure going into tonight’s European Championship qualifier against Macedonia, but if he does chance to feel the hand of history on his shoulder this morning, it might just be because, on this day 25 years ago, the most celebrated period in Irish football history officially kicked off.

THEY are the boys of the 60s who have become men in their 60s but, when they get together in a room even 40 years on, there is still the warming afterglow of what must have seemed, at one time, like the endless summer of their youth.

MICK MARTIN remembers playing there for St Vincent’s Glasnevin CBS as a 13-year old. Liam Brady recalls the afternoons he spent watching the likes of Lar Foley and Jimmy Keaveney strut their stuff for the Dubs.

EVER opened up a book and felt like you were looking in a mirror? Your correspondent had that experience this week and, no, before you ask, it wasn’t The Great Gatsby. Or even the latest Harry Potter.

PAT FENLON was named personality of the year at the Eircom/Soccer Writers Association of Ireland annual awards in Cork on Saturday night.

WE reported this week on a forthcoming fund-raising dinner for the FAI Retired International Players Trust - and if ever there was an event deserving of what Con Houlihan would call a “fógra eile” this is it.

THE ebullient Andy Reid is a perfect symbol of the new Ireland, fashioned in the image of Brian Kerr, as they kick-off a new World Cup campaign today at Lansdowne Road against Cyprus (3pm) with spirits high and ambition soaring.

IRELAND seem sure of a chilly welcome weatherwise in Georgia this week but a much warmer one from the local fans.

New Republic of Ireland boss Brian Kerr is no stranger to success, with a remarkable record in charge of national under-age teams since his appointment by the Football Association of Ireland six years ago.

THE FAI should not have to wait for Bryan Hamilton’s short-list to arrive at a replacement manager for Mick McCarthy. If they apply logic to the issue, Brian Kerr should be the next Irish team manager.