Damien Duffer: a star is born again

On a number of levels, what a lovely surprise that was to see Mr Damien Duff turning up all hale and hearty on RTÉ’s ‘Soccer Republic’ the other night.

The welcome sense of glad tidings from the Irish abroad reinforced by the fact that he was communicating with home from far-off Australia via Skype, just like the rest of the diaspora.

Of course, the first surprise was that Damien was on our screens at all, the mild colonial boy being famously the most camera-shy Irish footballer in living memory.