The Life of Brian: it might not be the high life but it’s a good life

For the mega-rich Premier League stars, working over Christmas has its compensations — often hundreds of thousands of them. Rochdale’s Brian Barry-Murphy spoke to Liam Mackey on the rewards of being a lower-league footballer in England and how the ‘son of Jimmy’ went on to make his own mark in a different sport.

HE’S a seasoned professional footballer in England and he bears one of the most famous names in Irish sport to boot, but the tall, dark-haired 32 year old doesn’t turn any heads in London’s Euston Station, even though it’s evening rush hour and the place is thronged with commuters.

Maybe it would be a bit different up in Bury, where he played for five years, or neighbouring Rochdale where he is now midway through his first season with the League 1 club. But, even then, you suspect that Brian Barry-Murphy would be treated in those parts more with the easy familiarity which is accorded ‘one of their own’ rather than with the shock and awe which attends the rare sighting of a celebrity footballer in public. In fact, he’s amused to find himself the centre of media attention. “When Jimmy rang to say that you wanted to meet me,” he says over a cup of tea in a noisy café, “I said to him, why would he want to talk to a journeyman like me?”