The magic of Philip Greene

IF imitation really is the sincerest form offlattery, then Philip Greene was never short ofthe highest praise over his long life and broadcasting career.

From the 1940’s through to the 1980’s, there can hardly have been a follower of Irish football, via first the wireless and later the little box in the corner, who didn’t at some point find themselves attempting to string the passes together in an approximation of that richly distinctive, clipped, slightly nasal voice. For so many years, what Micheal O’Hehir was to gaelic, Philip Greene was to soccer — the man who brought the game into the homes of the nation.

Unfortunately for Philip, he had few enough glad tidings to report on the international front in that time, his official retirement from RTÉ in 1985 predating the unprecedented successes of the Jack Charlton era by just a couple of years.