The 31-year-old Armagh girl running a Premier League club

JOHN O’SHEA wasn’t Sunderland’s only big Irish signing yesterday as the club announced the appointment of 31-year-old Irish solicitor Margaret Byrne as their new CEO.

Described by the club as “a rising star in both legal circles and the football industry”, Byrne, from Mullaghbawn in Armagh, was short-listed for the UK’s solicitor of the year award in October and has been instrumental in player transfer and contract negotiations for the Black Cats since her appointment as Sunderland’s legal director and club secretary in January 2007.

Indeed, yesterday, she was busy in helping to bring to a close the moves of Wes Brown and John O’Shea to Wearside. Byrne, who currently sits on the Premier League’s expert Legal Advisory Group, steps up from her role as legal director and company secretary in a boardroom revamp at the Stadium of Light.