The Eamon Dunphy Interview: 'I wanted to tell the story of the life of an ordinary footballer'

Eamon Dunphy’s much-loved and acclaimed football book Only A Game? has been reprinted on its 40th anniversary. Four decades on, Eamon accepts he has been wrong about nearly everything since, but there’s still a special place in his heart for the good pro.

You’ve come over to Eamon Dunphy’s house in Ranelagh to talk about the 40th anniversary and another reprint of Only A Game? But this being Dunphy and politics dominating the news agenda, invariably you end up having a chat about a lot more than Only A Game? and only sport.

He was out canvassing before the election. For the Independent Alliance. Not just in Dublin with his old friend Shane Ross, but as far as Sligo where a Marie Casserly — “a teacher, a community worker, not a professional politician, an excellent candidate” — ran. And if at first it strikes you as a bit strange, that a now 70-year-old Dunphy would travel across the country to knock on doors for someone you’d never heard of (Casserly would muster just 4.4% of first preferences), you later learn there’s a reason why. There’s still a fire, even an anger, in the man.