Green Shoots - A History of Irish Football

Gerry Armstrong is a legend of Northern Ireland football playing and scoring in some of their most iconic games of the 70s and eighties. In part one of our interview with Gerry we talk about how Gaelic Games influenced his football career, joining Spurs, and getting his first caps for Northern Ireland.

On this week’s podcast Kehlan talks with Iain McCartney Manchester United author and historian about the great Johnny Carey and his influence in building a team that would become known as the 'Busby Babes'.
Johnny is one of the finest players Ireland has ever produced. Captaining both Ireland and Manchester United. He was captain when Ireland became the first foreign team to beat England on English soil as won 2-0 at Goodison Park in 1949.
As Manchester United Captain he led them to an FA Cup, a League title and was the Football Writers Association player of the season in 1949.
You can find Iain’s books on amazon.co.uk where you'll find a good selection to enjoy!

On this week's GS podcast Kehlan tells the story of the connection between Dermot Keely and Jim McLaughlin. It is a story of how two men turned to each when they needed them and helped to forge footballing history for over decade.

A Heartfelt thanks from us here at Green Shoots: a history of irish football and thanks for listening through out the year. It has been wonderful to see so many of you take up the podcast and bring it into your listening pleasures.

When we started this podcast we wanted to share the long and colorful history of Irish football through the stories of the people that lived it and the people that played it and I hope that we’ve done that for you.

You can talk about stats and or argue the finer points of which player was better, but ultimately, it’s the stories that resonate with people. What was it like to play it, what was it like to live it? And we hope that you’ve gotten closer to the game that we love so much because of it.

More to come very soon.

So from me, from Gary and I’m sure from all of our great guests we’ve had on the show too – Have a very Merry Christmas.

On this weeks show Kehlan and Gary are looking at the Rep. of Ireland's qualifying campaign for the 2002 world cup in Korea/Japan. With some memorable results, a trip to Iran and perhaps the sowing of the seed that was to erupt before the 2002 world cup was to begin.
Don’t forget to share the show on your own social media channels to let more people find out more about the history and heritage of irish football and why share your own stories about it while your at it.