Tea and thanks for the memories, Gilesy
The godfather of Irish football recalls a perfect first international appearance
‘MAKING MY DEBUT FOR IRELAND WAS THE BIGGEST THRILL’
JOHN GILES sipped a cup of tea and looked around the old Fish Market in Greek Street, part of which has just been converted to a five-a-side all-weather pitch.
This is his turf, where he grew up, in the city he still calls home even though he has been in England for over 60 years.
‘I went away when I was 15. But when I talk about home, Dublin is home. If someone says, ‘Where are you from?” I say, “I’m from Dublin.”
‘I lived in Ormond Square over there to the right and went to George’s Hill School across the road there, before going to Brunner (Brunswick Street) up around the corner.’
It’s a chilly Wednesday morning, and the brew is welcome. As kids from all cultural backgrounds chase after a football on the new surface, Giles makes a perceptive observation.
‘You know, there is a plaque about me outside our old family home in Ormond Square and a little way beside there’s a sign which says “No Ball Games Allowed.”
‘If that sign had been there when I was growing up, I’d never have been a footballer.’
Giles is Irish football’s ‘Godfather’, decorated with Manchester United, Leeds United, West Brom and Shamrock Rovers, as well as player, captain and manager of the Republic of Ireland.
And he puts all his skills down to ‘a bouncer.’ ‘It was a rubber ball, we called it a bouncer,’ he recalled with a smile.
‘The ball would bounce off the railings at an angle, bounce off the path. You had to judge it right and be quick with your feet. What I didn’t realise was, as I was only a kid, that it was a perfect preparation to be a professional footballer.’
Giles loved football, and still does.
‘When you got up in the morning, say you were on your holidays or it was the weekend, there was nothing to keep you in the house. All my pals were in the same position.
‘My mother would say “Out you go” and we were out all day. There were no televisions or smartphones back then.’
Giles turned 79 earlier this month – although you’d never know it – a few days after the 60th anniverthan sary of his Irish debut, against Sweden in Dalymount Park on November 1.
For all he achieved in football, that first cap remains ‘the biggest thrill’ of his career, and it’s a story worth telling as another Scandinavian team docks in Dublin tomorrow.
‘Getting picked happened quicker I expected because I’d only played two matches for Manchester United at the time. It was only three years after I left Dublin at 15 to go to Manchester,’ he recalled.
‘Dalymount was our Wembley. I used to go there for all the Irish matches with my father. It was where all my heroes played.’
An unusual preparation benefited Giles.
‘Funny enough, I was over in Dublin that week as Manchester United Youths played Home Farm in Tolka.
‘I was supposed to go back to England the next day but when we got to the airport, it was foggy and Jimmy Murphy, the manager of the youth team said “Look John, it’s not worth your while coming back with us only to be back here again on Saturday. Why don’t you stay?”
‘So I stayed at home in Dublin on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the game. It worked out well for me.’
On match-day morning, Giles (right) was nervous as he boarded the bus on the Navan Road, where the family had moved to when he was 15.
He had his boots to hand and was headed for the Gresham Hotel to meet up with Jackie Carey, the Ireland manager, and the rest of the players.
‘I didn’t know any of the players. There were all heroes of mine,
Carey, Noel Cantwell, Charlie Hurley, Pat Saward, Dermot Curtis, Georgie Cummins. These were players I’d idolised going to the matches; the next thing you’re sitting with them.
‘I knew Joe Carolan who was making his debut that day too as we were together at Manchester United, and I’d met Joe Havery before.’
Giles, then 18, was given the number eight jersey. The rest was up to him, and he knew it.
‘Of course, when you’re playing at that level, you can’t say “I’m a young fella”; you have to do your stuff.
‘It was probably the biggest thrill I ever had in football. You’re sitting in the dressing room but you have to do your stuff. And luckily I did.’
Sweden were a strong side back then. Four days earlier, they’d beaten an England team including Charlton, Greaves and Clough 3-2 at Wembley, having trailed 1-0 at half-time. Their starting XI in Dalymount included five of the team which played Brazil in the 1958 World Cup final.
With three new caps, Giles, Carolan and Noel Dwyer in goal, Ireland were not expected to trouble Sweden, and the 40,250 crowd at Dalymount sensed the worst when the visitors raced into a 2-0 lead after 12 minutes.
‘I played inside forward, I was number eight. We had a terrible start. We were 2-0 down and you’re thinking “We’re going to get a right hiding.”
And then? ‘Then I hit a good goal to make it 2-1 and it went on from there.’ Those who witnessed Giles’ 30-yard volley, into the goal at the School End of Dalymount, talked about it for years. Good? It was better than that.
‘I remember it well,’ said Giles with that sharp recall of his. ‘It was one in a million. You could be there all day, or all year and you wouldn’t catch one. It had to be right, it had to be perfect. Luckily enough on the day, it worked out that way.’
The goal sparked an astonishing fight-back as Ireland drew level through Curtis, then had two goals disallowed before Curtis chipped the winner early in the second half.
What Ireland, 60 years on, would give for that tomorrow night.
As ever, Giles is pragmatic about the team’s chances.
‘It’ll take a good display to beat them. It won’t be easy but we’re capable of doing it. Denmark are okay but they’re not one of the great teams, we’re not one of the great teams either.
‘It’s definitely possible. We drew away with them, that doesn’t mean anything now but it’s there to be done.’
As for Giles, he has done it all. He’s a Freeman of Dublin and it would be entirely fitting if the allweather facility he helped open on Wednesday was named in his honour.
That would be pitch perfect, just as he was on his Ireland debut 60 years ago.