World Cup hero has made his home here
McGrath’s mighty defending earned player of tournament accolade from RTE
As a squad, we always knew that if we just stuck together and worked hard we could beat any team - McGrath
THERE’S NO player that better encapsulates the glorious six-year period from 1988 to 1994 that saw the Republic of Ireland appear in two World Cups and a European championship than Paul McGrath.
Despite being relatively late to the international scene for a player with such obvious talent, not making his Republic of Ireland debut until the age of 25, McGrath more than made up for lost time as one of the stand-out performers of the Jack Charlton era.
The then Aston Villa defender played every minute in Ireland’s World Cup adventure in 1990, where he was utilised as a defensive midfielder, pitting his wits against the likes of Gheorghe Hagi, Paul Gascoigne and Ruud Gullit, and more than holding his own.
Thirty years on from Italia ‘90, McGrath, who now resides in Tomsallagh, between Enniscorthy and Ferns, fondly looked back on a tournament where the Boys in Green announced themselves on the world stage.
He said they proved that they deserved their place at the top table of football, although he admitted that the impact the exploits of the team had on the country astounded him.
The hundreds of thousands of people that flooded the Dublin streets for the homecoming of their heroes illustrated just what the Irish team had done for the spirit of the nation, but McGrath said he was expecting something slightly more subtle and was taken aback by the sheer size of it all.
‘We thought we’d get back and go to a pub and have a few pints and maybe the landlord might give us a couple of pints free or something. We never expected to be flying, circling around Dublin and watching the crowd and stuff like that. It was just so surreal. You just can’t imagine what it was like.
‘It was lovely and I think all the lads really appreciated it. We appreciated everything the supporters did for us during that competition.
‘I believe half of them were re-mortgaging their houses and stuff like that just so they could follow us. It was a wonderful occasion to be Irish and to celebrate our country,’ he said.
McGrath may have been flabbergasted by what awaited them on their return to the Emerald Isle after the tournament, but getting there in the first place certainly came as no surprise to him, as they finished as runners-up, just a point behind Spain, in their qualification group.
‘Mr. Mackay from Scotland helped us get through in ‘88, but for the World Cup we got there on our own merits. What a competition, it’s the World Cup, it’s the biggest thing any player can get invited to so it was brilliant to get there and be a part of it,’ he said.
Having been drawn in a difficult group with England, the Netherlands and Egypt, some could have been forgiven for thinking a less than glamorous Irish team was just there to make up the numbers, but they certainly didn’t lack faith in their own ability.
‘Ironically the Egyptian game was probably the hardest one we had. It wasn’t the best of games. When you realise that England, and one of the best teams in the world, Holland, are in your group, you think you’ve got very little chance of getting out of it, but there was such a belief in that Irish team. We all felt that if we work as a team, which we always did, we’d get out of the group,’ he said.
That said, Ireland’s World Cup debut in Cagliari couldn’t have started in much worse of a fashion. The defence uncharacteristically fell asleep when they believed the ball had drifted out for a throw-in, and Chris Waddle curled a cross into the inrushing Gary Lineker who opened the scoring after just eight minutes.
‘I remember Chris Waddle keeping a ball in and no one knew whether it was a throw-in or whatever. I think some of the defence might have stopped a little bit.
‘Gary Lineker did that all his career, he played until the whistle blew and he managed to chest it and run past Packie and put the ball in the net. It wasn’t the start we wanted but we still believed that we had the players on the pitch to come back’, said McGrath, who amassed 83 caps for the Republic of Ireland during his career.
That optimism proved well founded as they battled back, and in the 71st minute Kevin Sheedy etched his name in the history books with Ireland’s first goal at a World Cup when he pounced on an error by Steve McMahon and rifled a shot past Peter Shilton.
‘Kevin had one of the best left feet in the business and was one of the best players I’ve played with. We had a few people who could use their left foot, Steve Staunton as well, and thank God Kevin used his that night.
‘We scored a great goal I thought and we deserved the draw we got,’ said the adopted Wexford man, who has been living in the Model county for the past 16 years.
The nation may have been on a high after fighting back for a result against Bobby Robson’s side, but Ireland’s second outing against Egypt, when they drew 0-0, became shrouded in negativity.
McGrath doesn’t see it that way, however, believing the North Africans deserved plaudits for their performance, and he insisted he and his team-mates never looked on the scoreless stalemate as the end of the world.
‘I think they played well in the competition. They had a centre-half that absolutely played out of his skin. I was on the pitch that day admiring some of the stuff that he was doing. He was man of the match in my book by a long chalk.
‘We were still trying to get things into the box and they were doing what we normally do, which was defending really well and stopping everything we threw at them. They did it brilliantly and deserved a draw.
‘A lot of people didn’t give them enough credit for what they did. They had a really good competition considering they weren’t a world-renowned team either. They did to us what we’d normally do to other people.
‘I was kind of proud walking off the pitch that day with a draw, because I thought they really played well, they had one or two chances, but by and large they were defending and they defended brilliantly.
‘As a defender I’d applaud that, no matter which team it is. At the end of the day it’s sport.
‘I think people thought the games we would have difficulty with would be the Holland and England games, and they were so surprised when Egypt popped up and they actually got a draw against us. Everyone was probably thinking now we have to face Holland and it’s going to be shameful because Holland are going to hammer us. We had other ideas.
‘As a team, as a squad, we always knew that if we just stuck together and worked hard we could beatany team, and that’s the way we always were,’ explained the former St. Patrick’s Athletic, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Derby County and Sheffield United player
Things certainly didn’t get any easier for Jack Charlton’s side, needing somegroup thing from that final group game against the Netherlands to have any hopes of progressing.
Although McGrath of the task, a lack of barrier, but, similar t they were again left Ruud Gullit gave the an early advantage.
‘To be honest, I would the Dutch to be the playing. When we walked van Basten, there was players like that. When beside Ruud Gullit you you are.
‘He was like a giant and then he goes and does what you don’t want him to do he shows what a talented player he is when he scores the first goal. I was late trying to get in to block him,’ he said.
Ireland were never likely to roll over, however, and again showed their neverng say-die attitude, getting their reward when Niall Quinn grabbed a precious equaliser with 20 minutes remaining, and McGrath said even when things were going against them their hopes never waned.
‘The Irish team had this ability to get themselves together and battle back and just start saying, “listen, we’re not out of this yet, let’s keep it going, let’s keep batat tling, keep doing what we’re doing”. And then Niall Quinn comes up with the goods.
‘Himself and Packie came up with that amazing goal. Van Breukelen mishandled it and Quinny keeps running, which not too many people would have done, because he was such a good goalkeeper, but it was amazing the way we got the goal back. Then the game turned a bit farcical for the last 20 minutes,’ he said.
That absurd ending ensued because England were leading 1-0 against Egypt, and Ireland and Holland knew that a draw suited them both, as the pair would go through along with Bobby Robson’s side, so they simply ran the clock down by casually passing the ball about, but that bizarre finish didn’t sit too well with McGrath.
‘I think Mick Byrne [team physio] had come on to the pitch to one of our lads and we knew what the situation was. I didn’t really appreciate that the game went the way it did. I’d rather you’d try to win the game or lose the game to do it fairly for the Egyptians.
‘It was a bit disrespectful to the Egyptians that we did what we did, but then again we mightn’t have ended up going to the quarter-finals, so it’s a hard one to quantify,’ he said.
The Irish party then rolled on to Genoa for the memorable last 16 meeting with Romania in the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, a contest that will be never be forgotten in the Emerald Isle, not for the quality of the performance, but for the dramatic penalty shoot-out win.
McGrath believes goalkeeper Packie Bonner deserves immense credit, more for actually getting them to spot-kicks in the first place rather than thwarting Daniel Timofte.
‘That was one of the hardest games we played because they had Hagi. I put Hagi in the best five players I’ve ever played against. He was unbelievable,’ he said.
‘He was getting the ball in front of the goalkeeper, running past halfway and having a shot and Packie, thank God, was on form that day. He was pulling saves out from everywhere, shots that were heading for the corner. He was the one who saved us that day, he was just magnificent.
‘Even as the kid (Timofte) walked up to take that penalty, I don’t know anything about taking penalties, but he looked like he was going to cry even before he took it. You could see that he probably didn’t really even want to take it, and Packie had to go to his right and saved it quite easily to be honest,’ he said.
With the country watching from behind sofas and between barely parted fingers as David O’Leary stepped up to take the decisive spot-kick, McGrath was confident that the veteran defender would do the needful.
‘I was [confident] because I’d seen David taking penalties. In training Niall Quinn used to go in goal and do a few of these things where he’d give you a few quid if you could score three penalties in a row, or you’d have to pay him if you didn’t.
‘I’d seen David take a few penalties against Niall and to be honest Quinny’s a big lad and he was ex-Gaelic as well. David O’Leary could hit the ball well though and thank God that day he hit the ball well,’ he said.
Although McGrath was rock-solid and reliable for Ireland in every other aspect on the pitch, penalty-taking certainly wasn’t his forte and he readily admitted that he was at the back of the queue on that famous night.
‘I took one on an away trip with Manchester United one time and I hit the ground first, Ray Clemence was in goal, we were playing against Spurs in Swaziland, and the ball trickled up and he had to come out to get the ball.
‘That haunted me ever since so I wasn’t going to be one to throw my hand up to take a penalty. I would have been last and that’s the truth. I would have been last if they could find me,’ he laughed.
David O’Leary holding his nerve earned a quarter-final meeting with hosts Italy in
Rome, where a meeting with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican awaited the Irish squad, and it’s something McGrath will always hold dear to his heart.
‘It was a brilliant experience. It was a huge auditorium and it was just amazing to be in his presence. It was an incredible experience and one I’ll never forget.
‘I think for all the Irish lads who were Catholic it’s just something you’ll never forget, and even [for] the lads who weren’t Catholic it was just a brilliant, brilliant experience. He was such a lovely guy as well so we had a great day,’ he said.
Ireland came up just short against a well-drilled Italian outfit in their last eight encounter in Stadio Olimpico, but McGrath was honoured to be on the same pitch as world-class defenders like Franco Baresi and Paulo Maldini, and it goes without saying that the Dubliner didn’t look out of place in such exalted company.
‘They were some of my heroes, before the game anyway. I loved them as players, I love the Italians as players because I think they’re brilliant footballers and I love the way the Italians defend. Sometimes they can be a bit overly rough and stuff like that, but I do love the way they play their football.
‘To play against them, and in Rome as well, we knew it was going to be difficult because we were in their country. I think we gave a reasonable account of ourselves and on another night we might have got one or two goals ourselves, but it was one of the best experiences, with the Irish crowd there as well.
‘For me it was just a fabulous night to be Irish, apart from the fact that we didn’t come out of the game with a win,’ he said.
In fact, four years later the roles were reversed as a 34-year-old McGrath’s astonishing defensive performance in the 1-0 win over the Azzurri in Giants Stadium is the stuff of legend.
It was a masterclass of timing and positioning, despite his debilitating knee problems, a severe shoulder injury and well-documented off-field demons, as he kept star man Roberto Baggio well and truly in his pocket.
Turning attentions back to that night in Rome, when it’s put to McGrath that Toto Schillaci is a name that will be forever etched on Irish minds, he’s unsurprisingly in full agreement.
‘Yeah, me included. It’s tattooed in the back of my brain. To be honest the World Cup he had, he almost scored a second against us as well. He was just brilliant, brilliant on the day. I love watching brilliant players and it’s just a shame when one or two of them are on the pitch playing against you,’ he said.
For anyone that followed his career, McGrath can certainly be put in that brilliant bracket and he was chosen as the Irish player of the tournament by RTE viewers after his performances in Italy, an achievement which is all the more notable considering he’s a central defender by trade, but he accepted the plaudits in typically modest fashion.
‘I played all of that tournament in midfield and to be honest I quite enjoyed it. I think Mick McCarthy and Kevin (Moran) had such a good relationship as centre-halves. They gave you so much confidence.
‘Mick just attacked any ball that came in the air. Kevin was a great talker. They just dominated any strikers that came near them. It was brilliant to play in midfield with them behind me.
‘In terms of awards, you don’t think about that when you’re playing. It’s an honour when you do get an award but the way the Irish lads played, we always played as a team.
‘Individually we probably got awards once or twice during our careers, but more than anything we played as a whole team, including the staff that were around us. We enjoyed each other’s company and that made us a special group of lads,’ he said.