Tierney eager to stay on the straight and narrow and fulfil promise to his mother
LAST Sunday Ross Tierney celebrated his landmark 21st birthday. Had there been double the number of candles on his cake, it would barely account for the volume of life experience he has already managed to accrue.
The Motherwell midfielder speaks with the clarity and maturity of someone twice his age and, already a father of two, family is crucial to the young Dubliner’s tale.
As a child, Tierney watched his older brothers Dean and Alan attempt to carve out a career in football only to fall by the wayside. ‘They sort of went the drink way,’ he explains.
He made a promise to his mother that he would not succumb to the same pitfalls and the significance of that vow is strengthened by the fact that, tragically, another elder sibling, Aaron, took his own life in March 2020.
Tierney has spoken openly of the toll that event took on his wellbeing but his willingness to discuss mental-health issues has allowed him to move on with building his own future both personally and professionally.
‘We sat down and spoke about it. My two brothers were decent footballers but chose different routes in life,’ he said. ‘That probably helped — that they were able to tell me what not to do.
‘There’s a big age gap to my eldest brother, who’s 44. My mam was 43 having me, so I was a bit of a surprise!
‘They were decent footballers. I heard growing up that: “Your brothers had a great chance and chose different paths and hopefully you can change that”.
‘They made promises to my ma, growing up I probably made the same promises and she was like: “I have heard all this before”.
‘She didn’t get her hopes up but hopefully I can do better. We had a little party for my 21st last Saturday with the family and people coming over and giving me drinks...’
The expression of disbelief on Tierney’s face as he describes the scene suggests he is unlikely to suffer the same missteps.
Slight and short in stature, he credits his brothers for helping bolster his obvious ball-playing talent with an element of steel.
He continues: ‘People say I am small in stature but I’m not afraid of a tackle.
‘I just jump back up, and that’s from growing up getting smashed in tackles by my two brothers.
‘I grew up around Ballymun and it’s a tough area, sink or swim. It helped me playing out on the street with all the boys.
‘Alan’s nickname was “Monster”. Everyone was afraid to go into a tackle with him. I’m 5ft 6ins and he’s 6ft 3ins or something, so there’s a big difference.
‘Alan played for Tolka Rovers and Shelbourne. At Tolka, he played against Home Farm, who had Alan
Maybury in the team. Dean played with Home Farm the whole way up, he was in Darren O’Dea’s team. The manager there said that if Dean didn’t make it, he would hang his managerial boots up.
‘Unfortunately, Dean — and Alan — sort of went the drink way, which back then was the norm. That impeded him. Also, he only has one kidney, so that didn’t help either.
‘It was beneficial for me that I was born last, so I made sure I didn’t make the mistakes they made.’
A shining star with Bohemians, Tierney has been capped by Ireland’s Under-21s side and appeared in the FAI Cup Final before earning his move to Fir Park in January.
The decision to leave Ireland was complicated by the needs of his fiancee Nicola and their two young children but he knew he had the skill and the wherewithal to cope.
He says: ‘It was a family decision. This is my job, I need to put food on the table for the kids and pay bills.
‘It was a big move for them. They have loved it so far.
‘The first couple of days after we came over, my two-year-old son didn’t really understand it but he is great now and my missus is settling in, making friends with the girls off the team.’
Tierney is not bold enough to claim he has his entire career mapped out but he has already enjoyed a taste of the big time courtesy of his appearance in that cup final against St Patrick’s back in November, a match lost on penalties. And he has also played in Europe due to Bohs involvement in the Europa Conference League qualifiers last August.
‘My last game for Bohs was the cup final,’ he adds. ‘I was gutted I couldn’t leave with a piece of silverare because I thought everybody at the club and the fans deserved it.
‘During the warm-up, it wasn’t too noisy but standing in the tunnel ready to come back out, all you can see is red smoke. It was a great feeling but it would have been better if we had won. Playing in Europe last year was an unbelievable experience, too. Coming over here
I knew we had a chance to get Europe for next year, so that was one of my hungers.
‘To play in a cup final would be great and here if you get to the semi-final you get to play at Hampden, so that’s another bonus.’
Wise beyond his years he may be but Tierney is happy to absorb advice from his seniors. And so, as he wallowed in the defeat of December’s final he found himself being leant some perspective by the club’s performance coach.
Philly McMahon, a decorated Gaelic footballer, advised him to live in the moment, not in some imagined future. He added: ‘I was gutted after we lost the cup final. Philly McMahon said: “This is just football. There’s somebody right now in hospital begging for time on his deathbed — you are walking around, happy, healthy, playing football. Just take it in.”
‘I don’t really sit down and think about what’s happened, I’ll do that when I retire. If I dwell on that, then I’ll miss chances here.
‘And I know there is always someone in a worse position than I am.’