No bitching, no bragging, just friendship
I ALWAYS loved playing for Ireland, for the honour pulling on the green jersey and for the people I met and great friends I made along the way.
I consider myself very lucky to have played more than 100 international games. I’m even more fortunate that I made some great friends for life.
And one man I always enjoyed seeing and meeting up with in an international week was Ray Treacy.
I used to make a beeline for him, catching up over a cuppa and just enjoying his company when he was around the team, either on our travels or in Dublin.
I remember during the trip to Cyprus in 2001, when Roy Keane had a go at the FAI for our travel arrangements.
Most of us weren’t that bothered about the size or location of our seats on the plane, or whether we had a lumpy bed. I was just happy to be there and, as we all know, if I was going to have a bad game it had nothing to do with my leg room.
When news came out of Roy’s interview having a pop at our travel arrangements, and the luxury afforded the FAI blazers, the lads started to give Ray some good-hearted but pretty relentless stick at the team hotel. And it wasn’t even his fault!
When I came into the room, and spotted Ray fag in one hand, Bacardi and Coke in the other, he clocked me, pointed at me and said ‘and don’t you ******* start Killa’. We both just burst out laughing.
Ray was one of the lads, and an ex-Ireland player. But you’d never know that from meeting him.
Yes, he had exclusive access to the squad because he was our travel agent, but it was never about him.
He took his job seriously, he did everything he could to make our arrangements go smoothly – often against the odds, and always with his terrible fear of flying.
What I loved about Ray was that I never once heard him criticise any player.
He wasn’t a bitter exinternational who’d brag about his achievements, his 42 caps, or compare his era to ours.
He just wanted everything to be right for the players. He cared about the lads and just wanted us to do well.