Denis Irwin – A wasted Talent!
In 1981 Denis Irwin was not just one of the most promising footballers in Coláiste Chríost Rí , he was also one of its brightest pupils. The previous year, while still 12 months under the age, he had starred in the school team that had won the inaugural All-Ireland Colleges Under-15 Gaelic Football title in Croke Park, scoring two points from 50 yard free kicks – not bad for a 14-year old! Scholastically he was assured of an honours Leaving Cert. and University College Cork beckoned.
You can imagine the disappointment in the school staff-room when word came through that he was being enticed cross-channel by Leeds United. “No way can this be allowed happen……get his parents in here and talk a bit of sense to them…….Irwin’s too bright a young fellow to be wasting his time over there…….He’ll end up on the scrap-heap like hundreds more before him” So went the talk in the school at the time.
“No way can this be allowed happen. Irwin’s too bright a young fellow to be wasting his time over there……
In fairness, it wasn’t just his loss to the school football team that prompted such talk but a genuine concern among his teachers that a really bright young schoolboy was going to forsake his Leaving Certificate and a guaranteed university degree and professional career in the field of his choice – for a dodgey year’s trial with a 2nd. Division cross-channel soccer club in the north of England. It just didn’t make sense.
Mr. & Mrs. Irwin duly arrived in the school and, in the small parlour just inside the main door, those of us that knew Denis made every effort to dissuade them from letting him go. My memory of the encounter is that his father was ‘bucking’ to have him go but his mother was wracked with worry and concern. After all, her Denis, still only sixteen, was about to leave the comforts of home for digs in some boarding house in Leeds and live the precarious life of an apprentice footballer in the old English 2nd. Division. (Now the Championship) Not for the faint-hearted!
Of course we were right, Denis did come back – eventually – but he returned with seven Premiership titles won with Manchester United…
In the end, Denis did go – much to our disappointment and disapproval. “They’ll be sorry……he’ll be home in 6 months………he’s given up university for this…..what a waste of talent”…….. and so it went on. Again, I’ll repeat, Denis was a really bright young student and the expressions of regret were for a lad that everyone in the school genuinely liked and admired and felt that his going was such a waste of scholastic talent and ability. “He’ll be back, wait and see.”
Of course we were right, Denis did come back – eventually – but he returned with seven Premiership titles won with Manchester United, three FA Cup medals, four Charity Shield medals and a European Cup winners medal. In all, he played 529 competitive matches with the club, scoring 33 goals in the process and winning 56 caps for the Republic of Ireland. The BBC’s Alan Hansen – not a bad player himself in his day – summed up his career as follows: “If you were to pick the best right-back and the best left-back since the English Premiership began, Denis Irwin would have both positions.”
A question I never failed to flummox Man U died-in-the-wool supporters with when they used get uppity was, “Denis Irwin competed in the finals of the Community Games in Mosney in which sport? – and I’ll give you 10 guesses”
Of course, they never got it – the answer? Chess!
Somehow I think that says a lot about Denis Irwin.