Inside Track: Eoin Kenny following in famous footsteps
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
It’s been said a number of times on these pages that Peter McParland was on the Dundalk team that won the 1952 FAI Cup. On examination of Jim Murphy’s excellent History of Dundalk FC, we find that is not the case.
Newry-born McParland was on the Oriel Park books at the time, okay, but didn’t feature in any of the ties leading to the final, or on the team for the two games needed to beat Cork Athletic.
(Cork Athletic are no longer in existence, nor, indeed, are Cork Hibs, the team Dundalk beat in the competition’s second round.
Other teams from the ‘capital of the south’ to go their merry way: Fordsons, Evergreen and those carrying the Cork name, Bohemians, City, United, Celtic and Alberts. City are back in vogue, and have been since 1984.)
Peter McParland was at Oriel Park from an early age, scoring his first goal for the senior team at just 16 years of age. His last season was in 1952/’53, and after that transferred to Aston Villa.
He had a glittering career with the Birmingham club, having his most memorable outing in the 1957 FA Cup final. Villa won 2-1, with McParland scoring two goals. However, there were many who felt one of them shouldn’t have stood.
McParland went for a ball that seemed to be in Ray Wood’s safekeeping, but not only did he bundle the ball over the line, but also the goalie.
The Newry man was also twice on the mark when Villa beat Rotherham in the 1961 League Cup final, and his sharpness around goals didn’t desert him when he later played with Wolves and Plymouth Argyle.
By then McParland was established on the Northern Ireland team. The highlight of his career in the other green jersey came when he finished among the top scorers in the 1958 World Cup finals, his team defying all the odds to reach the quarter-finals.
All of this is being recalled on the back of the recent news that another former Dundalk player has been named on the Northern Ireland squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations Cup’s concluding group matches.
Eoin Kenny, on Ciarán Kilduff’s team this season until moving to Championship side, Portsmouth, was born in Derry during his father Stephen’s time as manager of the Candystripes.
That qualifies him to join manager Michael O’Neill’s squad, and though it’s unlikely he’ll be on the first eleven for the home game with Ukraine this Saturday, the call-up represents a giant step in his fledgling career. He has already played for Northern Ireland at underage.
The 20-year-old’s departure from Oriel around the same time as Gbemi Arubi left for Burton Albion was followed by a slump in Dundalk’s fortunes. There may not have been a coincidence in that.
And now the one that got away. Ted Harte, a solid wing-half in his time with Dundalk, suggested to the team management back in the 1960s that they give a trial to a young fellow Newry man.
The trial took place, but whoever had the decision to make, to sign the teenager or let him try his luck elsewhere, wasn’t impressed.
Had it been otherwise, we could now be recalling how another former Dundalk player, one Pat Jennings, went on to carve out a magnificent career in English League and International football.