A book about Irish football came out just before Christmas and after a few hints, it arrived in my hands on Christmas Day. I had spent some time in the 90s working in Belfast, and during that time followed Glentoran both home and away, so the book - Green Shoots: Irish Football Histories by Michael Walker - interested me straight away.
The book is full of stories from Irish football both North and South of the border, and from the 1930s to the current day, so I hoped Ipswich would get a mention. A number of Irishmen also pulled on the blue shirt such as Bryan Hamilton and Allan Hunter, as well as the English/Irish of Matt Holland, Kevin Wilson and more recently David McGoldrick, plus our flow of young Irish talent from the Republic. Throw into the pot the names of Keane and McCarthy and you would think we would get a mention.
First of all it would not matter if Ipswich were not mentioned; it’s just a great book about football and the important part it plays in any society.
But the good news is that there are ex-Ipswich players featured, Hunter and Hamilton get brief mentions, including the time they played for an ‘all’ Ireland XI v Brazil – not that they were allowed to call themselves Ireland, and had to play as a Shamrock Rovers XI.
There is also a longer piece about former Town player, Gareth McAuley, from his time at school in County Antrim all the way to being the oldest outfield player in the Premiership.
But it was a story about long forgotten Town player Jackie Brown that was of the main interest for me. Jackie was a Protestant from East Belfast playing for the famous Irish Catholic club, Belfast Celtic who then made a big money transfer across the Irish Sea to Wolves. (The picture on the book’s cover is of Jackie in his Irish Schoolboy international shirt).
Jackie (or John as he was known in Belfast) did not seem to spend long at any club with short spells at Birmingham and Coventry. The war took away some of his career and he ended up playing non-league in Wales. He then was signed for Ipswich: Scott Duncan, our then manger, had attempted to sign him for Manchester United before the war, and Scott had been a long-time admirer of the wing wizardry of Jackie.
By the time Jackie arrived in Suffolk he had played internationally for both Irish teams, something that seemed common place at first after partition, there were even players who played in the same World Cup qualification tournament for both sides!
Jackie arrived for the start of the 1948/49 season and though he did not spend long at Ipswich he certainly made his mark, 27 goals in just over 100 appearances which included a hat trick v Norwich City.
As mentioned earlier, Jackie did not seem to stay long at any club and his fondness for drink may have contributed to this. Jackie used to frequent the ‘Zulu’ pub in Wolsey Street (now demolished, near the back of Cardinal Park) with fellow Ipswich player and Belfast man, Harry Baird.
According to club records, Jackie left Ipswich in the Summer of 51 but it seems there was hope he would keep playing as he had undergone an operation – no one knows what for. While convalescing in Felixstowe he was even named in the local paper as a possible player for the ‘A’ team (coached by Baird) but that seems to have come to nothing and as far as the club thought he had died a few years ago.
It seems Jackie’s family were worried about him and came to find him in England, they found him in the East End of London. He gained a job at the ship builders in Belfast but it seemed he had a number of debts from both drinking and the horses. In 1963 it seems the debts got too much and Jackie took his own life after gassing himself in the family kitchen.
It does show that depression and addictions are not just issues that modern players have to deal with, but something that has always been around professional sport. But just to think, only 12 years after being a star at Portman Road, no one at our club was aware of what had happened to Jackie. Not sure that would happen now, I am sure because of social media we will be aware of what Daryl Murphy or David McGoldrick are doing long after they have left Portman Road.
I can thoroughly recommend Green Shoots as a fascinating account of an often-neglected aspect of football and social history.
Green Shoots: Irish Football Histories by Michael Walker is published by deCoubertin Books. It’s available for £20 from tax-compliant bookshops, or from Amazon here.
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