Farrell and McCracken: colossal impact of Irish football legends still felt today

Early on in The Emerald Evertonian, a new book about the life and times of Peter Farrell, comes a remarkable detail revealing something of the status of soccer in 1930s Ireland. The young Farrell had just joined Cabinteely United, then run by an enthusiast called Christy Devlin. “The team’s ‘pavilion’,” writes author Rob Sawyer, “was a huge tree . . .” The tree was behind one goalmouth and under its branches, the players changed and deposited any valuables a 13 year-old from south Dublin might possess. Farrell saw the difference when he played Gaelic football “on much better grounds than our soccer one at Cabinteely”. He added: “We also had a well-equipped pavilion with showers at our school...