Eamon Dunphy breaks down on Ireland AM speaking about unemployment in Ireland.

TV3 GROUP RELEASE                                                                               

IMMEDIATE: Friday 11th October 2013

 

 

Eamon Dunphy breaks down on Ireland AM speaking about unemployment in Ireland.

 

Broadcaster, Author, Sports Pundit and former professional footballer Eamon Dunphy joined Aidan Cooney on Ireland AM today (Friday 11th October) to discuss his new book ‘My Rocky Road’.

 

In a very candid interview Eamon spoke about his career, his hardships and unemployment in Ireland today.

 

Eamon also discussed with Aidan Cooney, the Saipan incident between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy and pondered the return of Mick to International football as Republic of Ireland manager. 

 

To view the interview in full, please click on the following link:

 

http://www.tv3.ie/3player/show/184/70178/1/Ireland-AM

 

 

Ireland AM airs weekday mornings from 7am on TV3.

 

One of the most recognisable faces in Irish TV, Eamon Dunphy joined Ireland AM today ( Friday 11th October) to talk about his new book ‘My Rocky Road’. The eye-opening autobiography gives an insight in Eamon’s life which had previously been untold.

 

Speaking to Aidan Cooney, Eamon became very emotional while speaking about how his father lost his job when he was a young child.

 

“He was a builder’s labourer and his best friend on the building site was a man called Larry Gaynor, who was a Fianna Fáil common boss. He said to my dad, they were in a recession, ‘bad times are coming Paddy we’re going to have to lay people off’, which is the dread. He said ‘if you join Fianna Fáil you’ll be okay but you’re going to have to canvas for us at the next election’. Fianna Fáil was out of power at the time, it was a coalition government. He said ‘if you don’t I think you’ll get laid off’. My father said he wouldn’t and he was laid off and was unemployed for three years. It was a very, very grim and frightening experience which people are going through now. It was terrifying at the time. He stood by his principles, which was amazing.”

 

Eamon went on to discuss the state of the country today and became visibly upset.

 

“My dad was a very jolly man, a very fun man. I think obviously if you lose your job, you lose your income but also you lose the pleasure and the companionship and the camaraderie of going to work. The banter with your pals going for a pint after work and you lose your life really. That aspect of unemployment is never really understood. There’s a great Arthur Miller play ‘Death of a Salesman’ and Willie Loman is the character. If you see that play you realise the devastation of people and we have 400, 000 people now in that position. It’s not just that you don’t have money, you don’t have an identity. I think you feel despair. Particularly an unskilled working man or woman, you feel despair and you question everything about yourself. My mother was – they loved each other, very supportive, told him he did the right thing – big!”

 

He spoke about the glamour of a career in professional football when he discussed his time at Manchester United.

 

“Well going to Manchester United in 1960 was two years after the Munich air crash. There was glamour and the ‘Busby Babes’, they were exciting and vivacious, glamorous, young and it was a terrible tragedy. In Ireland in particular, Liam Whelan was in the crash and died. John Giles was playing for United, just to go there and be around that Busby was a dream. It was like Hollywood – it was just it! But when you got there it was the best young players in the British Isles, it was very tough. The digs were lousy, the food was lousy and we were left to our own devices. George Best came a year after me and we were friends. We hung around the bowling alleys, the snooker halls, the dog tracks and Jimmy Saville had a place called The Plaza. He actually had a reputation even then but not quite for what – and he hand a club called The Three Coins on Fountain Street in Manchester and I saw The Beatles play there, saw The Hollies, The Searchers, Freddie and The Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits.”

 

Eamon also referred to the Saipan incident, a very public quarrel between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy that happened while the Irish football team was preparing for its matches in Japan in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

 

“I just felt in the Saipan incident, Keane had justifiable criticism. It was an island with no football pitch and they were training in a car park. I think Mick didn’t manage it. Managing means managing and he didn’t do the crisis management thing but that was 11 years ago and I think he’s matured as a manager. He kept Wolves in the Premier League. He likes to play good football and if you take the Saipan thing out, Mick qualified us for the World Cup. He got us there. He’s available now so yeah, I don’t think you should be afraid to change your mind incidentally and revise things. At the time I was on Keane’s side but Keane subsequently proved not to be a very good manager so I’m prepared to revise my opinion. If you say ‘I’ve always said this, I’ll never change’ – I don’t think that’s healthy.”

 

Ireland AM airs weekday mornings from 7am on TV3. 

 

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ENDS

 

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Sharon McHugh
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