John Giles - a football man

One of the books that appeared under the 2010 Christmas tree was John Giles’ autobiography, “A Football Man”.  Giles was a pivotal cog in the great Leeds United teams of the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies, and was one half – along with Billy Bremner - of the most formidable midfield partnership in the League.  Forget about Roy Keane, whose game was based on aggression and endless running,  Johnny Giles was Ireland’s best footballer ever.

But if the Christian brothers and the GAA had their way, he might never have had a career in professional football. I quote the following from his book:

“When I moved on to the primary school at Brunswick Street (Brunner), it wasn’t just the sums and the Irish language and the homework that got me into trouble, it was also my love of soccer, or the “English game” as it was regarded in schools run by the Christian brothers”.

The young Giles was busy setting the foundations for his football career by playing “the English game” whenever he could, but the Christian Brothers insisted he play GAA.  So much so, that his father had to sign a commitment to the school that his son would play Gaelic for it when selected.  If Giles’ father had refused to sign the commitment, young Johnny would not have been admitted to the school. 

Giles writes of the “level of hostility at Brunner to the ‘soccer men’, otherwise known as the ‘corner boys going up to Dalymount Park’…  in fact, the idea of soccer as the foreign game was drilled into us to such an extent that, for a few years after I left school, I didn’t feel Irish at all”.

So here you had an obviously supremely talented youngster, who played at under-fourteen level when his real age bracket was under-eight, being obstructed by his school from playing the game he loved so much.  The game that was to become his livelihood

Familiar territory for Gombeen Nation.  The all-pervasive influence of the Catholic Church who ran/run the State schools with taxpayers' money, and cultural organisations such as the GAA who monopolised the schools to play their sports, and Conradh Na Gaeilge, who had members on State educational boards along with the clergy.  All three organisations peddling a particular brand of reactionary “Irishness”.

It is no wonder that people left school at fourteen, or as soon as they possibly could.  Unfortunately, not all of them had the gift of football that John Giles had.  The gift that enabled him to prosper despite the very best efforts of the Irish educational system. 

You have to wonder how many lives were ruined by it.

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