WHEN THE IRISH Sport Book of the Year nominees were announced recently, along with the virtually inevitable presence of some of the year’s biggest releases — most notably, the autobiographies of Roy Keane and Brian O’Driscoll — there was one nominee in particular that caught the eye.
Released by a small publishing company, Ballpoint Press, and featuring interviews largely conducted over Skype, A Different Shade of Green: The Alan McLoughlin Story, may have been modest in some respects, but it is still easily just as engrossing and ambitiously told as its more high-profile counterparts on the shortlist.
Covering a range of topics from McLoughin’s career at club and international level to his cancer battle in 2012, at 207 pages, it’s a concise, sharply told reflection on a player inextricably linked with the most successful era of Irish soccer history, and in particular, the infamous evening on 17 November 1993, when the team travelled to Belfast to play Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. On that night, McLoughlin ultimately ended up scoring the pivotal goal that took Ireland to the 1994 World Cup — a moment he has been irrevocably associated with ever since.
“For a lot of his playing career, he was very unhappy with it, because he didn’t want to be the hero of the five minutes,” ghostwriter Bryce Evans tells TheScore.ie. “It didn’t work out for him at Manchester United, but he played with Portsmouth, Southampton and had a professional career that was worth more than that goal. As a player, he was very determined not to be remembered for just that goal.
“After [his last Ireland game against] Macedonia, he went home and had a little cry. He felt he had carried the midfield [during the Euro 2000 qualifying campaign], because Roy Keane was out at the time with a knee injury.
“Hindsight’s nice, but he had a good decade with the team. He’ll probably be remembered for just that goal, but there are plenty of others who turned out for Ireland that aren’t remembered because they didn’t score crucial goals, so I think it pissed him off at the time, but he’s more resigned to it now.”
As well as documenting the constant highs and lows that come with being a professional footballer, the book contains a level of poignancy that’s seldom associated with sports autobiographies, particularly in its sensitive, brutally honest and insightful reflections on the impact that cancer can have on a person.
Yet without this traumatic experience, McLoughlin’s story may never have been told. The former player, who is now first-team coach at Portsmouth, had previously rejected all offers to release an autobiography. Nevertheless, when Evans — an academic more associated with books about historical figures such as Seán Lemass — offered to be his ghostwriter, McLoughlin had a change of heart.
“Part of the reason why he agreed was with the kidney cancer in the last two years, he’s been looking at his mortality and perhaps wants to leave something to his kids and grandkids, because he hasn’t been terribly well,” he explains.
And in Evans, McLoughlin found the perfect collaborator. In contrast with the cynicism associated with more high-profile sports autobiographies, A Different Shade of Green was plainly a labour of love for all involved, as he admits that “there’s not going to be a lot of money in this book for me”. Instead, he saw it as a chance to write about “a sort of hero of my youth, if that doesn’t sound too gauche”.
He continues: “There’s an old stereotype, and it was repeated in a recent article in The Irish Times, and you see it in films like The Ghost as well — the lot of the ghostwriter is doomed to be a lot of work, pretty miserable and ultimately unrewarding. Not to sound smug, but this experience has been the complete opposite. We come from similar backgrounds and both see ourselves as Irish men raised in England and that identity issue was the glue between us. It’s a theme that runs throughout the book and so writing it was quite an easy process.”
What also made the collaboration relatively seamless was McLoughlin’s honesty and natural flair for storytelling. And while the book is by no means an exercise in score-settling, it is hardly devoid of controversy either.
One moment that stands out is McLoughlin’s dismay upon hearing of a passage in Roy Keane’s first autobiography, which ostensibly calls into question the extent of the Manchester-born player’s Irishness. McLoughlin goes on to explain that Keane subsequently apologised and effectively blamed ghostwriter Eamon Dunphy for the inclusion of this quip. But for someone who would have spent his entire career listening to countless critics doubt his Irishness, to read similar remarks from a book released by Keane — a close friend and former teammate — must have been particularly difficult.
(Keane and McLoughlin celebrate after the infamous Northern Ireland game in 1993)
“Roy Keane’s done it again in his latest book as well where he talks about the Alf Inge Haaland inquiry, and says that Dunphy kind of sold him down the river,” Evans notes. “In some ways, Dunphy’s a convenient scapegoat within football. And it’s a fine line, because Keane had a chance to read the thing before it went to print.
“[Playing for Ireland] was an issue of moral duty for Alan. He was delighted to make the Irish squad. So [he wasn't happy] when he saw stuff by the likes of Dunphy intimating that he didn’t understand, he was just part of a crop of players — perhaps Tony Cascarino being the obvious example — who didn’t have any Irish heritage.
“He doesn’t really have a pop at Roy Keane, but implicitly, he dislikes the showbiz carnival that seems to be attached to him these days.
“The process between ghostwriter and author is very porous, and I’m sure people will be able to see bits in the book where my prejudice is slipping. Reading both Roy Keane books, which Alan hasn’t, I think Keane seems to see himself as a moral arbiter on nationality.
“You see it with [Patrick] Vieira, where he talks about Senegal [and his failure to represent them at international level], in the latest book, he has a pop at Matt Holland for singing God Save the Queen years before he plays for Ireland. It seems to be a theme with Keane that he has some kind of higher insight into the whole thing, but I find that a bit reductionist.
“There are plenty of really good Irish players who were born and raised in England, or players like Paul McGrath, who comes from a Protestant background. I find a lot of that Keane stuff worrying in terms of where it’s going, so I wanted to rail against that in the book, and I think Alan did as well.”
So as with many of Keane’s relationships, his friendship with McLoughlin seems strange. There are times where the two appear quite close. They were friendly throughout their time together in the Ireland set-up, with McLoughlin — then the more established pro — even buying Keane a Rolex watch during the team’s US tour in 1992.
Later on in his career, when McLoughlin is enduring a difficult time at Wigan, Keane frequently invites him to his house, while McLoughlin then returns the favour as reporters surround the Corkonian’s home amid the 2002 World Cup controversy (though Keane ended up politely declining). Yet in spite of these moments of mutual kindness, there seems to be a distance still evident in their relationship at times.
PA Archive / Press Association Images
PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
(Roy Keane’s biographer Eamon Dunphy receives criticism for remarks about McLoughlin attributed to him)
“Keane never called Alan after the cancer diagnosis. Like a lot of other people, Alan is somewhat in love with Roy Keane. But there’s a lot there to think Keane’s a bit of a shit in terms of some of his behaviour and some of his higher presiding attitudes over people’s nationality.
“Not to be unfair to Roy Keane, but that gives you an insight into his character, which you get in the Roddy Doyle book too. There’s a lot going on in his head, but there’s an unwillingness to trust anyone, which is a shame, because from talking to Alan, they seem to have a close relationship.
“But Roy Keane doesn’t like ‘busy’ people and that includes people who get too close to him or too emotional when he feels it’s not warranted. And deep down, I think Alan is a bit concerned that Roy never called him after the cancer.”
Keane, however, is far from the only one who didn’t call McLoughlin following the much-publicised news of his illness. While Liam Brady and many other footballing figures wished the ex-Ireland player well, one organisation that he claims were conspicuous by their silence at this time was the FAI.
“When it came down to the cancer, it was no holds barred. He was keen to have people who have the same symptoms to act on them. His language can be quite blunt and to the point, so there was nothing that was off limits really.
“I think the FAI’s conduct has been abysmal. He’s never going to be one of the Ireland greats, he’s no Liam Brady or Paul McGrath, but he put in the graft, scored a famous goal and would always sit on the subs bench in Albania or wherever. For them not to put in a phone call or even a note or text message to say ‘sorry to hear what happened’ was really abysmal.
“Alan feels very neglected and pissed off about it, but he doesn’t labour the point in the book. So I think at the very least they owe him an apology.”
However, a spokesperson for the FAI told TheScore.ie that the association contacted Portsmouth FC to pass on their best wishes to Alan McLoughlin and also included a message in a match day programme to wish Alan all the best.
While the book can be gritty, sombre and even difficult to read at times, largely owing to its unflinching descriptions of the emotionally damaging effects of cancer, there is also no shortage of light relief within its pages, and a considerable portion of the humour is provided by stories revolving around Jack Charlton, Ireland’s legendary and famously eccentric manager during much of McLoughlin’s period in the squad.
Claire Mackintosh
Claire Mackintosh
(Jack Charlton features prominently in Alan McLoughlin’s recently released autobiography)
“The Irish public probably wouldn’t have taken Jack to their hearts if it wasn’t for the eccentricities. Some of his traits to me appear very Irish — the love of the nod and the wink, and also the fun and the sense of craic.
“And there were really too many Jack Charlton stories to fit in the book. He was kind of an enigmatic, slightly mad genius. He could never remember people’s names, was very hair-brained and almost at times had a complacent attitude to the team. When they’re down training in Limerick and he goes off [to do promotional work], you think: ‘could anyone else have gotten away with this?’ Tactically it worked on the pitch, but off the pitch, his eccentricities ensured he became a legend.”
Charlton’s reputation, however, has been undermined in recent years, with suggestions that endless boozing and general unprofessional behaviour prevented the Irish team from fulfilling its true potential. Yet A Different Shade of Green offers a slightly different perspective to the disapproval expressed subsequently by Roy Keane among others.
“A lot of it comes from the Keane-Dunphy book, but it’s a case of a good dose of hindsight. Sports nutritionists weren’t around back then and Dunphy’s reflections are highly anachronistic.
“And while there are some stories in the book that indicate the way things are going, like Louis van Gaal’s Ajax team sipping on orange juices while the Portsmouth team’s night descends into a drunken brawl, you’ve got to think of it in the context of its time and they never boozed the night before the game.
“And there were clear boundaries there. One thing that everyone can agree on is that the spirit on that Irish team was second to none, and in a lot of ways, that was the secret to their success. To slate it as a ‘carry on shambles’ [is unfair] and to me at least, Keane comes across as slightly holier-than-thou. Paul McGrath was a total disaster in terms of his boozing, but overall it worked well for team spirit.”
And while these stories of booze-ups, Jack Charlton, Roy Keane and the many trials and tribulations of a professional footballer may be highly entertaining in themselves, there are deeper, more important issues underlying the narrative.
While ghostwriters are usually quite removed from the subject’s experience, McLoughlin and Evans’ backgrounds are closely interlinked to the point where the project is autobiographical, in a sense, for the latter as well as the former, which ultimately lends further poignancy and resonance to the story.
“For me, English-Irish identity is what the book is all about. It’s as much about football matches as Moby-Dick is about a whale. There are so many books written about Anglo-Irish identity, but they tend to be written from the perspective of a Protestant elite who live in big houses.
“I can think of the singer Morrissey — his book is one example that’s about growing up as Irish in Britain, but there are very few others. It sounds a bit pretentious, but if this book adds to the literature, then that would be great.”
A Different Shade of Green: The Alan McLoughlin Story by Bryce Evans and Alan McLoughlin is published by Ballpoint Press. For more info, click here.
Alan McLoughlin's ghost on his love for Roy Keane, the genius of Jack Charlton and the 'abysmal' FAI
WHEN THE IRISH Sport Book of the Year nominees were announced recently, along with the virtually inevitable presence of some of the year’s biggest releases — most notably, the autobiographies of Roy Keane and Brian O’Driscoll — there was one nominee in particular that caught the eye.
Released by a small publishing company, Ballpoint Press, and featuring interviews largely conducted over Skype, A Different Shade of Green: The Alan McLoughlin Story, may have been modest in some respects, but it is still easily just as engrossing and ambitiously told as its more high-profile counterparts on the shortlist.
Covering a range of topics from McLoughin’s career at club and international level to his cancer battle in 2012, at 207 pages, it’s a concise, sharply told reflection on a player inextricably linked with the most successful era of Irish soccer history, and in particular, the infamous evening on 17 November 1993, when the team travelled to Belfast to play Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. On that night, McLoughlin ultimately ended up scoring the pivotal goal that took Ireland to the 1994 World Cup — a moment he has been irrevocably associated with ever since.
“After [his last Ireland game against] Macedonia, he went home and had a little cry. He felt he had carried the midfield [during the Euro 2000 qualifying campaign], because Roy Keane was out at the time with a knee injury.
“Hindsight’s nice, but he had a good decade with the team. He’ll probably be remembered for just that goal, but there are plenty of others who turned out for Ireland that aren’t remembered because they didn’t score crucial goals, so I think it pissed him off at the time, but he’s more resigned to it now.”
As well as documenting the constant highs and lows that come with being a professional footballer, the book contains a level of poignancy that’s seldom associated with sports autobiographies, particularly in its sensitive, brutally honest and insightful reflections on the impact that cancer can have on a person.
Yet without this traumatic experience, McLoughlin’s story may never have been told. The former player, who is now first-team coach at Portsmouth, had previously rejected all offers to release an autobiography. Nevertheless, when Evans — an academic more associated with books about historical figures such as Seán Lemass — offered to be his ghostwriter, McLoughlin had a change of heart.
“Part of the reason why he agreed was with the kidney cancer in the last two years, he’s been looking at his mortality and perhaps wants to leave something to his kids and grandkids, because he hasn’t been terribly well,” he explains.
And in Evans, McLoughlin found the perfect collaborator. In contrast with the cynicism associated with more high-profile sports autobiographies, A Different Shade of Green was plainly a labour of love for all involved, as he admits that “there’s not going to be a lot of money in this book for me”. Instead, he saw it as a chance to write about “a sort of hero of my youth, if that doesn’t sound too gauche”.
What also made the collaboration relatively seamless was McLoughlin’s honesty and natural flair for storytelling. And while the book is by no means an exercise in score-settling, it is hardly devoid of controversy either.
One moment that stands out is McLoughlin’s dismay upon hearing of a passage in Roy Keane’s first autobiography, which ostensibly calls into question the extent of the Manchester-born player’s Irishness. McLoughlin goes on to explain that Keane subsequently apologised and effectively blamed ghostwriter Eamon Dunphy for the inclusion of this quip. But for someone who would have spent his entire career listening to countless critics doubt his Irishness, to read similar remarks from a book released by Keane — a close friend and former teammate — must have been particularly difficult.
(Keane and McLoughlin celebrate after the infamous Northern Ireland game in 1993)
“Roy Keane’s done it again in his latest book as well where he talks about the Alf Inge Haaland inquiry, and says that Dunphy kind of sold him down the river,” Evans notes. “In some ways, Dunphy’s a convenient scapegoat within football. And it’s a fine line, because Keane had a chance to read the thing before it went to print.
“He doesn’t really have a pop at Roy Keane, but implicitly, he dislikes the showbiz carnival that seems to be attached to him these days.
“The process between ghostwriter and author is very porous, and I’m sure people will be able to see bits in the book where my prejudice is slipping. Reading both Roy Keane books, which Alan hasn’t, I think Keane seems to see himself as a moral arbiter on nationality.
“You see it with [Patrick] Vieira, where he talks about Senegal [and his failure to represent them at international level], in the latest book, he has a pop at Matt Holland for singing God Save the Queen years before he plays for Ireland. It seems to be a theme with Keane that he has some kind of higher insight into the whole thing, but I find that a bit reductionist.
So as with many of Keane’s relationships, his friendship with McLoughlin seems strange. There are times where the two appear quite close. They were friendly throughout their time together in the Ireland set-up, with McLoughlin — then the more established pro — even buying Keane a Rolex watch during the team’s US tour in 1992.
Later on in his career, when McLoughlin is enduring a difficult time at Wigan, Keane frequently invites him to his house, while McLoughlin then returns the favour as reporters surround the Corkonian’s home amid the 2002 World Cup controversy (though Keane ended up politely declining). Yet in spite of these moments of mutual kindness, there seems to be a distance still evident in their relationship at times.
(Roy Keane’s biographer Eamon Dunphy receives criticism for remarks about McLoughlin attributed to him)
“Keane never called Alan after the cancer diagnosis. Like a lot of other people, Alan is somewhat in love with Roy Keane. But there’s a lot there to think Keane’s a bit of a shit in terms of some of his behaviour and some of his higher presiding attitudes over people’s nationality.
“Not to be unfair to Roy Keane, but that gives you an insight into his character, which you get in the Roddy Doyle book too. There’s a lot going on in his head, but there’s an unwillingness to trust anyone, which is a shame, because from talking to Alan, they seem to have a close relationship.
Keane, however, is far from the only one who didn’t call McLoughlin following the much-publicised news of his illness. While Liam Brady and many other footballing figures wished the ex-Ireland player well, one organisation that he claims were conspicuous by their silence at this time was the FAI.
“When it came down to the cancer, it was no holds barred. He was keen to have people who have the same symptoms to act on them. His language can be quite blunt and to the point, so there was nothing that was off limits really.
“Alan feels very neglected and pissed off about it, but he doesn’t labour the point in the book. So I think at the very least they owe him an apology.”
While the book can be gritty, sombre and even difficult to read at times, largely owing to its unflinching descriptions of the emotionally damaging effects of cancer, there is also no shortage of light relief within its pages, and a considerable portion of the humour is provided by stories revolving around Jack Charlton, Ireland’s legendary and famously eccentric manager during much of McLoughlin’s period in the squad.
(Jack Charlton features prominently in Alan McLoughlin’s recently released autobiography)
“The Irish public probably wouldn’t have taken Jack to their hearts if it wasn’t for the eccentricities. Some of his traits to me appear very Irish — the love of the nod and the wink, and also the fun and the sense of craic.
Charlton’s reputation, however, has been undermined in recent years, with suggestions that endless boozing and general unprofessional behaviour prevented the Irish team from fulfilling its true potential. Yet A Different Shade of Green offers a slightly different perspective to the disapproval expressed subsequently by Roy Keane among others.
“A lot of it comes from the Keane-Dunphy book, but it’s a case of a good dose of hindsight. Sports nutritionists weren’t around back then and Dunphy’s reflections are highly anachronistic.
“And while there are some stories in the book that indicate the way things are going, like Louis van Gaal’s Ajax team sipping on orange juices while the Portsmouth team’s night descends into a drunken brawl, you’ve got to think of it in the context of its time and they never boozed the night before the game.
And while these stories of booze-ups, Jack Charlton, Roy Keane and the many trials and tribulations of a professional footballer may be highly entertaining in themselves, there are deeper, more important issues underlying the narrative.
While ghostwriters are usually quite removed from the subject’s experience, McLoughlin and Evans’ backgrounds are closely interlinked to the point where the project is autobiographical, in a sense, for the latter as well as the former, which ultimately lends further poignancy and resonance to the story.
“For me, English-Irish identity is what the book is all about. It’s as much about football matches as Moby-Dick is about a whale. There are so many books written about Anglo-Irish identity, but they tend to be written from the perspective of a Protestant elite who live in big houses.
“I can think of the singer Morrissey — his book is one example that’s about growing up as Irish in Britain, but there are very few others. It sounds a bit pretentious, but if this book adds to the literature, then that would be great.”
A Different Shade of Green: The Alan McLoughlin Story by Bryce Evans and Alan McLoughlin is published by Ballpoint Press. For more info, click here.
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A Different Shade of Green Alan McLoughlin Brian O'Driscoll Interview Jack Charlton Roy Keane Ireland Republic Northern Ireland