Cork City scarf’s pride of place in Man Utd’s Charlton tribute

A Cork City FC scarf is now taking pride of place among scarves and flags from other great clubs from throughout Europe in a presentation case in the Manchester United club museum at its world-famous Old Trafford stadium.

The scarf from Cork was brought to Manchester by Cork City and Manchester United fan, The Rebel Army Podcast host Stephen Ryan, and his son Cathal, who travelled from Cork to Manchester to attend the derby between City and United in November 2023, shortly after the death of Red Devil and England legend Bobby Charlton.

“I’m a follower of both clubs, for my sins,” said Stephen, who said that his link to Manchester United stemmed from the time his grandfather had lived and worked on the buses in the English city during the 1950s, a time when the “Busby Babes” were the talk of Europe due to their skill and style on the pitch.

Stephen said that they had a fair idea going over that there would be a tribute during the match and, also, that there would be an impromptu memorial at the ground, along the lines that there had been previously for George Best and Matt Busby.

“I said to my son: ‘Do you know what? We should bring over something from Cork’, because I remember being in the museum before and seeing the tribute to Matt Busby when there was stuff from all over the world — the US, Australia.

“We should bring over something from Cork City to show that someone from Cork was there as well — we just wrote ‘Rest in Peace Bobby from Stephen and Cathal’ and Cathal put it down then next to a load of other scarves, maybe there was a couple of hundred, or even a thousand scarves there.”

Stephen and Cathal were back in Manchester this week and visited the museum. “We walked down the stairs, and I said: ‘Oh look, there’s a tribute to Bobby Charlton, there’s a new exhibit there’,” said Stephen.

“There was our scarf at the front, there was a Man City one and a Bayern Munich one and the only other Irish one was at the back, a Sligo Rovers scarf.

“The Cork City one was very prominent at the front — which came as a huge surprise, I don’t know how long it’s been there as I haven’t been in the museum for over a year,” he said.

“It was a lovely thing to see, for Cork City as well, to be there with all those global giants.”

Stephen, who hosts a Cork City podcast as well as other, business-related podcasts, said there was a link between Cork City and Manchester United as there had been three players who played with both clubs — Liam Miller, Liam O’Brien, and Brian Cleary, who was the only Cork City player ever to be signed to United from Cork City.