John Coughlan was a Cork soccer legend and a League of Ireland iron man 

JOHN Coughlan, the ‘Iron Man’ in the middle of the magnificent Cork Celtic defence, passed away in the Powdermill Nursing Home. 

Aged 90, he has left his fans, and there were thousands, with an abundance of special memories of his days with Cork Athletic/Evergreen and Cork Celtic. 

One memory that stands out is an extract from The Irish Times which read, "Misty memories of Jock Maguire with the longest kick out in the land, Touhy running in to meet McCann's cross, little 'Mousie' Munroe mesmerising the opposition and Johnnie Coughlan in the jersey of Cork Athletic, like a one-man Maginot Line, warning the Rovers forwards to pass at their peril, stirred the hearts." 

This little nostalgic match descriptive review of a match with Shams typifies the 'Iron Man' John Coughlan and is how thousands of old soccer followers would also remember him.

John’s early sporting interest was dominated by hurling in which he was a skillful, fearless exponent of the native game and represented his county at minor level before turning his attention to soccer with Glasheen. 

He wasn’t to remain long with Glasheen as the eagle-eyed scouts swooped and whipped him away to Cork Athletic. 

He signed for Athletic prior to the start of the 1951-52 season and the following year he starred on the side which defeated neighbours Evergreen in the all-Cork FAI Cup final. That was to be the last major senior honour he was to win as his glittering career, spanning 14 years at League of Ireland level, was littered with hard luck stories. He was agonisingly deprived of further FAI Cup medals in 1956 and 1964 when, on both occasions, Lady Luck smiled on Shamrock Rovers in dramatic finals. 

Everyone remembers the fairy tale final of ’56 – the famous day when Donie Forde left Dalymount to collect champagne and found on his return that Rovers had scored three times in the closing minutes to win the game 3-2. There was more misfortune for John in ’64 when, after playing a blinder with a broken bone in his hand in the drawn final, he was forced to miss the replay and his absence almost certainly cost Cork Celtic the Cup. Another nightmare scenario unfolded in ’62 when, despite having two bites at the cherry, they failed to conquer Shelbourne in the League Championship.

Football is about entertainment and, for almost a decade, Celtic – inspired by John Coughlan – provided plenty of it as they deservedly won huge support from an adoring soccer public. 

John announced his retirement from senior football at the end of the 1965 season and the only ones happy with that decision were the country’s leading centre-forwards who dreaded the Iron Man. He had a good career and had no regrets, only happy memories of European days, cup finals and Top Four victories. 

The League of Ireland’s loss was the Cork AUL’s gain as John almost immediately embarked on a junior career which began in style when he helped his new club St Mary’s to sweep the board in Cork soccer. Cork AUL availed of his outstanding knowledge of the game and appointed him as manager of their junior representative side which he guided to its first success in the Oscar Traynor inter-league competition. 

LOCAL HERO

In the following years, he spearheaded Mary’s successful trophy assault before returning to Ballincollig to play with and coach the new village soccer team which he brought from Division 3 to the Premier League in a very short time. He was a prominent and popular member of the Ballincollig community and a major supporter of their soccer and GAA teams after he finished playing and managing.

He was awarded the Cork Soccer’s Hall of Fame in 1997 and is mourned by sons Brian and Kevin and daughter Myra and his extended family.