A chippy off the old block! Corkman who was grand-uncle to Liam Brady

ON the eve of the 1979 FA Cup Final, a family in Ovens revealed why they would be roaring on Arsenal against Manchester United in the Wembley showpiece.

It was all down to genetics - let’s call them the Brady Bunch!

Bill Brady was a cousin of Liam Brady - the Gunners’ young attacking midfielder - and he told the Examiner: “I take a great interest in Liam’s career, and I can tell you one thing — there’ll be celebrations here if Liam gets that cup medal.”

The Champagne corks must really have been popping in Bill’s neat bungalow on the Cork-Killarney road at Carrigane, as their boy was the stand-out star of one of the most memorable FA cup finals of all times.

Arsenal led 2-0 with four minutes left, only for United to net twice in three minutes. In the 89th minute, there was bedlam as Arsenal got a dramatic winner.

And Brady - whose nickname ‘Chippy’ was said to be as much down to his love for fish and chips as to his remarkable ability to shape the ball with his left peg - set up all of his team’s goals.

The connection between Brady - whose career also took him to Juventus, Sampdoria, and Inter Milan, and as a player and assistant manager with Ireland - and Cork does not end there.

His grand-uncle, Bill’s father Frank Brady, was a legendary Cork soccer player a century ago, part of the Fordsons factory team that won the 1926 FAI Cup, and also in the very first team to represent the Irish Free State.

Indeed, Liam’s father once pointed out: “I think my sons have got to thank their grand-uncle Frank for their talent. He was a left-back, so I reckon that’s where Liam gets his left foot.”

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Frank Brady was born in Dublin in 1889 and moved to Belfast to play soccer with Harland and Wolff’s team. He later played for Belfast Celtic, Glentoran and Linfield, and won a junior international cap with Northern Ireland.

But a century ago, sectarian violence erupted in the North and Frank headed to Wales, where he played for Aberavon and Cardiff City, and was selected to represent the Welsh League.

The Cork link to the Brady clan began in 1923 when Frank got a job on the Ford plant on the Marina.

The classy left-back continued his soccer career, winning an FAI Cup medal with Fordsons FC in 1926, and also being selected to captain the first Irish Free State international team away to Italy that same week.

A year later, he was again capped for a return game against Italy at Lansdowne Road.

That FAI medal doesn’t tell the full story though, as Brady did not play in the cup run. In the first round at the Mardyke, he had a torrid time in a drawn game up against Shels’ wizard right winger Paddy Robinson.

In the replay, the club committee took the shock decision to axe him and bring in an unknown at left-back, Jim Carabine. In a strange twist, Carabine had apparently been invited to play for Fordsons by Brady himself!

Carabine had played with Robinson for a Welsh third division side and knew all his tricks. He marked him out of the replay, as the Cork side went through 2-1.

The Echo reported, Carabine “used his weight with telling effect on Robinson in the first five minutes and the winger simply faded out of the picture”.

Brady lost his place for the rest of the cup run, including the final against Shamrock Rovers on March 17, 1926. But, just four days later, he played for Ireland in Turin as they lost 3-0 to Italy. Alongside Brady were his Fordsons team-mates Jack McCarthy and James ‘Sally’ Connolly.

Although a team had represented Ireland at soccer in the 1924 Olympics, that match is now viewed as the first by the Irish Free State.

The Boys in Green fared better in the return game in Dublin in April, 1927, a 2-1 defeat. Brady captained that team, in which Bob Fullam got Ireland’s first ever international goal. Those two were the only players to feature in both Italy games.

Brady is one of five players to have captained his country at senior level and played in the Munster Senior League, along with Noel Cantwell, Al Finucane, Shay Brennan and Roy Keane.

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Frank Brady later worked on the docks with D. F. Doyle, and lived in the West Village of Ballincollig. He went to live with his daughter in Ovens before his death, on December 15, 1971, aged 82. His funeral from Ballincollig Church to St Finbarr’s Cemetery was described as “large and representative”.

Frank’s wife, Mary Ann, had predeceased him, and he was survived by a daughter and two sons, one of whom was Bill Brady, of Ovens.

He told the Examiner in 1979 of the close connection that existed between Arsenal star Liam and his Cork relatives. “Liam Brady’s father, Ned and I lived with my grandmother after Ned’s mother died, so both our families are very close,” said Bill.

“I often visit him in Dublin and sometimes Ned and his wife, Eileen, come to visit Cork. Eileen has a sister living in Skibbereen.

“Liam occasionally came to Ovens when he was younger, but with his football commitments he just hasn’t the time nowadays.”

Both the Cork and Dublin branches of the Brady family have a long history of excellence in soccer and GAA.

Liam’s three brothers all played soccer at senior level. Frank was one of four brothers to play the game at senior level. Ray and Pat played in the League of Ireland with Transport and in the English League with Millwall and Queen’s Park Rangers, while Frank won the FAI Cup with Shamrock Rovers in 1968.

Meanwhile, Dubliner Frank Stapleton, who scored in that 1979 FA Cup Final victory for Arsenal, was once a sub on the Irish Youths selection, and gained his place on the team only when Tom Cashman, the later Cork hurling star, opted out.