CORK CITY legend Dave Barry has told how he was allowed two pints the night before an All-Ireland final — and went on to make a few drinks part of his own management regime.
Barry won All-Irelands as a Cork footballer in 1989 and 1990 while also starring in the League of Ireland.
Dave Barry said drinking in sport was part of the culture[/caption]
He later managed City at Turner’s Cross for four seasons.
Famous for scoring goals in European competition against the like of Bayern Munich in 1991 and Galatasaray in 1993, the one-time wing wizard — and plumber — was also man of the match in his county’s 1989 Croke Park triumph.
Was there a secret to his success?
He told us: “Drinking that time, it was part of the culture, you know. You got on the bus, you had a six-pack on your lap and you’re talking about scoring a goal or taking a goal off the line.
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“(Cork boss) Billy Morgan at the time would say, ‘You’d sleep better, you know, just go have two pints’.
“And that was the thing, and it was the same with (Cork City manager) Noel O’Mahony.
“Look, if you’re a professional, you’re getting good money. If you’re getting a couple of grand a week, you can’t be going out, you have to look after your body.
“And even when I was a manager, fellas would be slagging me, saying ‘we used to go out and you didn’t know where we were’ and all this.
“Cork is a small place, you know where they are!
“I don’t mind them having a drink, but like, you know on a Tuesday night when we were training, you know if fellas aren’t putting it in or they’re not fit.
“If they’re not fit I put them with Phil Harrington and he gets them fit within a week because Phil was a great trainer.
“So look, that’s the way it is and I enjoyed that, I enjoyed that camaraderie in the dressing room and we had to have that.
“If you hadn’t had the players going out onto the pitch, if we weren’t all in tune with one another — and as a manager, if they weren’t in tune with me you’d get nowhere.”
Barry, a fierce advocate for Cork and the LOI, is the fourth guest on the Irish Sun’s This Is Your LOIfe podcast.
SURPRISE PICK
He told how he once shot down Jack Charlton when the then Ireland manager offered to come and watch more League of Ireland football.
Barry, now 63, was seething that Ireland under-21 boss at the time, Jack’s assistant Maurice Setters had announced that if a player wasn’t playing in England he wouldn’t be selected.
The Cork-born midfielder had later been picked to play in a Republic of Ireland B match with fellow LOI stars Pat Fenlon and Gino Lawless against Manchester United in 1991 in Lansdowne Road.
And despite reservations from Big Jack, he was subbed on at half-time.
Barry said: “The place was packed with Man United supporters.
“It was Schmeichel in goal, Denis Irwin was there. Mark Hughes, Andriy Kanchelskis, what a team they had.
TAKING A CHANCE
“Gino was starting and me and Pat Fenlon we were on the bench.
“So at half time we needed somebody wide on the right.
“Jack looked at me and he wasn’t a bit impressed.
“And next he looked at Pat and Pat is slight and he looks nippy. And Jack asked Pat can you play on the wing?
“And Pat Fenlon said no I can’t, I’m a centre midfield player. And he looked me up and down and I was standing up looking at him.
“The next he goes ‘you don’t look like a winger son’. I said we’ll give it a go anyway.
‘NO INHIBITIONS’
“So I went wide right who was wide on the left? Giggs. So Giggs was playing and I did well.
“I did really well actually in that game but I had no inhibitions. I was out there playing against big crowds all the time.”
Barry got plenty of pats on the back afterwards from senior players, and even Jack was converted.
“Drinking that time, it was part of the culture, you know. You got on the bus, you had a six-pack on your lap and you’re talking about scoring a goal or taking a goal off the line.”
Dave Barry
He told podcast host Neil O’Riordan: “I came back in and Kevin Moran came up to me and a couple of senior players came up and said ‘well done you did well’.
“And Jack came up to me and he says ‘well done son’. He says ‘you know you did very well and I should look at more League of Ireland games’.”
WISE WORDS
Barry, still fuming at the Setters under-21s League of Ireland snub, was having none of it.
He said: “And I says ‘Jack, if we were any good we’d be in England.’
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THE League of Ireland is on a roll – but it hasn’t always been this way.
The domestic game has so often veered from crisis to catastrophe over the course of its imperfect history. Yet it survived, and flourished.
In this series, veteran Irish Sun chief sports writer Neil O’Riordan will take you back in time to when pitches were awful, terraces empty, and tackles over the top.
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Barry, who won a league title as a player with Cork City in 1993 and the FAI Cup as manager in 1998, also stunned the home fans in Galatasaray’s intimidating Ali Sami Yen Stadium when he scored in the first-round of the Champions League.
After eventually knocking City out of the tournament following a 1-0 in Turner’s Cross, the Turkish champs next played Manchester United in the infamous “welcome to Hell” match where Eric Cantona was attacked.
Recalling the atmosphere inside the cauldron, he said: “In the dressing room we hear this kind of droning like.
“Being a plumber I was thinking that boiler is making a lot of noise, I might come over here and get a bit of work.”
RIOT POLICE IN SIGHT
With Cork trailing 2-0, Barry scored on the 62nd minute and the atmosphere quckly turned sour.
He said: “Walking down the steps and there was riot police with their shields and batons.
“And Fergie O’Donoghue got a kick up the arse from one of the one of the stewards.
“Fergie was going to put his hand on him and I think it was Tony Sullivan grabbed him.
“I always tell people, out in Istanbul that’s where Cantona got the baton, we were saying to Fergie look the fella who kicked you up the arse went on to baton Cantona.”
Jack Charlton was turned down by Dave Barry when he offered to come and watch more matches[/caption]
