Players eligible for Ireland

“Darragh is happy. He’s in with the North U17 squad,” says St. Patrick’s Athletic director of football Ger O’Brien.

Darragh Burns initially played for Bohemians U15s before moving to the Inchicore club. At the time, both St. Pats and coaches from the Dublin schoolboys league contacted the FAI about the ability of the technical midfielder and recommended his inclusion. He was not selected.

“His Dad is from Northern Ireland, he just wasn’t getting called up,” O’Brien explains.

Then an invite to link up with the Northern Ireland U17s was extended and accepted.

Days after his impressive involvement with Northern Ireland, Burns was also invited into the Republic of Ireland U17s squad. He made his debut off the bench against Turkey in a friendly at Tallaght Stadium and grabbed a goal and an assist a week later.

In October, he helped Northern Ireland Euro qualify for the Elite Stages, scoring twice against San Marino.

Then a choice had to be made, the player opted to continue with Northern Ireland.

As O'Brien details, there are implications to this.

He played in a UEFA tournament with the North. Once you play a competitive game you can only make one change. Darragh has played a competitive game. He can only make one change now. He can’t go to Ireland now and then go back to the North.

That’s at any level. Look, Darragh is happy. He’s in the North squad. In fairness to Colin O’Brien, he came and met him. I let Colin explain his thinking for his plans for him, Darragh went away and decided he wanted to go North.