Most Unlikeable Player to Wear the Green of EIRE?

There are a few that it was hard to warm to, despite that penalty Dave O'Leary was certainly one. He is pretty unbearable. Darron Gibson has never comeout of anything looking well and, despite being an admirer of Kieren Westwood as a goalkeeper,  his` 'good Catholic boy' comments grated.I can also understand the dislike of Lawrenson, but for being the campest man on the BBC and having the balls to stay married to a woman.......... you kind of have to admire that much denial.

David O'Leary was supposed to be a bit of a pox?

Thank f**k Vinny Jones was never capped by us, I don't know if Jack would have picked him but he was searching for his Irish roots before declaring for Wales if I remembered correctly.

pre Madonna wrote: George Zip wrote: David O'Leary was supposed to be a bit of a pox? Thank f**k Vinny Jones was never capped by us, I don't know if Jack would have picked him but he was searching for his Irish roots before declaring for Wales if I remembered correctly. Yeah, I remember that. I have a recollection of him being on The Late Late Show some time after too, discussing it. I think in trying to discover his Irish roots he found out his Grandad had been born in Wales.

Apparently his recoreds were lost in the Custom House fire in the War of Independence.  Thank fook.

Jon Macken! What a let down 

Anthony Stokes, beyond question, chap has a reputation to live down to

TonyNotJack wrote: pre Madonna wrote: There are a few that it was hard to warm to, despite that penalty Dave O'Leary was certainly one. He is pretty unbearable. Darron Gibson has never comeout of anything looking well and, despite being an admirer of Kieren Westwood as a goalkeeper,  his` 'good Catholic boy' comments grated.I can also understand the dislike of Lawrenson, but for being the campest man on the BBC and having the balls to stay married to a woman.......... you kind of have to admire that much denial. I saw someone mentioned Sadlier in relation to the number of caps he got and his new found career as a pundit, I think both are unfair. He would have got a lot more caps if he wasn't cursed with that injury and I wish more news outlets would go for articulate and intelligent pundits over big name players. Watching the Champions League Final on BT, for example, was horrendous. I have long been in favour of the better sports journalists becoming involved on these panels, but I digress. As for the most underrated, it his hard to disagree with Deise about Sheridan, he was quality and used far too sparingly. Some of the others mentioned were all good shouts too. If we are doing overrated, probably Damien Duff. I was nearly always disappointed with his performances for Ireland, bar a few notable exceptions.  Wasn't aware of this.Ouch.  http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/coventry-city-new-boy-keiren-westwood-232791

It's just a saying I've often heard used by second generation lads, you'd want to have a very thin skin to be offended by that. I remember when he said it and I'm pretty sure he never said he wasn't Irish, it was more like a wasn't born in Ireland but have an Irish grandmother and am a good Catholic boy. Think he was still at Carlisle in league one and nowhere near the squad when he was asked about it.

pre Madonna wrote: Drumcondra 69er wrote: TonyNotJack wrote: pre Madonna wrote: There are a few that it was hard to warm to, despite that penalty Dave O'Leary was certainly one. He is pretty unbearable. Darron Gibson has never comeout of anything looking well and, despite being an admirer of Kieren Westwood as a goalkeeper,  his` 'good Catholic boy' comments grated.I can also understand the dislike of Lawrenson, but for being the campest man on the BBC and having the balls to stay married to a woman.......... you kind of have to admire that much denial. I saw someone mentioned Sadlier in relation to the number of caps he got and his new found career as a pundit, I think both are unfair. He would have got a lot more caps if he wasn't cursed with that injury and I wish more news outlets would go for articulate and intelligent pundits over big name players. Watching the Champions League Final on BT, for example, was horrendous. I have long been in favour of the better sports journalists becoming involved on these panels, but I digress. As for the most underrated, it his hard to disagree with Deise about Sheridan, he was quality and used far too sparingly. Some of the others mentioned were all good shouts too. If we are doing overrated, probably Damien Duff. I was nearly always disappointed with his performances for Ireland, bar a few notable exceptions.  Wasn't aware of this.Ouch.  http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/coventry-city-new-boy-keiren-westwood-232791 It's just a saying I've often heard used by second generation lads, you'd want to have a very thin skin to be offended by that. I remember when he said it and I'm pretty sure he never said he wasn't Irish, it was more like a wasn't born in Ireland but have an Irish grandmother and am a good Catholic boy. Think he was still at Carlisle in league one and nowhere near the squad when he was asked about it. I have honestly never heard anyone say it. I certainly wasn't offended by it, just found incredibly ignorant. It probably was a tongue-in-cheek comment, but even still. It makes it hard to take hims seriously. He should still be our first choice though.

It's a common saying if you're reared as an ex pat in England, sent to a Irish / Catholic school (the expressions were essentially interchangeable when he went to school) in a country where that instantly marks you out as different. Might seem ignorant to someone reared in Ireland where that would be the norm but that's missing the point entirely.

Pretty sure it was just a poor attempt at humour by Westwood, a bit cringy but nothing to hold a grudge against him for...

 I don't get the relevance there, it is assuming one means the other is why the joke felt flat and where you thought some would take offence or, in my case at least, cringed. I mean there are, I am sure, hundreds of quotations like that from people who went to a Catholic school or have felt Catholic 'guilt'. You can get quotes on that from everyone from Madonna to Fidel Castro and just about everyone and anyone  with a Latin, Hispanic or Irish surname.That doesn't make it comparable to what Westwood said, in anyway at all.