Mick O'Brien (born 1893) gained 4 x Irish Free State (FAIFS) caps between 1927 and 1932 towards the end of his career, having previously won 10 x caps for Ireland (IFA) between 1921 and 1927.

Thing is, it having long been thought (and reported) that he had been born in Kilcock, Co.Kildare, it has now been established by a historian at one of his old clubs, Brentford, that he was actually born in Ushaw Moor, a pit village in Co.Durham.

At that time, the IFA didn't pick anyone who had been born outside of Ireland, so it is thought that he may have pretended to have been born in Kildare in order to qualify.

Does anyone know whether the FAIFS operated a similar rule at the time?

And could there have been others who did the same?

https://nifootball.blogspot.com/2007/08/mick-obrien.html" rel="nofollow - https://nifootball.blogspot.com/2007/08/mick-obrien.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_OBrien_%28footballer,_born_1893%29" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_O%27Brien_(footballer,_born_1893)

Thanks for those. Can I ask, how did you come up with those two possiblities?

Anyhow, re McKenzie, his brief Wiki entry states he was born in Dublin, though as we know, wiki often isn't reliable without citations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McKenzie_%28Irish_footballer%29" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McKenzie_(Irish_footballer)

I did a quick search on the 1911 Irish census record (latest available online) and there's no sign of him. Though if his date of death given as 2006 is correct, then he was almost certainly born after then. It's interesting that his first recorded club is Arthurlie Juniors (Scotland), before starting League football in England.

Re. Griffiths, he's a curious one. Assuming his DoB of 28/09/1907 is correct, then he would have been 3 yrs and 7 months old at the time of the 1911 Census, yet he doesn't show up anywhere on the island. Of course it is possible that he moved outside Ireland with his family when very young. Alternatively, there is one "Richard Griffiths" recorded, but his age is given as 4 (unlikely to be an error) and as it happens, that youngster was living in the Shankill Electoral Ward in Belfast, so if it were him, you might expect an NI link of some sort? (A German stats website also has him listed as having the alternative name of "Robert", but no-one with that name shows up on the census either.)

Meanwhile, there's another interesting candidate, Jack Reynolds. Although born in Blackburn in 1869, and later playing in the town, he was brought up mostly in Ireland (Da was a soldier), apparently had an Antrim accent and signed for Distillery, where he was first capped by Ireland (1890). After five IFA caps, he signed for WBA.

In this (very reliable) blog, it is noted that:

https://nifootball.blogspot.com/2006/10/jack-reynolds.html" rel="nofollow - https://nifootball.blogspot.com/2006/10/jack-reynolds.html

I must confess, I hadn't heard of any 5 years residence rule, but it was the sort of thing which happened in sport back in those days and its abolition may have been connected with the game beginning to go professional (my speculation).

Meanwhile, Reynolds is unique not only in playing for both Ireland and England, but also for scoring for each against the other!

Shay Brennan is generally considered the first English born player to play for us.

Obviously this is no longer correct.