Eamon Dunphy

Eamon Dunphy

Personal information
Full name	Eamon Martin Dunphy
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1962–1965	Manchester United
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1965–1966	York City	22	(3)
1965–1974	Millwall	274	(24)
1973–1975	Charlton Athletic	42	(3)
1975–1977	Reading	77	(3)
1977–1978	Shamrock Rovers
Total		415	(33)
International career
1965–1971	Republic of Ireland	23	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Eamon Martin Dunphy (born 3 August 1945 in Dublin, Irish: Éamonn Máirtín Ó Donnchaidh) is an Irish media personality, radio and television presenter, author, sports pundit, as well as a former professional football player. He is best known as a soccer analyst on RTÉ's coverage of the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. He has been impersonated and lampooned by several Irish comedy shows including Scrap Saturday and Après Match.

Dunphy has worked for several radio and television stations, including TV3 (for which he has presented a chat show and a game show) and he was the original presenter of The Last Word on Today FM. Between 2004 and 2006, Dunphy presented the breakfast programme on Dublin's local Newstalk 106 radio station (now a national broadcaster). Later he moved to RTÉ Radio 1, where he presented a weekly programme, Conversations with Eamon Dunphy. This ended in mid 2009. He continues to write a column on football for the Irish Daily Star newspaper.

Early life

Eamon Dunphy grew up in Drumcondra, on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. Dunphy attended Saint Patrick's National School, Drumcondra. In later years, future Taoiseach Bertie Ahern attended the same school.

Playing career

A promising footballer, he left Dublin while still a teenager to join Manchester United as an apprentice. Dunphy did not break into the first team at United and subsequently left to play for York City, Millwall, Charlton Athletic and Reading. It was at Millwall that Dunphy made the most impact; he was considered an intelligent and skillful player in Millwall's midfield.

Dunphy was a member of "The Class of '71", the Millwall side that lost out on promotion to the old Division One by one point.

International career

Dunphy played 23 times for the Republic of Ireland and remains Millwall's most capped international footballer.

Coaching

Upon his return to Ireland, Dunphy took up a coaching position with St Benildus College. In 1977, he joined Johnny Giles at Shamrock Rovers in charge of youth development. Giles wanted to make the club Ireland's first full time professional club and he wished to make Rovers a strong force in European football by developing talented young Irish players, who would have otherwise have gone to England. However, despite an FAI Cup winners medal in 1978 (his only medal in senior football) and 2 appearances in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Dunphy became disillusioned with the Irish game and dropped out of football altogether to concentrate on a career in journalism.

Journalism

After retiring from the game, Dunphy first began writing on football for the Sunday Tribune and then contributing regular columns on both football and current events for the Sunday Independent. He currently writes a column on football for the Daily Star's Irish edition.

He has also worked for Ireland on Sunday (Now The Irish Mail on Sunday), The Sunday Press (now defunct), and for the Irish Examiner.

Since the 1980s, Dunphy has also written a number of books. His first and most widely praised book is Only a Game?: Diary of a Professional Footballer, which is an autobiographical account of his days playing for Millwall. Dunphy wrote a diary of his 1973–4 season which began well for him at second division Millwall but subsequently ended in disillusionment. Written during the season, it recorded events from the dressing room. In 1985, rock band U2 and manager Paul McGuinness commissioned him to write the story of their origins, formation, early years and the time leading up to their phenomenally successful album, The Joshua Tree. His book Unforgettable Fire - The Story of U2 was published in 1988. It received some favourable reviews, but critics close to the band spoke of many inaccuracies. A verbal war erupted in the press during which Dunphy called lead singer Bono a "pompous git". Dunphy has also written a biography of long-serving Manchester United manager Matt Busby and in 2002 ghost wrote the autobiography of Republic of Ireland and Manchester United player Roy Keane.

Broadcasting career

Since the mid 1980s, Dunphy has appeared as an analyst in RTÉ's football coverage. Since RTÉ acquired the rights to show English football, Dunphy has been a regular contributor to Premier Soccer Saturday.

In 2001, Dunphy became the first male host of the quiz show The Weakest Link, which aired on TV3, for just one series. In 2003, Dunphy was hired again by TV3 to host their new Friday night chat show, entitled The Dunphy Show. Pitted head-to-head with RTÉ's long-running flagship programme, The Late Late Show, Dunphy's show lost what was a highly publicised "ratings war", and was cancelled before its original run was to conclude.

He has also had a prominent radio career, and was the original host in 1997 of the popular current affairs show The Last Word on Today FM. In September 2004, Dunphy took over The Breakfast Show slot on the Dublin radio station Newstalk 106 from David McWilliams. The show tried to court controversy and listeners in equal measure. He failed to attract the large listenership predicted, with only a few additional thousand tuning in. In June 2006 Dunphy announced his intention to leave Newstalk 106, citing an inability to sustain the demands of an early morning schedule. Subsequent to his departure from Newstalk 106 Dunphy confirmed he was suffering from a viral illness. He later recovered.

In July 2006, RTÉ announced that Dunphy would present a new weekly programme as part of the new RTÉ Radio 1 autumn schedule. Dunphy is the first presenter of a made-for-mobile TV show on the 3 mobile network in Ireland. Dunphy's rants and Spoofer of the Week are watched by thousands of 3 customers. The shows were awarded "Best Entertainment Show" at Ireland's Digital Media Awards. Dunphy readily admits he never uses a mobile himself but enjoys filming for a mobile audience from the comfort of his own living room in Ranelagh.

In 2009, he made an emotive outburst on The Late Late Show during a discussion regarding then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's financial affairs.

Dunphy earned from RTÉ, €328,051 in 2008 and €285,915 in 2007.

He contributed to RTÉ Sport's coverage of the 2010 World Cup.

Controversy

Always a controversial journalist, among the targets of his disapproval were television figures such as Pat Kenny and a concept he called "Official Ireland"—by which he meant the Irish media and cultural elite, epitomised by the newspaper The Irish Times and then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. He argued at the time that people such as former Taoiseach Charles Haughey represented the "real people of Ireland", and were being attacked by the false left wing consensus of "Official Ireland".

Dunphy was a harsh critic of Jack Charlton, Ireland's most successful national team manager. Dunphy accused Charlton of being a bully, of playing ugly football and of not making the best use of the players at his disposal. Charlton labelled him a "bitter little man". An enmity developed between the two men.

In 1990, Dunphy caused a massive controversy and a national outcry in Ireland by attacking the performance of the national team at the World Cup. After a 0-0 draw with Egypt, he called the team "a disgrace". This performance temporarily turned Dunphy into a figure of public hatred in Ireland. Dunphy remained critical of Charlton for the remainder of his tenure as manager, but the public ostracism of Dunphy subsided eventually.

In 2002, he aggressively defended Roy Keane following his dismissal by Mick McCarthy from the Irish team at the World Cup in Japan and Korea over the team's training facilities and programme in Saipan.

Initially critical of Cristiano Ronaldo, he said on RTÉ after the Manchester United-S.L. Benfica UEFA Champions League game the way Ronaldo "clicks his heels", is the "most wicked thing in the game." Before the second leg of Manchester United's game against Roma in 2006-07 he branded Ronaldo "a simple cheat" and a "Poof ball who's never done it in the big games". He also called Michael Carrick a "nothing player" and described Roma as "a cut above" United. Carrick and Ronaldo each scored two goals as Manchester United won the match 7-1. Following the match Dunphy reluctantly praised the United performance. In an article he wrote for the Irish Daily Star, January 2008, Dunphy admitted that he "couldn't have been more wrong about Cristiano Ronaldo". He further claimed that Ronaldo "looks like the real deal", and concluded by saying: "Ronaldo is something special. I was wrong".

In 2008, Dunphy described Roy Keane as a "bullshitter" accusing him of selling his soul and criticizing him for his sympathy towards Steve Staunton and the proposal to play Premier League games in different countries. He also said that when he worked on Keane's biography six years ago Keane said the two things he hated most in life were "politicians and bullshitters". Dunphy then wrote that he had turned into both.

During Ireland's 2010 World Cup Qualification campaign, he became a critic of Giovanni Trappatoni's style of play and managerial decisions. After Ireland's tough away win against Cyprus on 5 September 2009, Dunphy stated "The performance over 90 minutes was depressing; it exposed the limitations of the coach’s philosophy." Dunphy also summed up how he felt about the type of play "When kids see Lionel Messi, Steven Gerrard or Ronaldo they want to go out in the park and do what they’ve seen the guys do the night before. Nobody wants to go out in the park in the morning and hit the ball 60 yards up in air".

Dunphy described "Rule Britannia" as "jingoistic nonsense" during RTÉ 2's post-match analysis of the England v Slovenia World Cup game on 23 June 2010.

In popular culture

The late satirist Dermot Morgan, known to international audiences as Father Ted, did a much admired Eamon Dunphy impression on the satirical radio show Scrap Saturday. Different sketches had him engaged in apparent inane and ridiculous arguments. They ranged from his criticism of Mother Teresa for not being a real nun (and not having the pace to be an international quality footballer), to his attack on that week's weather in which he said that recent snowfall was not real snow.

Dunphy's hyperbole is also parodied on RTÉ's Après Match, an after-match show lampooning celebrities, footballers and broadcasters.

Personal life

Today, Dunphy generally resides at his home near Ranelagh village in Dublin. He also owns a holiday home in Deauville, France.

Dunphy married his partner of 18 years RTÉ Commissioning Editor Jane Gogan, at the Unitarian Church on St Stephen's Green on 24 September 2009.

References

• "Eamon Dunphy". Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Database. Retrieved 22 July 2007.

External links

• Eamo Dunphy Google Video - Eamon's Outburst
• Dunphy after Liverpool Barcelona game YouTube - Video of Dunphy's outburst against Liverpool after knocking Barcelona out of Champions League, March 2007