Mick Kearin

Mick Kearin was born on 9 May 1943 in Kildare.^[5] He grew up in Kildare Town, at the time a rural area where Gaelic football was the predominant sport. Barred from playing association football in the local park, Kearin and his friends would loan a ball from the army team and play on the barracks field.^[1] While soccer remained his primary sport, Kearin also played Gaelic football and hurling, winning an Under-14 trophy with his school's Gaelic football team.^[1] On 25 September 1957, he took a half day off school to attend the Shamrock Rovers 1957–58 European Cup match against Manchester United. The game, featuring the Busby Babes team, took place five months before the Munich Air Disaster.^[1]

At the age of fifteen, Kearin moved to Dublin for work where he began playing in the under-18 Athletic Union League (AUL) Minor division with a team from Collins Avenue.^[2] Kearin played for two years at outside left before returning to Kildare.^[1] At the time there was no association football team in Kildare so Shay Gibbons, who knew Kearin's uncle, arranged a trial for the then 17-year-old with Gibbons' former club, St Patrick's Athletic.^[1][2]

After a successful trial, Kearin signed with St Patrick's Athletic and began playing for their youth and reserve teams.^[3][1] Despite initially lacking knowledge in the basics of the game, such as the offside rule, Kearin eventually became the designated substitute for the senior team. As a substitute, he would play only if a senior member was injured.^[1][2] Kearin's first team debut came in January 1961, an away defeat to Cork Celtic, and he came close to starting the 1960–61 FAI Cup final.^[1][2] Kearin scored his only competitive goal for St Pats in the 1961–62 season, during a League of Ireland Shield match against Waterford that ended in a 3–1 victory.^[2] He was released by Pats in 1963 and joined Tullamore Town.^[1][6]

Before being released, Kearin had scored a hat-trick for St Pats in a reserve team game against Bohemian F.C. which brought him to the attention of their manager George Lax.^[1][2] Kearin later joined Bohemians F.C. in 1963 as an amateur.^[3][7][2]

Bohemians were fully amateur at the time and had been in the doldrums since the late 1930s.^[8][9] The previous season had seen the club struggle in the league, winning one game while finishing bottom of the 1962–63 table. In Kearin's first season at the club, Bohs were unable to better their previous results, ending another season in last place. Lax left at the end of the 1963–64 season and was replaced by Phibsborough local, Seán Thomas.^[9] "It was major news – Sean Thomas had managed Shamrock Rovers and brought them phenomenal success."

Kearin was moved to midfield under Thomas and paired with Jimmy Conway.^[1] Playing a 4-2-4 formation, Bohemians underwent a revival and the club finished third in both the 1964–65 and 1965–66 seasons.^[8][7][1]

Kearin’s performances began to attract suitors that were willing to pay him to play. A move to England failed to materialise but he received an offer to turn professional from Shamrock Rovers.^[1] There were offers to turn professional and semi-professional by the likes of Derry and Glentoran and Waterford.

In the end he went to Rovers in May 1966 ^[10] for four times the amount they'd originally offered. He played in Shamrock Rovers' 1966–67 European Cup Winners' Cup tie against FC Bayern Munich, which he cited as his personal career highlight.^[11]

The Bayern side contained future World Cup winners Franz Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier and Gerd Müller but Rovers held the away team to a 1–1 draw in the first leg at Dalymount Park. It was the return match played in below-freezing temperature in Munich that almost caused German hearts to crash.^[12] With a minute to the final whistle the score was 2–2, and qualification was beckoning for Rovers on the away goals rule (this was a Bayern team peppered with World Cup winners like Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller – and their club had already sold 40,000 tickets for their next European game – that's how sure they were that Rovers would be a push-over). The silence of the crowd was deafening as they say, the relief palpable when Der Bomber netted the winner.^[13]

Boston Rovers

Alongside several other Shamrock Rovers players, including Mick Leech, Paddy Mulligan and Frank O’Neill, Kearin was involved in the ill-fated Boston Rovers side. The team, who were managed by Liam Tuohy, was essentially an imported and renamed Shamrock Rovers and they competed in the United Soccer Association league in 1967, before dissolving just a year later.^[14]

A six-week summer team to promote the advent of professional soccer in the US, the Boston Rovers games saw Mick play against the Detroit Cougars (the franchise name given to Glentoran F.C.). Boston Rovers also came up against South American teams, and the likes of Sunderland, Wolves, Hibs and Stoke City amongst others.

Kearin played a couple of matches following this loan move, but after agreeing a longer deal with the Massachusetts-based team, Rovers intervened and prevented him from signing.^[1][15][16]

Return to Rovers

His seven-year stay at Glenmalure Park included scoring twice in eight appearances for Rovers in Europe.^[17]

He scored in the 1969 FAI Cup final replay against Cork Celtic.^[18][5]

Kearin earned one international cap for the Republic of Ireland national team on 10 October 1971 in a 6–0 defeat to Austria in a European Championship qualifier in the Linzer Stadion.^[19][3] Mick won three amateur caps for the Irish national team: against Scotland home and away, and Iceland away. He represented the League of Ireland XI four times while at Milltown.

Heart problems put Kearin in hospital for three months and kept him from playing for over a year. Shortly after returning, Kearin was informed that he was to be transferred to Bohemians in a swap deal for David Parkes.^[1]

He rejoined Bohemians in January 1973 as the Dublin club finished the campaign in third place, five points behind 1972–73 champions Waterford.^[1] Seán Thomas resigned as manager that summer and was replaced by Kearin's former teammate Billy Young. Kearin then suffered a broken toe just before the start of the 1973–74 season.^[1] While building up his fitness in the reserves, Kearin had a disagreement with Young which resulted in Kearin leaving the club.^[1] Kearin later finished his career with Athlone Town.^[7]

Kearin died on 27 July 2025, at the age of 82.^[4][3][20]

Shamrock Rovers

• FAI Cup: 1967, 1968, 1969^[5]
• League of Ireland Shield: 1967–68^[1]
• Leinster Senior Cup: 1968–69^[21][1]
• Dublin City Cup: 1966–67^[22][1]
• Blaxnit Cup: 1967–68^[23][1]