Celebrated footballer who played for Burnley and Northern Ireland in the 1950s

Jimmy McIlroy

Born: October 25th, 1931; Died: August 21st, 2018

Jimmy McIlroy was a celebrated footballer who illustrated the expanded influence of Irish players, North and South, in the evolution of the game in Britain in the 1950s and beyond.

McIlroy, from Lambeg, Co Antrim, never enjoyed the advantage of playing for high-profile clubs after moving from Glentoran to Burnley in 1950.The testimony to the success of his stay at Turf Moor was that when he left in controversial circumstances some 13 years later, the team – once derided as unfashionable – had established itself among the most consistent in the old First Division championship.

Success, for long nothing more than a forlorn aspiration, was achieved on the last day of the 1959/60 season when Burnley beat Manchester City at Maine Road to win the title for the first time in 41 years.Two years later, only a spectacular late season collapse prevented them regaining the trophy but then, suddenly, the great days began to dwindle. In 497 appearances in the claret-and-blue of Burnley, the Irishman scored 131 goals, an excellent achievement for a man described by Bobby Charlton as one of the most creative midfield players of his generation.

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That was the foundation on which he built a fine international career encompassing 55 appearances for Northern Ireland and a place alongside such luminaries as Stanley Matthews, John Charles and Don Revie in the Great Britain XI which played the Rest of Europe in a game to mark the 75th anniversary of the Irish Football Association in 1955.

Showbusiness

A quiet, understated person at a time when sport hadn’t yet been inflated to showbusiness by mass television coverage, he joined with players of the quality of Danny Blanchflower and Billy Bingham to move the North centre stage, on their first appearance in the World Cup finals in Sweden in 1958.

All three graduated from Glentoran and, no less than Peter McParland, they provided some golden hours for those who rallied to their cause. The measure of that achievement was that long before they lost 4-0 to France in their quarter-final tie at Norrköpping, their fifth game in just 11 days, they had demanded the admiration of even the most critical.

Among those in their qualifying group was Italy, a country which had won two of the five previous World Cup championships. On this occasion they were strengthened by the inclusion of two former South American internationals, Ghiggia (Argentina) and Schiaffico (Uruguay), and it prompted a local journalist to designate the match as one between two continents and six counties when they met at Windsor Park in January 15th, 1958.

Undeterred, by either reputations or the occasional scything tackle, the home team prevailed in a tense, taut game, with McIlroy contributing the first goal in a 2-1 win that reverberated across the broad world of international football.

Mcllroy,the eldest of six children, was forced to leave school at the age of 14, something he would later regret, and became an apprentice bricklayer in Belfast, working on the same building sites on occasions with Frank Carson, later to become one of Ireland’s best-loved comedians.

He set down in Burnley at a difficult time for Irish people working in England, and footballers were no exception. It was a situation made worse, it was claimed, by referees failing to provide the requisite protection for those on the receiving end of the verbals.

Obvious target

McIlroy, capable of beating defenders with only the tiniest adjustment of the ball, was an obvious target in the atmosphere then obtaining and was wont to recall an incident when he was hit with a tackle from the storied Newcastle United defender Jimmy Scouler which put him over the small railings surrounding the pitch, and into the crowd.

When he eventually regained his composure and climbed back on to the playing surface, he thought it prudent to acquaint Scouler of some pertinent facts. “I’m from Northern Ireland – and I’m a Protestant,” he said. To which the Newcastle player replied: “ God, I didn’t know that, son – I hope I didn’t hurt you.” And folklore has it that, within reason, McIlroy always got “safety of passage” in subsequent meetings with Newcastle.

He had many years of outstanding service with Burnley, and was once described by the club’s chairman Bob Lord as a “prince of football whom money can’t buy”. That was until he reported for training on a Monday morning to be told that he could leave any time he wished. He had apparently been involved in a minor dispute with the chairman and was soon on his way to Stoke City.

On leaving football, he studied for his O-level examinations and, on the back of that, took courses in poetry and creative writing. He worked for a period as a journalist for a local newspaper in Burnley before deciding to concentrate on golf, in which he attained a handicap of 1, as well as painting portraits and landscapes.

McIlroy was awarded an MBE and, in 1999, he was delighted to return to the scene of his finest triumphs and participate in a ceremony which saw the main stand in his beloved Turf Moor renamed in his honour.

He is pre-deceased by his wife, Barbara, and survived by his son Paul and daughter Anne.