Eamon Dunphy, born in Dublin in 1945, spent 17 years in England as a professional footballer, the first five with Manchester United (1960-1965), and nine with Millwall.
His account of his 1973-4 season at Millwall, Only a Game, was described by the distinguished English football writer Brian Glanville as "the best and most authentic memoir by a professional footballer about his sport that I have yet read".
Dunphy was also chosen as U2's official biographer (The Unforgettable Fire) and wrote an acclaimed unofficial biography of Sir Matt Busby (A Strange Kind of Glory).
From 1979 Dunphy began working full time in television, radio and newspapers and became a controversial columnist with the Sunday Independent. where Mary Robinson, Seamus Heaney and Pat Kenny were among his many targets.
He later took up a job as presenter of The Last Word with Radio Ireland (which became Today FM), a columnist with the Examiner, the Star and host of TV3's The Weakest Link.
Liam Hayes, former editor of Ireland on Sunday, described Dunphy as "the ugliest, most foul-mouthed little weed of a man in the country".
"There are times in life," he said, "when a weed needs to be plucked out of the ground. And there are times when Eamon Dunphy needs to be stood upon and trampled underfoot."
QUOTE: "Gay Byrne and Mary f---ing Robinson and Pat f---ing Kenny and The Irish f---ing Times.
"And, if I hadn't been there, the Sunday Independent. And the Herald and those s----y newspapers like the Star, they created this icon [Jack Charlton]who could do no wrong, who had done things he didn't do."
- Dunphy on his loathing of Jack Charlton and sundry Irish "institutions".