Considering professional football is full to bursting with hard men, hard tackles and hard decisions, it can be an amazingly sentimental business at times. On the 13th of May 1997, surely one of the most satisfying, tear-jerking acts ever seen at any football ground took place at Roker Park, Sunderland.

It was the night of the last ever game at Roker. The famous ground had dilapidated over the years, lost much of its magic and sparkle along the way. It was time to go, new Sunderland needed a new stage and Stg £15 million was spent on building one about a mile away. But they wanted to say farewell to Roker in style. They also wanted to take more than memories to the new Stadium of Light. But only a little more - one symbolic token. They chose Roker Park's centre spot.

A ceremonial digging was called for, so a ceremonial digger was required. The man chosen for this task was Charlie Hurley. Outside Sunderland the choice of Hurley raised eyebrows. Down the years the club had many famous names, Raich Carter, Len Shackleton, Brian Clough, even super Kevin Phillips, but when supporters were polled on their `player of the century' it was Hurley who won.

Dublin-born and London-raised, Hurley had starred for Sunderland from the late 50s to the late 60s. He was surprised to be recalled so fondly and joked that he was more popular now than when he played. During that period he also won 40 caps for the Republic of Ireland.

The affection for Hurley is such that while traditionally London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham were the destinations of most Irish emigrants, rather than the north east, there is only one club in England's ever-so-modern Premiership whose training ground is named after an Irish international. The club is Sunderland and the player is Charlie Hurley.

Every week Sunderland's Irish connection grows. Hurley has passed on the torch in the shape of a whitened circle of turf. The Charlie Hurley Centre has turned into a green outpost.

Nor is it just the high profile people such as Niall Quinn, Sunderland's club captain who misses tomorrow's games against Leeds because of suspension, or first teamers such as Kevin Kilbane, Paul Butler and young Michael Reddy, who are making an impact, the gifted under-19 squad at the club includes 11 Irish boys, almost 50 per cent of the squad. Only Arsenal and Leeds United have such Irish numbers in their ranks. The three could play for the Diaspora Cup.

But then Arsenal have Liam Brady as their youth team coach and a long Irish tradition. Leeds have David O'Leary and now Home Farm. Sunderland, though, aside from isolated individuals like Hurley in the '60s to John Byrne and David Kelly in the '80s, have no such recent history.

But they will have soon; because not only is Quinn one of the most popular men in the north east - even Newcastle United fans like him, a bit - there is a belief within Sunderland that all 11 of those coming through have a realistic chance of `making it'. Some, they think, will do much more than that.

Understandably there is a reluctance to talk about possible perfect futures in football until they are past tense and proven, but when a man as experienced and determinedly calm as Ian Branfoot says: "all 11 have a good chance of making it as pros because they've all got good attitudes," and Peter Reid enthuses about Michael Reddy, Thomas Butler, Clifford Byrne and George McCartney despite his best efforts not to, there is tangible agitation about what could be developing at the Stadium of Light.

Like Reid, Branfoot, former manager of Southampton and Fulham, and now Sunderland's Academy Director, couches praise in warnings about unfulfilled potential. Sunderland may have won the reserve team league last season for the first time in their history but Branfoot said: "in realistic terms they have done f . . k all. They're playing reserve team and youth team football, but the only place to play and prove yourself is with the first team on the big pitch in front of 42,000. That's when you find out if they can handle it." Even Branfoot, however, was prepared to accept that Thomas Butler should do.

Butler is 18, from Ballymun, and yet to play in the Premiership. He will do: "Thomas has a great balance about him," said Reid, "in the next couple of years you would expect him to be putting pressure on the first team." You can sense the restraint in Reid's voice.

Because locally Butler is being compared to Joe Cole and Paul Gascoigne and Quinn said of his fellow Dubliner: "the test of a young player is when he trains with the first team can he cope? Thomas Butler seems to do better, he'll train with us and run the show." Quinn then mentioned the precociousness of Norman Whiteside. It is the sort of excitement Stephen McPhail was generating a couple of years ago.

At 17, Byrne, another Dubliner, is held in similarly high regard. Even the reticent Reid called Byrne "a Dave Mackay figure," while Quinn said: "Cliffie is the most natural leader, his presence alone guarantees him a future in the game. I've only seen one person that young with so much authority and that is Tony Adams."

Ultimately the reason for Sunderland's Irish increase is down to the sheer weight of numbers playing the game and the success of Brian Kerr's youth sides. Reid, whose grandfather was from Dublin, noticed the boom and exploited old communications. Nevertheless, he called Ireland "a hell of a hard market" and ascribed Sunderland's recruiting achievements to "good scouts, the warmth of the club, the atmosphere of the new stadium." He also spoke of Quinn's role.

Quinn himself is reluctant to be seen as a pied piper in all this. He attributes the Irish expansion to Sunderland's openness and friendliness. "I just feel that with our club, what you see is what you get," he said. "Parents are not buttered up, they're not told it will be easy, there are no brown envelopes. And we are the type of club where the first team trains with the kids, there are no superstars and no hostility - at Liverpool I've been told the juniors train four miles away from the seniors. Peter Reid has to be applauded for that."

It is a much different scenario to when Quinn went to Arsenal as a teenager in 1983. "I knew I was very lucky, one of a dozen Irish lads at the most to get the opportunity. I treated it as an adventure, but now the glamour is much greater." He is not jealous of that.

"In a way it must be harder now. You had a sense of normality then, you could go into a bookies or a snooker hall, now you'd almost be considered a reprobate. Agents want to pay the gas bill for you so you can concentrate solely on playing football, but they miss out on life, the adventure of growing up is impeded. I'd hate to be starting out again, you really have to have your wits about you to stay sane."

Branfoot, too, has worries about "19-year-olds with BMWs" and about the infiltration of unscrupulous agents into Ireland and into the families of boys as young as 12. It would be naive to think serious money was not exchanging hands for boys with an Irish youth cap. Sweeteners, politicians call it.

But there are few concerns about the present crop at Sunderland. "They're all smashing lads," said Branfoot, "and if you come back in one, two or three years' time I'd like to think they've all had a snatch of the first team. And we're talking Premiership football here, it's not easy."

If the confidence is not misplaced, then that means 11 young Sunderland Irishmen will be kicking off from where Charlie Hurley left off. Literally.