Green Shoots - A History of Irish Football

About Green Shoots - A History of Irish Football

Host Kehlan Kirwan and expert Gary Spain take a journey into the history of Irish football. From great players and famous national teams, to League of Ireland sides and individuals that graced the domestic league – they’ll bring some of the great stories of Irish football to you.

Publisher

Kehlan Kirwan & Gary Spain

Category

history · sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jan 2025

Latest episode

31 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

57 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   31 Mar 2026

   This Football Life - Peter Farrell (with Rob Sawyer)

   On this week's podcast Kehlan talks with Author, Historian and Everton Heritage Society member Rob Sawyer about his book – The Emerald Evertonian – about the life and times of Ireland and Everton legend Peter Farrell. With over 400 appearances for Everton, 28 for Ireland and 7 for Northern Ireland, Peter Farrell was a huge influence on football both for Everton and Ireland. He was part of famous victories for Rep. of Ireland as they became the first foreign team to beat England in England and also was part of the team that won 0-1 in Spain. Rob's well researched book tells the personal, as well as the career story, of a real servant to Everton and Irish football.

2. 

   27 Feb 2026

   Kamikaze Storm - Roy Keane, Mick McCarthy & Saipan

   Now it was by far the biggest story of the year to that point. It caused a huge split in national opinion. Roy Keane was one the biggest footballers in the world. He had become synonymous with a relentless run of trophies at the club. His manager for the Rep. of Ireland, Mick McCarthy, had been one of our greatest defenders under Jack Charlton. Not blessed pace, but blessed with a great ability to read the game. He was Jack’s captain and now he was manager of the national side. There had been rumblings for years that Roy was unhappy with the Irish national team setup. It wasn’t good enough. And he saw Mick as enabling it for far too long. Something was about to give…

3. 

   10 Feb 2026

   This Football Life - Gerry Armstrong (Part 2)

   Now following on from Part 1 where Gerry finished talking about the great goalkeeper Pat Jennings. In Part 2 he talks to Kehlan about Northern Ireland in the 1982 world cup, his famous goal against Spain, moving to Real Mallorca and then finding his way to La Liga commentary, where he became the voice of La Liga for so many people. We start this podcast as Northern Ireland qualify for the 1982 World Cup...

Who has been a guest on Green Shoots - A History of Irish Football

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Johnny 'Jackie' Carey
• Tom 'Bud' Aherne
• Alfie Hale
• Dennis Viollet
• Dermot Keely

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

16 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

19

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Green Shoots - A History of Irish Football

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.