hobbies
Football
When did you first play football?
I began to play when I was three. When I was old enough I went to White Farm Football Club which is in Whitehall in Dublin – it’s the best schoolboy club in Ireland, and I was there for eight years! At twelve I won Best Goalkeeper in Europe – and I still have the trophy at home!
So your talent was recognised as a young teenager?
I played for Ireland when I was fifteen, sixteen and eighteen. I won a few international caps and the FAI contacted me recently to go and collect them! Next, I had trials with Derby County and Leeds. I had trials with Everton, Coventry and Newcastle lined up but I agreed terms with Leeds and signed for two years.
Who were your favourite players?
Pat Bonnar, goalkeeper for Ireland and Glasgow Celtic. I always liked Andy Goram as well. He played for Rangers, and I liked him because he wasn’t tall and neither was I! He broke my heart regularly cos I was a huge Celtic fan. As for outfield payers…I liked Lee Sharpe – who I got to know. These days it's Roy Keane. He’s Irish and he’s hard as nails!
Do you remember the day you signed?
I went over and did trials at the club and they offered me a contract. I wanted to play football but my mam wanted me to finish school. Then the club put a lot of money on the table and eventually my mam agreed – but I promised go to school if it didn’t work out.
What was it like being a young lad on your own?
The first year it was great, they put me and Alan Maybury, the lad I went over with, in a big house with a huge snooker table, ten players and two people to look after us. The second year it was terrible, they built a new training ground in Wetherby which is an hour out in the country and we had to stay in digs like a prison, two players to a room. My life was up in the morning, train, lunch, train, bed. I hated it. I got home six times a year in my contract.
source: official magazine
Golf
Nicky swinging in Dublin
It's great to see popstars like Ronan Keating and Brian McFadden always on the go supporting charitable causes but there's another Irish chart-topper who gives much of his time to charity, Westlife's Nicky Byrne...
If you were to ask anyone in media who is the most down-to-earth person in Irish showbusiness, most would reply straight away with the name Nicky Byrne.
ShowBiz Ireland has had many dealing's with the Westlife heartthrob since our beginnings 5 years ago and amazingly the Dubliner seems unaffected by years of celebrity status - in fact he seems more humble these days!
We caught up with Nicky last week as he stepped out to take part in the Nivea For Men Ronnie Whelan Golf Classic which raises money for charities such as the Marie Keating Foundation...
And not one to be outdone by his former bandmate Brian McFadden's Hummer, Nicky pulled-up to the event in a blacked-out Cadillac Escalade in true Pimp style...
source: Showbizz Ireland
Snooker
"We've got a full-size snooker in the new house. Bryan (McFadden) was just over here about an hour ago and he was playing. Kerry was calling him because Molly was crawling around and the new baby, Lilly Sue, was on her lap, and Georgina was trying to help, and he was just playing snooker! Jimmy White is my snooker hero, but the bad thing about him is he's never won the world championship."
source: New Magazine
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