What do you think?
Rate this book
First Hand: My Life and Irish Football
Eoin Hand's term as manager of the Republic of Ireland soccer team is often overshadowed by the glory days of Jack Charlton. If Charlton had good luck, Hand was all too familiar with its quarrelsome sibling: bad luck. This is the inside story of his time in football, from his start with Swindon Town at eighteen, through playing for Portsmouth and Ireland, to managing the Irish team. With one of Ireland's greatest generations of players, such as Liam Brady, Ronnie Whelan and Frank Stapleton, the luck of the draw repeatedly pitched Hand against elite teams. His tenure came to an end when Ireland failed to qualify for the 1986 World Cup. Despite having come closest at that time to qualifying, he endured intense criticism from the press. Eamon Dunphy, who grew up close to him and played alongside him for Ireland, mounted a campaign of fierce abuse. Hand responds for the first time, revealing significant unknown facts about Dunphy. Along with anecdotes about top players and managers, he exposes the inner workings of the FAI and assesses its stewardship of Irish football.
Chronicling his time abroad, from England to Saudi Arabia, he reveals how his life was threatened in apartheid South Africa. With unflinching honesty and bracing humour, he also lays bare the personal issues that led to heavy drinking and almost dying of acute pancreatitis. That he managed to pull through at all is testament to the resilience with which this provocative memoir crackles.
270 pages, Paperback
Published February 10, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Read
May 13, 2020Terrific account of one of the most unsung heroes of Irish soccer...
July 17, 2021
I don't follow or even understand football. But I am giving this memoir five stars as a revealing look at Irish history and international history.
The ghostwriter's skill is apparent in its tact, I believe, Jared Browne being credited.
The footballer had played since youth and was only on the Irish international team for a scant few years, before knowing he was getting too old and needing to move. He also played in South Africa and UK. Players were playing in Liverpool on the Saturday and getting on the ten-hour ferry ride to play as Irish internationals in Ireland on Sunday. (We had no Ryanair in those days.) When he was offered the chance to manage Limerick's team this led directly to being offered the post of Irish manager. I enjoyed in particular the games against Russia and Spain.
Ireland was just starting to move upwards, and behind the scenes organisation left a lot to be desired. There never seemed to be enough money, yet FAI officials went to places like Poland in first-class while the players and manager went cheap class. The team were then sent on lengthy (several hours) bus trips to a remote field to play the match while the officials never left the city. A similar scenario appeared in Rio. Players were paid so little that they would have been earning more that weekend if they had stayed in their clubs. No assistant was provided to the team manager, who had to phone around all the UK clubs each week and find out about any injuries to his potential squad.
The highly revealing look at this sport makes me wonder what was going on inside my own sport, show jumping, during the 1980s. We tended to hear more about personal issues than admin ones. For instance someone had a breakup and went off to South Africa. In this football tale, we see our manager trying to manage teams in South Africa, where the end of apartheid was reflected in the whole team leaving an end of year dinner because the first player of colour to be allowed on their team would legally have to leave. Later, the manager barely got out of Durban with his life after a foreign, white manager was deemed colonialism; he was just doing his job. He also learned about culture shock in a Saudi Arabian team. In a UK team he managed, the club we are told, got whopping transfer fees for the good players the manager had spotted and trained; then they let the manager go because the team wasn't winning enough matches. Well what would you expect? It's like a horse dealer selling on the good competitors. You have to keep the good horses if you want to go places.
The personal issues are skirted over where other people are concerned; only near the end of the book do we learn that this man had two children born to different relationships in the same 1970s year, after he had moved his family to South Africa. His own personal issue was drinking heavily to the point of almost killing his pancreas, towards the end of his career, as a symptom and partial cause of depression. This is covered in more detail and we can see some bad judgement (including taking his former employer the FAI to labour court to get his job back, aged 66, like that'd work out well) stems from burnout and financial worries.
I am glad Eoin Hand survived his problems and has been able to shed a great deal of illumination on the past and indeed current state of Irish sport and sports commentators. Many books are written by players but the behind the scenes look from the manager is quite different, less like a braggart and more about teamwork and support or lack of support. The many messages of support he received from individuals, and family photos, are the nicest testimonial.
This is an unbiased review.
The ghostwriter's skill is apparent in its tact, I believe, Jared Browne being credited.
The footballer had played since youth and was only on the Irish international team for a scant few years, before knowing he was getting too old and needing to move. He also played in South Africa and UK. Players were playing in Liverpool on the Saturday and getting on the ten-hour ferry ride to play as Irish internationals in Ireland on Sunday. (We had no Ryanair in those days.) When he was offered the chance to manage Limerick's team this led directly to being offered the post of Irish manager. I enjoyed in particular the games against Russia and Spain.
Ireland was just starting to move upwards, and behind the scenes organisation left a lot to be desired. There never seemed to be enough money, yet FAI officials went to places like Poland in first-class while the players and manager went cheap class. The team were then sent on lengthy (several hours) bus trips to a remote field to play the match while the officials never left the city. A similar scenario appeared in Rio. Players were paid so little that they would have been earning more that weekend if they had stayed in their clubs. No assistant was provided to the team manager, who had to phone around all the UK clubs each week and find out about any injuries to his potential squad.
The highly revealing look at this sport makes me wonder what was going on inside my own sport, show jumping, during the 1980s. We tended to hear more about personal issues than admin ones. For instance someone had a breakup and went off to South Africa. In this football tale, we see our manager trying to manage teams in South Africa, where the end of apartheid was reflected in the whole team leaving an end of year dinner because the first player of colour to be allowed on their team would legally have to leave. Later, the manager barely got out of Durban with his life after a foreign, white manager was deemed colonialism; he was just doing his job. He also learned about culture shock in a Saudi Arabian team. In a UK team he managed, the club we are told, got whopping transfer fees for the good players the manager had spotted and trained; then they let the manager go because the team wasn't winning enough matches. Well what would you expect? It's like a horse dealer selling on the good competitors. You have to keep the good horses if you want to go places.
The personal issues are skirted over where other people are concerned; only near the end of the book do we learn that this man had two children born to different relationships in the same 1970s year, after he had moved his family to South Africa. His own personal issue was drinking heavily to the point of almost killing his pancreas, towards the end of his career, as a symptom and partial cause of depression. This is covered in more detail and we can see some bad judgement (including taking his former employer the FAI to labour court to get his job back, aged 66, like that'd work out well) stems from burnout and financial worries.
I am glad Eoin Hand survived his problems and has been able to shed a great deal of illumination on the past and indeed current state of Irish sport and sports commentators. Many books are written by players but the behind the scenes look from the manager is quite different, less like a braggart and more about teamwork and support or lack of support. The many messages of support he received from individuals, and family photos, are the nicest testimonial.
This is an unbiased review.
December 14, 2025
One of Ireland's most underrated managers, Eoin Hand, but for the blatant and very suspicious behavior of a certain Italian referee, should have been the first man to lead Ireland to a major tournament in 1982. Instead, his tenure was uncelebrated, despite putting Ireland on the stage with serious teams such as the USSR, France, and the Netherlands. Hand details his journey from growing up on Dublin's north side, through his time playing and managing in England, to winning the League of Ireland with Limerick, through the good and bad of South Africa. Honest and decent...this is a hugely worthwhile read for anyone interested in the story of the Irish footballing diaspora as witnessed through the journey of Eoin Hand...one of the really good guys.
December 15, 2019
A wonderful memoir of a man that has contributed so much to Irish Football.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews