A Chat with Packie Bonner
Credit:
Goalkeeper Packie Bonner played an amazing 642 games for Celtic where he won five League titles and four Scottish Cup medals. Packie made his debut for Ireland on his 21st birthday in 1981 and was capped 80 times for his country. His legendary status even featured on a unique Irish Postage stamp when his penalty save against Romania saw Ireland through to the quarter finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy. However the most memorable match of his career was the 1-0 win for The Boys in Green over England at The European Championships in 1988, when he was voted Man of the Match.
How do you remember the early days with Ireland?
I won my first cap in a friendly away to Poland on my 21st birthday! I played under four different managers, Johnny Giles, Eoin Hand and later Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy.
You played during Ireland’s best ever years, what game is the most memorable for you?
Beating England 1-0 in Stuttgart, West Germany in Euro ’88. Everything about it was fantastic. From the moment we went out on to the pitch, how well we played on the day, Ray Houghton’s winning goal, defending our lead to the very end and unbelievable celebrations afterwards.
Then to play so well in drawing 1-1 with Russia in the second game when Ronnie Whelan scored with that cracking volley!
Yes we really should have beaten Russia on the day and don’t forget they went on to reach the final themselves! In the third game we were only beaten 1-0 by Holland, the eventual winners of the tournament! In fact looking back we were unlucky not to get to the final .If we just had that little bit more experience. We probably didn’t know we were that good until later on maybe.
Another momentous moment for you would have to be your penalty save against Romania that put us through to the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
That’s the moment that most people remember because it was an emotional moment, sending us through to the last eight for the first time in our history. For people in their 30’s or 40’s nowadays that’s what they look back on the most. But for me it was more the qualification rounds, qualifying for Euro’ 88 and two World Cup Finals. Being part of a fantastic group of players with Jack Charlton, all of that meant the most to me. The whole momentum going forward was fantastic.
I wonder was it actually “unfortunate” that Ireland lost 1-0 to Italy in the quarter-final when the team were magnificent on the night.
I’ve been asked about this many times and I’ve thought about this a lot. I don’t think that we were ever going to get anything from this game, the way things were geared up! Italy were the home team and were always expected to get through. The referee was Uruguayan and didn’t give us much on the night! Even if we did score, something would have happened!! Italy were destined to get through and we weren’t .It’s as simple as that!
Photo taken by Andy McDonnell
When you retired you continued in the game as Goalkeeping Coach for the international team.
I was delighted when Mick McCarthy asked me to take on that role and really enjoyed the whole experience until 2003.It was a fairly successful period when you consider we were knocked out in two play-offs for European Finals, against Belgium and Turkey before qualifying for the World Cup finals in 2002 in Japan and South Korea. Being part of all that was a great learning process for me.
You took over from Brian Kerr as Technical Director of the FAI in 2003
Yes I thoroughly enjoyed that role working with a great group of people for the past eight years. We started off with just 25 people in the Technical Department and this increased to 110 by the time I had finished.
The Regional Development Officers within the FAI are making a huge difference in developing the game at grass roots level all over Ireland. You must get great satisfaction in helping to make this happen?
It was great to see so many ex- League of Ireland players being given the opportunity to work full-time with the FAI and being able to roll out more than 20 different programmes to all parts of the community. Directing all of that was very challenging but very rewarding for me. Sometimes I think I got more satisfaction in building a great team of people around me and seeing them reaching their goals, than some parts of my football career!
How do you keep yourself busy since you’ve finished your contract with the FAI?
At the moment I’m doing bits and pieces for FIFA and UEFA, travelling around Europe assessing various Football Education Programmes etc. I’ve been able to see how other Football Associations do their work and believe me, we are well up there!
Do you meet up with many of the ex-Irish internationals?
We meet up at football functions or Charity matches. I see Tommy Coyne quite a lot as he lives beside me in Glasgow. We all had a great weekend last weekend and it was great to catch up with so many players from that era after such a long time.
Your son plays a bit of football
Yes Andrew is still playing junior football in Scotland. He played as a striker for Ireland U-17s and U-19s and has his caps and jerseys proudly displayed on the wall!
You’re also a grandfather!
Yes and very proud of it too! Alan is just 3 and full of beans and could well be a goalkeeper as he loves to dive on the grass! I love going out to the garden and kicking ball with him.
How do you remember the early days with Ireland?
I won my first cap in a friendly away to Poland on my 21st birthday! I played under four different managers, Johnny Giles, Eoin Hand and later Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy.
You played during Ireland’s best ever years, what game is the most memorable for you?
Beating England 1-0 in Stuttgart, West Germany in Euro ’88. Everything about it was fantastic. From the moment we went out on to the pitch, how well we played on the day, Ray Houghton’s winning goal, defending our lead to the very end and unbelievable celebrations afterwards.
Then to play so well in drawing 1-1 with Russia in the second game when Ronnie Whelan scored with that cracking volley!
Yes we really should have beaten Russia on the day and don’t forget they went on to reach the final themselves! In the third game we were only beaten 1-0 by Holland, the eventual winners of the tournament! In fact looking back we were unlucky not to get to the final .If we just had that little bit more experience. We probably didn’t know we were that good until later on maybe.
Another momentous moment for you would have to be your penalty save against Romania that put us through to the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
That’s the moment that most people remember because it was an emotional moment, sending us through to the last eight for the first time in our history. For people in their 30’s or 40’s nowadays that’s what they look back on the most. But for me it was more the qualification rounds, qualifying for Euro’ 88 and two World Cup Finals. Being part of a fantastic group of players with Jack Charlton, all of that meant the most to me. The whole momentum going forward was fantastic.
I wonder was it actually “unfortunate” that Ireland lost 1-0 to Italy in the quarter-final when the team were magnificent on the night.
I’ve been asked about this many times and I’ve thought about this a lot. I don’t think that we were ever going to get anything from this game, the way things were geared up! Italy were the home team and were always expected to get through. The referee was Uruguayan and didn’t give us much on the night! Even if we did score, something would have happened!! Italy were destined to get through and we weren’t .It’s as simple as that!
Photo taken by Andy McDonnell
When you retired you continued in the game as Goalkeeping Coach for the international team.
I was delighted when Mick McCarthy asked me to take on that role and really enjoyed the whole experience until 2003.It was a fairly successful period when you consider we were knocked out in two play-offs for European Finals, against Belgium and Turkey before qualifying for the World Cup finals in 2002 in Japan and South Korea. Being part of all that was a great learning process for me.
You took over from Brian Kerr as Technical Director of the FAI in 2003
Yes I thoroughly enjoyed that role working with a great group of people for the past eight years. We started off with just 25 people in the Technical Department and this increased to 110 by the time I had finished.
The Regional Development Officers within the FAI are making a huge difference in developing the game at grass roots level all over Ireland. You must get great satisfaction in helping to make this happen?
It was great to see so many ex- League of Ireland players being given the opportunity to work full-time with the FAI and being able to roll out more than 20 different programmes to all parts of the community. Directing all of that was very challenging but very rewarding for me. Sometimes I think I got more satisfaction in building a great team of people around me and seeing them reaching their goals, than some parts of my football career!
How do you keep yourself busy since you’ve finished your contract with the FAI?
At the moment I’m doing bits and pieces for FIFA and UEFA, travelling around Europe assessing various Football Education Programmes etc. I’ve been able to see how other Football Associations do their work and believe me, we are well up there!
Do you meet up with many of the ex-Irish internationals?
We meet up at football functions or Charity matches. I see Tommy Coyne quite a lot as he lives beside me in Glasgow. We all had a great weekend last weekend and it was great to catch up with so many players from that era after such a long time.
Your son plays a bit of football
Yes Andrew is still playing junior football in Scotland. He played as a striker for Ireland U-17s and U-19s and has his caps and jerseys proudly displayed on the wall!
You’re also a grandfather!
Yes and very proud of it too! Alan is just 3 and full of beans and could well be a goalkeeper as he loves to dive on the grass! I love going out to the garden and kicking ball with him.
About Paul Holland
Paul Holland has been the Half-Time Co-ordinator at Drogheda United for the past five years and has produced two DVDs for the club in 2006 and 2007. Paul is also the Meath & Leinster Co-ordinator … View Full Profile