Tommy Eglington, who has died in Dublin at the age of 81, was one of the more charismatic personalities in Irish football in an eventful era for sport after the second World War.
Together with Peter Farrell, another Dubliner who captured the public imagination at home and in Britain, he formed an alliance which became an integral part of the folklore of the game.
Unlike Farrell, Eglington was a northsider who started his career with Munster Victoria and then had a spell with Distillery in the Leinster Senior League, before their paths took them, almost inevitably, to Shamrock Rovers, a compelling name for every sports-minded youngster in the city.
It was a partnership which would endure for the greater part of 20 years as they moved in tandem to Everton and then Tranmere Rovers. And it would serve the Republic of Ireland team well in a changing period in international football.
After the suspension of international competition in 1939 because of the war, it would be seven years before an Ireland team travelled abroad for a two-match Iberian tour, with games against Portugal in Lisbon and Spain, in Madrid, a week later.
With little form to guide them, the FAI saw fit to include Northern-based players in their team for the first and only time. And despite the presence of Jack Carey, a legendary name who had made his first international appearance back in 1937, the selectors saw fit to award the captaincy to Farrell on his debut at this level.
If the man from Dalkey felt unnerved by it all, he could take solace from the fact that his great friend was playing immediately ahead of him on the left wing. After losing the first game in Lisbon 3-1, they improved to such an extent that they beat Spain unexpectedly, in front of a crowd of 80,000.
And the intrepid partnership discovered on their return to Dublin that Everton, then among the most powerful clubs in the English First Division, had come in with an offer to sign them. The news was conveyed by Mrs Mai Cunningham, chairwoman of Shamrock Rovers and highly influential in the development of football. Eglington would often recall the conversation between a director desperate for transfer money for club coffers, and a young man loath to abandon the comforts of home life.
Britain was still on war rations and despite the lure of playing with some of the biggest names in football, Eglington didn't see eye to eye with Mrs Cunningham when she told him it was an opportunity he couldn't afford to reject. Eventually he agreed and so began one of the great club-player partnerships in post-war British football. It would last 11 years.
At the time, Irish people hadn't yet begun their love affair with Liverpool FC. Everton was the big club on Merseyside in the 1940s and 50s and they had five Republic of Ireland players in their team: Eglington, Farrell, Jimmy O'Neill, Don Donovan, and Tommy Clinton on several occasions.
When age took the edge off their pace, it was to nearby Tranmere that Eglington and Farrell moved to maintain their love affair with Liverpool. And the municipal authorities responded in kind by naming two streets after them.
Eglington was a fine raconteur and among those who bonded with him in those early years in Britain was the peerless Stanley Matthews, then playing with Blackpool. The Dubliner was apt to recall one Everton- Blackpool game in which the Everton manager was so worried by the threat posed by the England player that he instructed Eglington to abandon the habits of a lifetime and track back to help his defenders.
Matthews was not amused by the proximity of his friend, however, eventually tapping him on the shoulder with the reminder, "Tommo, you'll not score too many goals playing back here."
"True enough," came the response, "but then you won't be troubling our goalkeeper too often either." The pair could often joke about the incident later as well as recalling a remarkable afternoon when Eglington scored five times for Tranmere.
But there were two notable omissions in Eglington's career. First, he missed out on the Republic's storied 2-0 win over England at Goodison Park in 1949 after the selectors had risked the wrath of the masses by dropping him for Tommy O'Connor.
But he did get to play England at Goodison Park in 1947 at a time when the Irish Football Association in Belfast still selected Southern players in Northern Ireland teams. Eglington played alongside Peter Doherty, another revered name, on the left wing, and together they were central to an incident which is still recalled with awe north of the Border.
Unfazed by the intimidating sight of the huge England goalkeeper, Frank Swift, converging on the ball, Doherty kept his eye on O'Connor's cross at a crucial stage and woke up in the dressing room some 15 minutes later, to be told his goal had earned his team a highly creditable 2-2 draw.
Later Eglington's international career became stuck on 24 appearances, just one short of the magical figure which the FAI used as the yardstick to reward their finest players with silver statuettes. When his sojourn in England ended, he came home to finish his career with Cork Hibernians, eventually playing on until after his 41st birthday. With his football boots tucked away, he then turned his attention to golf, reducing his handicap to three and becoming a member of St Anne's senior cup team, and later club president and captain.
Eglington belonged to a generation of sparsely paid footballers who provided huge entertainment for a public not yet spoiled by television. The epitaph to a remarkable man is that his charisma dwindled only marginally in the latter years of life.
Thomas Eglington: born January 15th, 1923; died February 17th, 2004