Director Sean Casey introduces his film Liam Brady: The Irishman Abroad, which receives its Irish television premiere on RTÉ One on Monday, February 13th. On the 50th anniversary of Irish football legend Brady signing schoolboy forms at Arsenal, this new documentary covers the highs and lows of a life spent in 'The Beautiful Game'... Watch Liam Brady: The Irishman Abroad here, via RTÉ Player.
I first got to know Liam Brady, during the Celtic Tiger days. Dalymount Park was to be torn down and sold to developers for an eye-watering amount of money. Liam wanted to commemorate this stadium and it's place in Irish history, as he had spent his formative years watching his brothers and other Irish stars, such as Joe Haverty and Charlie Hurley playing there.
So we produced a film called Dalymount Days - The Home of Irish Football, with tales of global superstars such as Pele, Tom Finney and Zinedine Zidane, as well as the huge legacy of League of Ireland, the FAI Cup Finals and famous European and International matches. We uncovered a treasure trove of football and Irish history and footage.
One night in particular stood out for me: in 1985, when World Champions Italy came to North Dublin. From a creaking and dangerously over-capacity Dalymount, came incredible scenes. Fans standing on roofs, sitting by the side of the pitch and even a couple who sneaked onto the Italian bench, to bemused looks.
They were treated to Paul McGrath’s Ireland debut but also to the sight of one of their own, Liam Brady, greeted warmly by the boys in the blue, current World Champions. The reason? He’d been team-mates with most of them at Juventus and Inter Milan, where Liam was still playing. No other Irish player has had the international success that Brady enjoyed, playing for two of Italy’s biggest clubs in a 7-year spell that yielded two Championship medals.
As someone who’s spent quite a bit of time living abroad, this part of Liam’s story fascinated me. How did this guy from North Dublin, who left school at 15, became a star in London, then decided to risk it all and head for Italy, thriving where so many foreign players had failed. To this day he still speaks perfect Italian and, in Turin, Genoa and Milan, the name Brady elicits smiles and memories. After 50 years in ‘The Game’, amongst his peers and others in the football industry, he commands respect.
So when I went to Liam’s house and he showed me his treasure trove of shirts and photos from that era I thought that this was a story that needed to be told. Growing up in London, with a name like Sean Casey, I knew all about Brady’s exploits with Arsenal and with the Irish national team, but very little about his time in Italy. I’d spent 15 years working as a TV Sports producer but didn’t know that part of his story. And if that was the case, then what of the viewer ? Coverage of Italian football in Britain and Ireland was very limited in those days: even the Channel Four show, Gazzetta Football Italia, didn’t grace our screens until 1992.
After a lot of persuading, and a few false starts, I finally persuaded Liam to consider doing a film about that part of his life. I decided to frame it as a success story, of an Irish sportsman rubbing shoulders with the best on the planet.
Italy was beaten by North Korea during the 1966 World Cup, and after that the Italian FA banned its teams from signing foreign players. Those rules were changed in 1980 and, as a result, Juventus - Italy’s most successful club - signed Liam to be their Number Ten, their ‘Regista’. Their playmaker, the conductor of their orchestra, the man who made the side tick.
And what a side it was. Zoff, Cabrini, Gentile, Scirea, Tardelli and Rossi were amongst the names who’d go on to lift the world Cup in Madrid in 1982, managed by some fella called Giovanni Trapattoni. Whatever happened to him?
Within a few years Liam was joined in Serie A by Zico, Platini, Maradona and pretty much every top footballer in the world. Very few from around these parts enjoyed the success Liam did, and one moment at the end of his second season is remembered especially. [You’ll have to watch the film to see what].
Like any good story. this one has highs and lows: Liam has made my job a lot easier by being very honest. He also opened up his incredible contacts book and this enabled me to feature some stellar names, all of who were only too happy to reminisce about the good old days. I’ve interviewed hundreds of footballers and sports stars over the years, but the warmth with which people spoke about Liam, showed me how much of an impression he made on and off of the pitch in Italy, London or in Ireland.
We didn’t always see eye-to-eye on the direction of the film - and who or what should be featured or left out - but one thing we both agreed was important was the soundtrack. Music is another love of Liam’s life - almost as much as football - and the tracks chosen by him evoke memories of that era, both for him and hopefully the viewer.
On an October day in Lake Como, with filming impossible due to heavy rain, I introduced Liam to the joys of Spotify and we went through his career year by year and made a playlist of potential songs to be included in the film. We finessed that list over subsequent months.
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Listen: Liam Brady's jukebox
I had a small core team on this project: Simon Pinfield (Director of Photography), Darragh Bambrick (Producer) and Luca Salvatori (Editor), who helped bring the story to the screen and made it look and sound beautiful.
I set out to show that the Liam Brady I knew off-screen. There is much more to him than the Liam Brady that viewers see analysing football on television. And I hope I’ve achieved that. His wife Sarah, who’s been on this journey with him since 1979, says I have. So I’ll take that.
Liam Brady: The Irishman Abroad, RTÉ One, Monday 13th February, 9.35 pm - catch up via RTÉ Player.
