Arsenal have a rich history in terms of Irish players that have played for them, with a particularly strong connection during the 1970s and early 1980s. In this article, we will go through some of the most famous Irish players that have played for Arsenal, before listing all Irish Arsenal players at the end.
Liam Brady, David O’Leary and Frank Stapleton from Republic of Ireland, and Pat Rice, Pat Jennings, and Sammy Nelson from Northern Ireland, all started in the thrilling FA Cup final win against Manchester United in 1979, while Terry Neil, also from Northern Ireland, was their manager that day. Arsenal 3-2 Manchester United was the result of the 1979 FA Cup final. Arsenal were leading 2-0 until Manchester United made a late fightback with goals in the 86th and 88th minute. It looked like the Gunners had thrown it away, but Alan Sunderland scored a dramatic winner in the 89th minute. The late drama led to the naming of the 1979 FA Cup final as the ‘Five Minute Final’. Frank Stapleton scored Arsenal’s second goal, which Liam Brady, who was instrumental during the game, assisted. Irish players littered the Arsenal team at the time.
In 1980 Arsenal again played in the FA Cup final with a very strong Irish contingent, but lost the game 1-0 to West Ham. Brady, O’Leary, Stapleton, Jennings and Rice also started that game, as well as John Devine from the Republic of Ireland. Nelson also came off the bench, meaning seven out of the 12 players that played for Arsenal were from the island of Ireland.
Irish players won Arsenal’s player of the season award for five years running between 1976 and 1980 as Brady also won it on three occasions during this period, in 1976, 1978 and 1979, while Stapleton won it in 1977 and 1980.
Featured Irish Arsenal Players
Liam Brady
Liam Brady played for Arsenal from 1973 – 1980 and is the most talented Irish player to have played for Arsenal. The majestic midfielder signed for Arsenal on schoolboy terms in 1970. Brady signed professional terms with Arsenal in 1973 on his 17th birthday.
Brady was a brilliant attacking midfielder who was fantastic on the ball. He was an exceptional playmaker and could glide past opponents at will. Brady was nicknamed ‘Chippy’ – because of his love for fish and chips rather than his ability to chip the ball! Brady played in three successive FA Cup finals in 1978, 1979, and 1980, and was instrumental in the 1979 FA Cup victory over Manchester United. This game was his finest in an Arsenal shirt and he had a hand in all three Arsenal goals.
Liam Brady played 307 times for Arsenal and has 72 Ireland caps. Brady became the first Irish player to win the PFA Player of the Year Award in 1978/79 – only Paul McGrath (1992/93) and Roy Keane (1999-2000) have won it since. Brady is considered a true legend at the club, one of only a few Irish players to achieve this status at Arsenal.
Liam Brady left Arsenal at the end of the 1979-80 season, and his final games didn’t go as well as he would have hoped. Arsenal were beaten by West Ham in the 1979-80 FA Cup final. Just three days later, Arsenal lost the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final to Valencia. The game finished 0-0 and Valencia went on to win 5-4 on penalties. Brady, who took Arsenal’s first penalty, missed his spot kick that day. The first European final to be decided on penalties was the 1979-80 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final. To further compound Arsenal’s misery, they went on to lose their final league game of the season 5-0 against Middlesbrough and missed out on European qualification for the following season.
Brady went on to have a successful spell in Italy, where he won two Serie A titles with Juventus. He also played for Sampdoria, Inter and Ascoli, before returning to England with West Ham in 1987.
Brady held the role of Head of Youth Development at Arsenal from 1996 until 2014, when he oversaw Arsenal’s academy.
While Brady has 72 caps for Ireland, he never played in a major international tournament. Suspension and injury ruled him out of Euro 88. Brady retired from international football during qualification for the Italia ’90 World Cup. Brady, though, did make but made himself available for selection for the tournament. However, Jack Charlton said that he wanted to bring the players that played in the qualifiers and got them there.
David O’Leary
David O’Leary played 722 times for Arsenal and is the Gunners’ all-time record appearance holder. O’Leary also has 68 Ireland caps. O’Leary was named Arsenal’s captain in 1982.
The defender, unusually for the time, liked to pass the ball out of defence, more like a modern defender. O’Leary became Arsenal’s record appearance holder in 1989 when he surpassed George Armstrong’s record of 621 games. A poll on Arsenal’s website in 2007 named O’Leary as 14th in the Gunners’ top 50 players of all time. Only three Irish Arsenal players – O’Leary, Brady (ranked eighth), and Frank Stapleton (ranked 47th) – made the list.
O’Leary won the league in 1989 and 1991, the FA Cup in 1979 and 1993 and the League Cup in 1987 and 1993 with Arsenal. O’Leary played in the famous 2-0 win at Anfield in 1989, when Arsenal won the league against all odds. He moved to Leeds United in 1993 after 20 years with Arsenal, but suffered an Achilles injury which ruled him out for the rest of the season. O’Leary retired in September 1995 aged 37.
O’Leary went to the World Cup in 1990 and scored Ireland’s winning penalty in the last-16 against Romania.
Frank Stapleton
Frank Stapleton was a powerful centre-forward who played 300 games for Arsenal, scoring 108 goals. Stapleton also has 71 Ireland caps, in which he scored 20 goals. The Irishman played in three successive FA Cup finals for Arsenal, in 1978, 1979 and 1980 and scored Arsenal’s second goal in the 3-2 triumph against Manchester United in 1979.
Stapleton moved to Manchester United in 1981 where he went on to win a further two FA Cups. Stapleton scored in the 1983 FA Cup final and became the first player to score in the final for two different clubs.
John Devine
John Devine came all the way through Arsenal’s youth system and went on to play for Arsenal 112 times. Devine also has 13 Ireland caps. He was part of the strong contingent of Irish players that played for Arsenal in the 1980 FA Cup final. Devine has had an interesting career and went on to play in India and Norway before moving into coaching.
Niall Quinn
Niall Quinn, a very talented athlete, played GAA and hurling, and even received a contract offer to play professional Australian Rules. However, he ultimately decided to pursue a career in football. Quinn continued the strong connection of Irish players to play for Arsenal when he signed for the club in 1983. After scoring regularly for Arsenal’s reserve team, Quinn got his first minutes against Liverpool in December 1985 and scored on his debut.
After George Graham’s appointment as Arsenal manager, Quinn played well, scoring eight league goals in 35 appearances the following season. He struggled after this though and only made a handful of appearances in the next couple of seasons. Quinn started in Arsenal’s 1987 League Cup final win against Liverpool.
He was part of the squad that won the league in 1989 but only made three appearances and didn’t receive a medal.
Quinn left Arsenal for Manchester City in 1990 and stayed there for six years. Sunderland bought Quinn for a club-record £1.3 million in 1996. Quinn went on to be one of their most important players. After retirement, he was part of a consortium that bought Sunderland and went on to be the club’s chairman.
In total, Niall Quinn scored 20 goals in 84 Arsenal appearances. Quinn has 92 Ireland caps and scored 21 goals.
Jimmy Dunne
Jimmy Dunne was an absolute goal machine and scored an unbelievable amount of goals in England. Dunne, from our research, is one of the first notable Irish Arsenal players. Dunne played for Shamrock Rovers in Ireland before being recruited by New Brighton in 1925. He scored six goals in eight league games for the club in the Third Division North. He subsequently signed for Sheffield United, who played in the First Division, in 1926. Dunne scored 167 goals in 190 games for Sheffield United. For four consecutive years, Dunne was Sheffield United’s top goalscorer, achieving 30-plus goal seasons in three of those years between 1930 and 1933. To this day, Jimmy Dunne holds the record for the most goals in an English League season by an Irishman – he netted 41 league goals in 1930/31.
Dunne signed for Arsenal in 1933 and scored nine goals for Arsenal as they won the league in his debut season. However, a year later, Dunne’s playing time was reduced when Arsenal signed the legendary Ted Drake. He played just two games in the next two seasons before moving on to Southampton.
Dunne scored 13 goals in 15 games while playing for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and also scored four goals in seven games while playing for the Irish Football Association (IFA). Today, the FAI is the national team for the Republic of Ireland while the IFA is the national team for Northern Ireland.
Katie McCabe
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Katie McCabe must be included in article about Irish Arsenal players, even though this article focuses on the men’s team. The Dubliner has inspired a generation in Ireland and has been a fantastic player for Arsenal. Usually deployed on the left flank, whether at left wing or at left-back, McCabe signed for Arsenal in 2015 and has played over 130 games for the Gunners. McCabe was voted Arsenal’s player of the season in 2020/21 after a tremendous season at left-back.
Katie McCabe, at just 21-years-old, was named Ireland captain. In 2023, she was part of the first-ever Ireland women’s team to play in the World Cup. McCabe scored Ireland’s first-ever goal at a World Cup when she scored directly from a corner against Canada.
A Ballon d’Or nomination was next for McCabe in 2023 after captaining Ireland in the World Cup, reaching the Champions League semi-final with Arsenal and scoring the WSL Goal of the Season. McCabe was the first Irish player to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or since Roy Keane in 2000 and the first ever Irishwoman to be up for the award. McCabe became the first Irish player to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or since Roy Keane in 2000 and the first ever Irishwoman to receive a nomination for the award.
Other Irish Arsenal Players
Joe Haverty signed for Arsenal from St. Patrick’s Athletic when he was 18. Haverty, a tricky winger, scored 26 goals in 122 games for Arsenal and has 32 Ireland caps with three goals for his country. In 2000, Haverty was inaugurated into the FAI’s Hall of Fame. He was Arsenal’s scout in Ireland. Haverty passed away in 2009, aged 72.
Graham Stack was part of Arsenal’s Invincibles squad of 2003/04 and was second-choice goalkeeper behind Jens Lehmann. Stack, however, didn’t make a league appearance and didn’t receive a medal (there are conflicting reports about this, but we don’t believe he did). He made five appearances, all in the League Cup.
While not quite an Irish Arsenal player, Declan Rice did play for Ireland. Rice made appearances for Ireland U-17s, U-19s and U-21s, being eligible because his grandparents are from Cork, and even played three friendly games in 2018 for Ireland’s senior team before deciding to declare for England. There is some animosity in Ireland towards Rice because of this.
Finally, while he didn’t officially play for Arsenal’s senior team, Stephen Bradley was at Arsenal for a period. Stephen Bradley is Shamrock Rovers’ manager and has been unbelievably successful at the club. This is an interesting article regarding the struggles young players face when they are trying to make a breakthrough at a top club. Bradley speaks about the difficulty a young player faces in earning money they’ve never seen before, Cesc Fabregas, and how someone stabbed him in the face during a robbery.
Full List of Irish Arsenal Players
| Name | Position | Time at Arsenal | Arsenal Apps. | Arsenal Goals | Ireland Caps | Ireland Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David O’Leary | CB | 1975 – 1993 | 722 | 14 | 68 | 1 |
| Liam Brady | CM | 1973 – 1980 | 307 | 59 | 72 | 9 |
| Frank Stapleton | CF | 1975 – 1981 | 255 | 83 | 71 | 20 |
| Joe Haverty | LW | 1951 – 1961 | 122 | 26 | 32 | 3 |
| John Devine | RB | 1978 – 1983 | 112 | – | 13 | – |
| Niall Quinn | CF | 1990 | 93 | 20 | 92 | 21 |
| Terry Mancini | CB | 1974 – 1976 | 62 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Eddie McGoldrick | RW | 1993 – 1996 | 57 | 1 | 16 | – |
| Jimmy Dunne | ST | 1933 – 1936 | 25 | 9 | 15 | 13 |
| Paul Gorman | CM | 1980 – 1984 | 6 | – | – | – |
| Graham Stack | GK | 1998 – 2003 | 5 | – | – | – |
| Graham Barrett | CF | 1998 – 2003 | 3 | – | 6 | 2 |
| Patrick Cregg | CM | 2004 – 2006 | 3 | – | – | – |
| Kwame Ampadu | MF | 1989 – 1991 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Frank O’Neill | RW | 1961 | 2 | – | 20 | 1 |
| Conor Henderson | CM | 1999 – 2013 | 1 | – | – | – |
| Brian McGovern | DF | 1997 – 1999 | 1 | – | – | – |
| Noel Kelly | ST | 1947 – 1950 | 1 | – | 1 | – |
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