Today, the father figure of Irish football that is John Giles turns 75. With that in mind we thought we'd take a look back on one of our favourite anecdotes to show what a lovely fella he is.
Giles' omission from the RTE panel when Ireland faced Scotland earlier this year upset a hell of a lot of people. Speaking on Off the Ball at the time, Giles' disappointment and borderline hurt was palpable.
He had been an important part of the Ireland match-day since the mid 1980s - and before that he was manager.
And he inspires tremendous loyalty among friends and people he has worked with.
Journalist Eoin Butler recalled a lovely story Paul McGrath told about the generosity of Giles.
McGrath was doing a spot of punditry for RTE sometime in 1999. He was not comfortable and was petrified of freezing. They were discussing Everton who were in the midst of a late season revival thanks to Kevin Campbell's return from Trabzonspor.
Great story Paul McGrath told about Giles. McGrath extremely nervous pundit. Told he'd asked about Kevin Campbell after commercials. Froze.
— Eoin Butler (@eoinbutler) June 11, 2015
Giles leans over, says "Say since he came back from Turkey Campbell's been playing well, looks fit. The move obviously did him some good." — Eoin Butler (@eoinbutler) June 11, 2015
Seconds later, q is asked. McGrath says "Since he came back from Turkey he's been playing well, looks fit. Move obviously did him good."
— Eoin Butler (@eoinbutler) June 11, 2015
"What about you John?" asks Bill. "Well, I'd have to agree with what Paul said." ("How generous was that?" McGrath marvelled years later.) — Eoin Butler (@eoinbutler) June 11, 2015
