TWENTY-ONE years ago on November 17 to the day, Alan McLoughlin entered the cauldron of Windsor Park and scored the equalising goal against Northern Ireland – a strike which sent Jack Charlton’s team to USA ’94. A measure of McLoughlin the player
Two years ago, he entered a battle, having been diagnosed with cancer of the kidney. He then generously offered himself as a human guinea-pig for a new drug in the hope of helping others beat the disease – although the process is deleterious to his own health. A measure of McLoughlin the man
A major unhappiness in his book is at the critics who looked on him and other English-born players of Irish parents as ‘Plastic Paddies’, including Roy Keane/ Eamon Dunphy. He was offered the chance to play for England B on the same day he accepted the call-up to Ireland B. Nothing plastic there. A measure of McLoughlin the Irishman