Pat Byrne

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Pat Byrne (born 15 May 1956, in Dublin) is a former Irish football player and manager.

A central midifelder, Byrne's playing career started with Bohemians in his native Ireland before he moved to the USA in1978, for a year with the Philadelphia Fury of the North American Soccer League. He returned to Europe in 1979, playing for Leicester City until 1981, then Heart of Midlothian until 1983. While playing for the Tynecastle side he was based in Dublin, and would regularly commute for weekend fixtures. When this became too much of a burden, he was granted a free transfer and joined League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers. At Glenmalure Park he had extraordinary success winning 4 league titles in a row and the FAI Cup 3 times between 1984 and 1987. He was the clubs Player of the Year in 1984/85. During this time he also won 3 Inter League caps scoring once.

Byrne then crossed Dublin to join Shelbourne, where he was installed as player-manager in the summer of 1988. By 1992 he had guided Shels to their first League of Ireland title in thrity years and the following year, he guided them to their first FAI Cup success in thirty years, when they beat Dundalk 1-0 in the cup final at Lansdowne Road. In the Cup Winners' Cup that autumn, Byrne brought Shels their first European victory since 1964 when they knocked out Ukrainian side FC Karpaty Lvov 3-2 on aggregate. Byrne was sacked along with his assistant Jim McLoughlin shortly afterwards, and was succeeded by Eoin Hand.

Pat came back to Rovers to manage the club for the 1996/1997 season and in September of 2006 he became a Shamrock Rovers Legend [1]