Legendary Celtic and Ireland manager Martin O'Neill shares anecdotes in Letterkenny

Former Celtic and Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill was in Letterkenny on Friday.

An Evening with Martin O’Neill, hosted by Peak Top Agency at the Mount Errigal Hotel, saw O’Neill share the stage with friend and former Northern Ireland teammate Gerry Armstrong.

Armstrong famously scored the winner in Valencia when Billy Bingham’s side defeated hosts Spain at the 1982 World Cup.

O’Neill managed a host of clubs, including Wycombe Wanderers, Leicester City, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Nottingham Forest, but is best remembered for his five years in charge at Celtic Park. He revealed that he first heard of Celtic’s interest was from a phone call from the then Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson.

There, having inherited a squad that finished 21 points behind Rangers in the 1999/2000 season, O’Neill’s Celtic won the treble of the Scottish Premier League, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup in his first season, before adding two more league titles, two more Scottish Cups and a League Cup.

O’Neill shared a number of anecdotes from his time in Glasgow, working with the likes of Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton, John Hartson, Bobo Balde and Neil Lennon.

“Henrik was the best player I ever managed,” O’Neill said. “He proved that in Scotland and he proved that when he left. He came off the bench in the 2006 Champions League final for Barcelona and turned the game against Arsenal into a 2-1 win and proved he could still do it at the top level when he signed for Manchester United at 34. He was brilliant.”

Under his guidance, Celtic reached the 2003 Uefa Cup final, losing 3–2 in extra time to a Porto side managed by José Mourinho who went on to win the Champions League the following season.

With the Republic of Ireland, O’Neill was managed from 2013 until 2018, with the highlights being his defeat of world champions Germany in 2015 and beating Italy in Lille to reach the last 16 of Euro 2016.

“After 10 minutes of the first match against Sweden at the Stade de France, the Irish supporters sang the Fields of Athenry and it was fantastic,” O’Neill said. “Then, in that moment, it reminded me of just what Jack Charlton would’ve felt when he managed Ireland. The fans are second to none.”

O’Neill, from Kilrea, Co Derry, attracted a sizable crowd from the north-west, with an auction and raffle also part of the night. As a teen he played Gaelic football and soccer while boarding at St Columb's College, Derry, and later at St Malachy's College, Belfast, before being picked up by Nottingham Forest in 1971 following a spell at Lisburn Distillery, where he scored in the European Cup Winners’ Cup against Barcelona.

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At Forest, O’Neill was part of the club’s meteoric rise under Brian Clough, where the City Ground club won the old Second Division in 1977, the First Division title in 1978 and back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980.

“Brian and I disagreed on quite a few things,” O’Neill joked. “For example, I thought I was a fantastic player and Brian, well he didn’t …”

Peak Top Agency will be back in the Mount Errigal later this month, with the Ultimate Liverpool Legends. John Barnes and John Aldridge will be joined by Liverpool TV’s host Steve Hothersall on Friday, December 27, with tickets available on EventBrite, priced at €28.50 for general admission and €59 for meet and greet. Further events are being planned for Donegal in 2025.