Pat McArt speaks to the “best soccer player I have ever seen”, Derry man Tony O’Doherty, about his happiest memories, how he walked away from the game during the Troubles, and why he has never left his Creggan home

I DON’T normally do this, but in the interests of full disclosure, I am going to admit I hold the view that Tony (Doc) O’Doherty is the best soccer player I have ever seen.

I saw him play against the great Glasgow Celtic team which included the magnificent Jimmy Johnstone, and against Aberdeen, a team Alex Ferguson just a couple of years later took to European glory, and the man from the Creggan was easily the best player on the pitch on both occasions.

In the aftermath of both games, both clubs made persistent efforts to sign him.

Born in the Brandywell area of Derry in 1947, O’Doherty moved to the huge Creggan estate just two years later.

Three-quarter of a century later and he’s still there.

“We moved to Rinmore Drive in 1949. I have never left. Why would I?

“I spent most of my young life down in that field (Bishop’s Field) playing with my pals. What can I say that hasn’t been said before?

“It was a brilliant place to grow up. We had nothing but we had everything. We had the Grianan Fort, Holywood Hill, the Black Hut and green fields and we could play football all day. It was a sort of paradise really.”

Trim and fit – he walks everywhere – Tony still regularly turns out for games with both his son and his grandson. He showed me a couple of photos to prove it.

And, I’m told, he’s not the worst player on the pitch, far from it.

“Remember I grew up at a time there were no cars. We lived up in Rinmore, so I had to walk or run to the Christian Brothers school and later to St Columb’s College.

“From an early age, even if I didn’t realise it at the time, I was building in a fitness level that has stood me in good stead all my life. I suppose that’s one of the major differences between back then and now. No one seems to walk any more.”

That fitness was in evidence during a distinguished playing career which saw him turn out for Coleraine, Derry City, Finn Harps, Dundalk and Ballymena United.

He was 40 when he played his last senior game in a Derry jersey.

O’Doherty, of course, also played international football for Northern Ireland, making his debut against England at Wembley Stadium in the Home Internationals in 1970.

He was earning his first cap the night the famed Bobby Charlton was earning his 100^th. It’s believed there were 100,000 people in the stadium for the occasion.

It was, he recalls now with a big smile, “some night”.

So, how did it all begin?

“My dad, Dan, was a big football and community man. He ran a team called Arsenal and when I was about 11 I started playing with them. A couple of years later I was invited to play in an under-17 tournament in Coleraine.

“I always say people may have God-given talent – and it is God-given – but you need a lucky break too. I played that night and I had a good game. But in football you can have good games and bad games, so I thought nothing more of it.

“That all changed on the following Sunday when I came out of 10 o’clock Mass to be met by a whole lot of neighbours who said there was a car the size of plane outside our door. I was wondering what they were on about.

“I didn’t know it then, but it was Jack Doherty, the chairman of Coleraine and he had a huge big Jaguar car. In a place like the Creggan where no one back then had a car it really did seem like a plane.

“Anyway, the short version was that the legendary Coleraine manager Bertie Peacock had been at the under-17 game and he wanted to sign me. My dad had wanted me to sign for Derry City but the then manager, Willie Ross, thought I was too young so I decided my best option was to go with Coleraine.”

And here’s where fate played a hand.

Tony was only at the club a few months when Jamesy Nicholl – “what a marvellous player that man was” – broke his leg and the schoolboy from Derry was drafted in.

“I was only 16 at the time. And it was a baptism of fire. I made my debut against Crusaders who were colloquially called ‘the hatchet men’ and I was up against Norman Pavis, a wily old pro. Let me put it like this, he let me know he was there.”

O’Doherty was so impressive at Coleraine that within a year he was offered a contract by Everton, but failed the medical because he was deemed to have a knee problem.

“I played for more than 20 years after that and I had other injury problems but never a knee problem. So, I don’t know what they found.”

Talking about serious injuries, he did suffer one – and George Best was involved, albeit not directly.

When playing for Northern Ireland in the Nations League, as it was called then, against Cyprus, one of their players was going in heavy on the Manchester Utd star so the young O’Doherty took it upon himself to sort the offender out.

“I sorted him out alright but unfortunately I sorted myself out too. I got a groin injury from that tackle that plagued me for years after. In fact, Billy Bingham had told me before the game he was going to give me a run in the team but after that I never played again.”

That was not only due to this injury but also to what was happening off the pitch.

However, before we leave this aspect of his career, Tony has one memory that stands out.

“When all four teams for the Home Internationals were announced I was the only non-full time professional. And I was still very young.

“We didn’t even have a car back then, so the IFA had to send a taxi to Derry for me. So, you can imagine what it felt like walking into the team hotel seeing superstars like George Best, Pat Jennings, Terry Neill etc, people I had only seen on television, and I was this raw recruit from the Creggan joining them.

”But here’s the thing… George Best was standing there with a cup of tea and he came straight over, shook my hand and said ‘Welcome, Tony’. He knew who I was, and that I was nervous. He didn’t have to do it, but that was the kind of him. He was an absolutely lovely fella. We became very good friends.”

With injury keeping him out of action, O’Doherty said he had more time to think and became increasingly aware of the Troubles that were now in full flow.

And Derry was very much centre stage.

Coming home from Coleraine after training he would, he recalled, pass barricades, burned-out vehicles, hear of shootings or even deaths of locals, some of them people he knew, and football seemed insignificant.

“I decided to walk away from the game. This was sport, and real life was happening all around me. I am a Derry man through and through, and this place was really important to me.

“I remember Reuters came and did a big interview with me, along the lines of ‘the young international player who walked away from the game’ and it was big news at the time. However, I didn’t see it that way. I felt my community was way more important than football.

“To cut to the chase, I started Creggan FA with people like Charles ‘Nucker’ Tierney and a whole lot of other great people and that morphed into a community association.”

Today that association is known as the Central Drive Community Centre and Tony O’Doherty is chairman.

The centre’s mission statement is “to improve people’s lives through community-based initiatives”.

Along with the late Martin McGuinness he was also involved, amongst many varied projects, in restorative justice programmes, and in negotiations with the RUC to facilitate a locally developed approach involving private dialogue between Sinn Féin and the police to ease tensions at election time in Derry.

But football was still a large part of his identity and when Finn Harps came calling after a two-year hiatus in his career, he answered that call.

During his time with the Ballybofey club he was a standout performer, the highlight of which was winning the 1974 FAI Cup. He was in his prime then.

Some years later he had a falling out with some of the hierarchy at Harps and again walked away, only to be persuaded, some months later, to play for Dundalk in a friendly by a fellow Derry man, the legendary Jim McLaughlin.

However, Jim omitted to mention that it would be against Liverpool and that Tony would end up marking Kenny Dalglish.

O’Doherty played well that night, and was persuaded to stay on and was, eventually, rewarded with another FAI Cup medal in 1981.

His brother, Donal, just happened to be on the opposing team, Sligo Rovers, so not everyone in the O’Doherty household was happy that night.

But, as explained, driving home alone from Dundalk late on a Sunday night through what was then known as ‘the murder triangle’, he decided to call it quits while ahead. It was way too risky.

But, as usual, there was one more twist.

When Derry City joined the League of Ireland in 1985, Tony was asked to be first team coach by Jimbo Crossan, the manager.

As he had been instrumental in getting the club back into senior football, he was delighted to help out in a backroom role.

Or so he thought.

“About two weeks before our first game, Steven Ferry, one of the defenders, decided senior football wasn’t for him. Jimbo came to me and said ‘You’ll have to play’ so there I was, well into 38 years of age, playing again. I played my last game when I was 40.”

Off the field, O’Doherty’ life has always been very busy. His father, who was “a real community man”, was his role model here.

And it’s clear that Tony has made a big impact in his community. The respect in which he is held locally was apparent in August 2024 when a documentary titled Tony Doc was presented as part of Féile Derry.

The film covered his childhood, football career, working life and community involvement. It was described as “an acknowledgment of the respect he had earned across generations in Creggan through his long-standing community work”.

Back in 2014 the prestigious American university Princeton came to Derry and did a major interview with him in regard to his involvement in peace-building in a post-conflict society.

He was described as playing a key role in limiting clashes between the nationalists and the police, as well as in founding the busy centre in Creggan which is still known by all and sundry as ‘the corned beef tin" because of its design.

So, this is a man who has had two big roles in life, a ‘game of two halves’ to coin a phrase.

When asked to sum it all up, O’Doherty said he had memories that would last a lifetime… of playing against the great Italian player Luigi Riva, and the Brazilian Falcao, then regarded as the best player in the world, and so much more.

He had nothing but great things to say about colleagues in both the Irish League and League of Ireland, many of whom showed up when he was the victim of a ‘This is Your Life’ special in Creggan to mark both his and Creggan’s 50^th birthday.

But then came a surprise...

“If you’re asking for the happiest memory, it’s probably winning the All-Ireland senior colleges championship with St Columb’s College. I’ll never forget it.

“We were up against Tuam and half their team went on to play senior county football with Galway, who were the powerhouse Gaelic footballing side in the country at the time.

“We were ridiculous underdogs, no one gave us a chance. But I scored two goals and three points that day and we won.

“I have never experienced anything like it. St Columb’s had never won it before and have never won it since so it was a unique achievement.”

He then added with a big laugh: “I slag Martin O’Neill about this all the time because he won a MacRory Cup with the college but that was only the Ulster title. I have a few of them. But he never got a Hogan Cup medal. He’ll probably be reading this interview so I’m just publicly reminding him of that.”

Finally, seeing how I started this interview, I had to ask him who, in his opinion, is the best player ever to come out of Derry?

“Ah, that’s an awful lousy question to ask. Where do I start? This is a town of great footballers.

“I suppose I would say Felix (Healy), Liam (Coyle), Brendan Bradley would be up there, but if you put a gun to my head I would have to say for pure skill in his prime, John ‘Jobby’ Crossan.”

That, I would think, should get a debate going in a few bars across Derry tonight…