Eamonn Dunphy in pro-rag, anti-City clopper shocker!
In Roddy Doyle's book/film The Van, about the redundant Dubliners who start their own fast food wagon during the 1990 World Cup, a battered sausage becomes known to locals on the estate as 'A Dunphy'. The reason one young lad gives, after asking for "A Dunphy and chips', is "because it looks like a prick".
His reputation for truth and integrity is not just confined to football, however.
From The Guardian's 'The Knowledge' section only this week, we had the following
If ever there was assurance of the merits of staying in one's comfort zone, however, it surely comes in the form of "Unforgettable Fire, the story of U2": written by Eamon Dunphy, eviscerated by critics, and emailed to us by Dave Bruen. Dunphy, a former Millwall, Charlton and Republic of Ireland midfielder, had already written his Diary of a Professional Footballer when he was asked by U2's manager to write about the band's early years. Though plenty of U2 fans enjoyed it, the book was variously described as "cloying and worshipful" and "full of breathtaking inaccuracies".
After publication, Dunphy criticised the way the band had treated him, the band said he had failed to let them see the manuscript and sort out the mistakes; Dunphy called Bono a "pompous git", Bono reportedly called Dunphy "rat poison". Either way, the book took a panning.
"The catalogue of errors piles up until it's impossible to see beyond it," wrote Neil McCormack, for Hot Press. "If what I know first-hand is so inaccurately represented (and these are not all the errors of which I'm aware, not by a long shot), then I can have no faith in any of the rest of Dunphy's storytelling. There is simply nothing I can take at face value in this book.
"Dunphy's not only guilty of outrageous inaccuracy, he is also grossly ill-informed on the subject that should be at the story's core: music... I filled 18 pages of a small notebook with Dunphy's errors, misrepresentations, misunderstandings and misinformed comment.
"Sometimes, reading this book, I get the feeling somebody's been pulling Dunphy's leg."
