26-04-2025
I played for Bohemians over 100 times but I'm not missing football as I've found my second calling
THERE are few full-time footballers who feature in almost 90 per cent of top-flight matches over the previous three seasons who simply stop playing at 26.
There are fewer still who do so with no real regrets.
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Lifting the Dr Tony O'Neill perpetual trophy as captain in 2017 after the SSE Airtricity National Under 19 League Final match between Bohs and St Patrick's Athletic
Credit: Sportsfile
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Paddy Kirk is working in a whole other world these days
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He's very content with what he's achieved in the game
Credit: Sportsfile
But, then, we had already been supplied with evidence which suggested Paddy Kirk was not your average player.
Five years ago, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Kirk posted a video of him
But lockdown also saw him, under the radar, pursue other interests and one which, ultimately, made hanging up his boots easier.
Kirk lives in Stoneybatter but, these days, the distance to Dalymount Park is more likely to be measured by a camera lens than a full-back's clearance.
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And, ultimately, whether he left football or football left him does not really matter.
Perhaps, for once, 'by mutual consent' might be accurate.
Kirk's second spell at Bohemians was cut short at the end of last season in which he missed just three Premier Division matches, one through injury and a second via suspension.
Two years earlier,
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But this time around was a little different.
He explained: 'There wasn't a lot at all. Nothing from the Premier Division and very little then from the First Division.
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'I was going into the off-season with an open mind about not playing for the sake of it. The lack of offers kind of made up my mind.
'Probably if it was five years ago a handful of clubs would have said, 'He's been around the league, he's played games, we'll take him'.
'I would have thought there might be something but I'm not in any way bitter or angry.
'I wanted to really take ownership of it and not shy away from that, to say, 'Oh, I was injured, I'm going to come back next year'.
'I've been open about it when people ask to say that there weren't any offers.
'I'm secure enough in what I'm doing rather than trying to come up with reasons as to why I haven't had a club.'
SMOOTH TRANSITION
There has been the odd time when he has felt like he is missing out, such as Bohs playing their opening league game
But the football itself? Not so much, especially as his old side continues to flatter to deceive, with the Easter victories over Cork City and Shamrock Rovers their first back-to-back league wins in a year — and then
His biggest concern is trying to wrap his head around the fact it is OK for him to have a pint.
A shoot for him now is an honest day's work, not an instruction hollered from the stand by a fan fuming at a sideways pass.
The photographer specialises in men's fashion and independent coffee shops, and, in conjunction with Lilliput Press, he is bringing out a book on the latter in October.
The absolute nature of his career change came as a surprise to some former team-mates.
Kirk said: 'It's fair enough because it's all we've ever done and all we've ever wanted to do so it probably seems a bit mad to step away.
'But they always had an interest in what I was doing outside football.
'Obviously they were slating me for it in the dressing room but there was an interest.'
WEAR IT'S AT
What he was doing was establishing
He said: 'I bought my first camera in lockdown and I was going out, buying a pair of shoes, I'd bring it to some cool background, take photos and share it.
'There was a bit of interest in the menswear because everyone was shopping online.
'I was kind of growing that anonymously because of football. Now, more comes in from people having a face to put on stuff.
'My first paid gig was with Diffney Menswear.
'I was doing a bit of marketing work for them when coming out of lockdown.
'I actually organised the Shels-Diffney partnership with Keith McDarby.
'I was still playing and Luke Byrne was getting suits fitted for the FAI Cup final and I was taking photos of him thinking, 'This is just weird'.
'But I found that it was an amazing way to switch off from football.
It was something that I was really enjoying.'
PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
In tandem, his enjoyment from football was diminishing, having returned to Bohs after spending a year each with Longford Town and Sligo Rovers.
Last May, he told SunSport about seeing a sports psychologist
At the time, things were — relatively speaking — going OK, including being handed the captain's armband for some games by new Gypsies boss Alan Reynolds.
But the season petered out with patience wearing thin among fans, who had seen results deteriorate rather than improve despite an increased playing budget and a switch to full-time.
For Kirk, whose first Bohs contract saw him paid €50 a week as part of a much-loved part-time team punching above its weight, it was tough to deal with.
He said: 'It wasn't a case of, 'Oh why are they shouting at us?', because we weren't winning games.
'My idea of coming back, what I would have wanted it to look like, was obviously very different to how it played out.
'Looking back, it's not really what I think of because I'm able to disconnect from that and say that I had an amazing time playing for Bohs, some great nights.
'I never, ever would have thought that I'd be able to play the games that I did. I was playing for Raheny United until I was 16.
'I remember seeing all the lads like Conor Masterson, who was in my year, going away to Liverpool. That was a million miles from me.
'Playing 100 games for Bohs, if you'd asked me that six years ago, even when I was around the 19s, I'd have said 'not a chance'.
'That's something I can stand over, whatever happens, it's 100 more than I thought I'd be able to play.
'That for me made it a little bit easier because I'd done that.
'But in the last game of the season, there was a moment where I thought, 'This is all I ever wanted', without trying to sound like I'm trying to get a headline.
'Even when I went to Longford, it was like, 'I have to get back to Bohs eventually'.
'But this wasn't what playing for Bohs in my head was going to be.'
LIFESTYLE TRADE-OFF
Kirk is, he believes, not alone in that regard. He said: 'It's obviously easy for me to say now with me not playing football.
"I don't want to throw anyone under the bus but it's such a talking point among players, as much as staff try, in team meetings, to disconnect from it.
'If you're going home and you're on your own and you don't have the lads . . .
'I always found after a match on Friday you'd be in the depths of it.
'You'd go in on a Saturday morning and even being with the lads, speaking about it among the players you realise, 'We are all finding this difficult, it's not just me'.
'This is something you'd speak about, even Championship players, it's easier to disconnect from that when you're on €20,000 a week.
'That's kind of a trade-off for the lifestyle you're able to have.
"But you're coming off some nights and you see the faces, you see who they're with, sometimes they could be standing next to your mates.
'It's so close, it's not a 50,000-seater stadium.
'Even from being at games, you get into a mindset, 'we're just fans', and fans shout at players.
'You make mental notes, 'I remember meeting him when I was out for a pint or a coffee but that's what he's like on a Friday'.'
FOOTBALL FOCUS
He knows that is not specific to Bohs but, unprompted, he addresses the charge — both from within and outside the fanbase — that not meeting expectations on the pitch is somehow linked to the club's involvement in social issues.
Kirk said: 'That would drive you mad, because you see the day to day. You never see anyone from that side of the club.
'It's not like we're on a PowerPoint before training going through what the club is doing!
'The club's more focused on football than it's ever been, it's never been a better set-up for a footballer, that whole thing, 'Are they focused on football?'.
'I don't even like bringing it up because it's such an irrelevance. It's not even an argument.
'What I miss is being able to stand over playing for Bohs and doing what they were doing, no matter how bad of a week we had.
'I had so many people who weren't that interested in football who I'd meet and they would not know where we were in the league.
'But they just thought it was amazing that I was playing for a club like Bohs and what they were doing. That's definitely part of what I miss.'
Not to the extent that — despite encountering the same difficulty as everyone else in encountering tickets for League of Ireland games these days — he would be tempted, yet at least, to apply for a pitchside photographer's pass.
Kirk said: 'Probably because I was so involved in it, I've never had the opportunity to shoot it.
'I would love to shoot a League of Ireland game and everything around it, rather than the game itself.
'I'll see, maybe it's a bit too soon to be on the sidelines taking photos of Rennie.'
