Patrick ‘Paddy’ Moore is another intriguing character from that period. Moore made his international debut for the Irish Free State in a friendly against Spain in Barcelona on 26 April 1931, whilst still a Shamrock Rovers player, marking the occasion with the Irish goal in a 1-1 draw. He then won his second cap the following May, scoring again in a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in Amsterdam. Making his Irish debut that night was Alex Stevenson, mentioned earlier in this piece, then with Dublin-based Dolphin, who Moore’s Shamrock Rovers had just defeated in the FAI Cup final weeks earlier. Small world syndrome strikes again.
Both men would move to Scotland that August, Stevenson to Rangers and Moore to Aberdeen, as did another two of his teammates, Irish captain Joe O’Reilly and Jimmy Daly. Whilst the others did not shine at Pittodrie, Moore became a star, scoring 27 goals in just 29 league games in his first season. He made his debut at Parkhead in a 3-0 opening day defeat on Saturday, 13 August 1932, then found himself on the winning side in the return at Pittodrie on Christmas Eve, thanks to a Jack Beattie goal.
The following season, he would score in both League fixtures against Celtic, grabbing the third in a 3-0 victory at Pittodrie in October 1933, when Willie Dunn was the opposing centre-forward, then the Dons’ first in the 2-2 draw at Celtic Park in February 1934, when Dunn had scored, as described above.
However, Moore’s greatest achievement would be in the green shirt of Ireland, just the day after he had played for Aberdeen at Celtic Park. In just his third international appearance, a World Cup qualifier against Belgium at Dalymount Park, Dublin, on Sunday, 25 February 1934, he scored all four goals for the hosts as they came from behind three times to earn a 4-4 draw.
In doing so, he became the first player to net a quadruple of goals in one match in the history of the World Cup. Continuing the ‘small world’ theme from earlier, in goal for the Free State that day was Jim Foley, the young Celtic reserve keeper who would be attacked by a spectator at Tynecastle then ludicrously charged with assault in the aftermath, a story covered in a previous part of this series.
Both Foley and Moore would line-up against the Dutch in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam on Sunday, 8 April 1934, for the second and final qualifier for the Irish in the three-team group. Paddy scored again, as he had in his previous visit there two years earlier. However, this time Netherlands would win 5-2, following that up in May with a 4-2 victory over Belgium in Antwerp, both neighbours qualifying for the finals in Italy that summer.
Moore’s club manager, former Celtic forward Paddy Travers, had accompanied him from Glasgow to his international date of destiny with Belgium. It would later transpire that the player was suffering from alcohol dependency, missing a game in Switzerland due to the amount of drink he had consumed beforehand. He returned to Shamrock Rovers in 1935 and would later enjoy a third spell there before the war. Unfortunately, the alcohol would take its toll, Paddy passing away in July 1951, aged just 41.
Seven months after the Parkhead clash where both Dunn and Moore had scored (I see what you did there- Ed), Willie returned to the Celtic team for the trip to Dens Park, on Monday, 1 October 1934, one of five changes following the 2-1 defeat by Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill two days earlier.
Dunn received some praise for his performance as the game ended goalless. He did enough to retain his place the following Saturday, where Queen of the South were the visitors, Jimmy Delaney’s early goal giving the Hoops a lead they would relinquish in the last quarter of the match. First, the headline-writer’s dream, Joe Tulip, tip-toed through the home defence before beating Joe Kennaway with a fierce drive, then the Dumfries side’s other winger, Willie Anderson clinched an unexpected victory with a late winner.
The Coatbridge side, where Jock Stein would later commence his senior playing career, would also feature in the last game of Willie Dunn’s spell at Parkhead. They rolled up to the east end on Saturday, 2 February 1935. As with so many of his appearances for Celtic, he would replace Jimmy McGrory, the Parkhead talisman hurt during the previous weekend’s 4-1 Scottish Cup victory over Montrose.
The Hoops would gain revenge for that September defeat by running out emphatic 5-1 winners, despite going behind. Jimmy Delaney’s double had turned that around within fifteen minutes, the Cleland man then setting up goals for Willie Dunn and Hugh O’Donnell before completing his hat-trick late on.
That would be Dunn’s second and final goal for Celtic. In June of that year, he moved to Brentford, the West London club newly-promoted to the English First Division for the first time in their history.
He would only feature twice in his first season, scoring one goal for his new club, against Birmingham City in a 2-1 defeat at St Andrews in November 1935, struggling to displace the former Hearts centre-forward, Davie McCulloch, who top-scored with 26, as the Bees finished in an impressive fifth place, above FA Cup-winners Arsenal. Willie Dunn would only feature once in the following campaign, this time with no goals forthcoming, as Brentford battled to a sixth place in the top division.
Brentford retained that top-six position in 1937/38, before replacing Arsenal in the Empire Exhibition Cup tournament, played in Glasgow at the end of that season, where they would be eliminated by Hearts at Ibrox.
There would be no return to Glasgow for Willie, however, as he had already moved to Second Division Southampton by that time, replacing Jimmy Dunne, who had been an Irish Free State colleague of Jim Foley, Paddy Moore and Alex Stevenson. Willie would score three goals in his fourteen League games at the Dell before returning to Scotland to sign for Raith Rovers, lining up against Celtic at Starks Park on Saturday, 7 January 1939.
The champions fielded a depleted side, which included Bertie Duffy, Jackie Watters and Jimmy Birrell. Nevertheless, few would have predicted a 4-0 defeat, only the brilliance of Joe Kennaway preventing even greater embarrassment for Celtic.
There would have been much singing and dancing in the streets of Raith that particular night, following Rovers’ first victory of any sort since November. They would later be relegated, having finished bottom of the table.
The outbreak of war in September 1939 would see football reduced to Regional Leagues, with guest players drifting in and out, a practice not endorsed by Celtic.
Willie Dunn would appear as a guest for Dumbarton in 1939/40, perhaps turning out against his former Parkhead colleagues in one of the two meetings that season. Sadly, the information around that period is a shade more difficult to obtain. Dunn then appeared in the same capacity for Albion Rovers in 1942, opening the door to the possibility that he played with a young Jock Stein at Cliftonhill, perhaps even in the famous 4-4 draw there with Celtic on Saturday, 14 November 1942, which marked Jock’s debut for Rovers, Stein listed as ‘Junior’.
Willie passed away in his native Glasgow on 7 September 1980, a few weeks short of his 70th birthday.
Thanks, as always, to the Celtic Wiki, a wonderful source of reference information.
Hail Hail!
Matt Corr
