McGrath: O’Neill calls, Celtic pitch chaos and leaks

A near hour-long phone call in 2018, the fallout around a leaked Martin O’Neill number, and the emotional aftershock of Celtic’s title win over Hearts all sit side by side in Shane McGrath’s account—where anger, control, and the thin line between celebration a

When Martin O’Neill’s phone number began doing the rounds. Shane McGrath’s first instinct was immediate and visceral: woe betide the person who thought they could ring the Ireland manager. McGrath writes from direct experience—two separate calls with O’Neill—one of them cut off during what he describes as a tense exchange after about 25 minutes.

No matter. O’Neill rang back, apologised for the call dropping, and carried on as if nothing had been interrupted. They spoke for another 30 minutes or so, and McGrath places the conversations in October 2018, as Declan Rice’s international future entered a messy, public closing stretch.

The timing mattered. The day before, at a media conference, O’Neill had said the FAI was still courting Rice. He also said Rice would get space to make his decision. When an FAI account tweeted that point, Rice liked the post. By early afternoon, McGrath recalls, it was un-liked—then the fallout hit.

O’Neill was still conducting interviews when a British broadcaster reported with certainty that Rice was choosing England. Bedlam followed. and within the churn McGrath says O’Neill took time to source his number and make the call. complaining about the perspective McGrath had taken on the story in that morning’s paper.

The tone of the conversation, McGrath insists, was not something like fear or intimidation. It was spiky at times, occasionally angry, but never aggressive. The two of them ended on amicable terms and agreed the details would remain private between them.

What did stick. McGrath says. was the clear impression—formed over five years of watching and interviewing O’Neill on Ireland duty—that a high-achieving manager can be both confrontational and precise when he believes he’s being misread. McGrath describes O’Neill’s willingness to defend himself as captivating. even as he acknowledges that. by this point. the Ireland reign was already in a spiral and would end within six weeks of their call.

That memory resurfaced again on Thursday. when McGrath watched O’Neill deliver a bravura performance while addressing the aftermath of Celtic’s title win against Hearts. For McGrath, the pitch invasion was the central issue: selfish, irresponsible and dangerous. He says there is no reasonable defence for it beyond tradition.

He also points to the human reality that many players likely feel—few would prefer getting man-handled by strangers when they could be celebrating a seismic victory with teammates.

But McGrath’s account doesn’t stop at the danger. He also argues that the reaction from some Celtic supporters who streamed on to the pitch became a platform for score-settling, shaped by ugly prejudice, as reflected in much of the commentary.

In that setting. he writes that O’Neill’s stout defence of his club was understandable and at least partly justified. And then comes the thread that began this account: O’Neill’s insistence that his mobile number was leaked following Celtic’s dramatic win against Motherwell in their penultimate game.

McGrath says the scale of abuse is what made it worse. He writes that O’Neill had changed the number after getting upwards of 250 abusive messages. and he frames that decision as both a form of self-protection and a way of sparing some of the people involved from the forensic scrutiny O’Neill brings to discussion.

The leak, though, carried consequences far beyond a single act of intrusion. McGrath says O’Neill’s intentions were being interpreted in contrasting ways ahead of yesterday’s Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline.

Some reports, he writes, suggested O’Neill was gearing up for goodbye. Others read the “runes” and decided he was in prime position to continue for another season.

There were added complications around the Celtic job search too. McGrath notes that Robbie Keane’s departure from Ferencvaros could affect the calculations around the Celtic role. Yet. he adds. Keane’s appointment — with activist influence within the club’s support appalled by his working in Israel — would guarantee weeks of protest and could become more trouble than it’s worth for Dermot Desmond and the club’s board. regardless of how compelling Keane’s claims on the job might be.

All of it, McGrath suggests, circles back to a harder truth: managing Celtic can be thankless. The shine, he writes, will wear off their last-gasp league title, and repeated failure to make a mark in Europe will bring new causes of strife come the autumn.

He puts one last question on it—how appealing the role can be for a 74-year-old who clearly loves Celtic. even if the labour and the politics around it can be relentless. For McGrath. O’Neill’s stance and his choices have offered something unexpected and inspiring. a postscript that befits a man who likes having the last word.

MISRYOUM Sports News Shane McGrath Martin O'Neill Declan Rice Celtic Hearts Motherwell Scottish Cup final Dunfermline pitch invasion