Joseph Carolan (8 September 1937 – 26 September 2018) was an Irish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a full-back in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

. Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Carolan started his career with Home Farm at youth level before moving to

on 15 February 1956,Spence, Tom "Happy Birthday, Joe Carolan", ''Official Matchday Programme for Tonbridge Angels vs Metropolitan Police, 12 September 2009'' where he featured in their

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

winning team. On 22 November 1958, Carolan made his senior debut against

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

. He broke into the first team nine months after the Munich air disaster, which had claimed the lives of eight United players - including his fellow countryman

Bill Whelan Bill Whelan (born 22 May 1950 in Limerick, Ireland) is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, ''Riverdance'', was a seven-minute display of tradi ...

- and resulted in two other players being injured to such an extent that they never played again. He played 71 times for United between 1958 and 1960 and won two caps for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

making his debut on the 1 November 1959. Carolan joined

Brighton and Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

in December 1960. He joined

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

in 1962 before signing for Canterbury City in 1968. He died in September 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carolan, Joe 1937 births 2018 deaths Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Men's association football fullbacks Home Farm F.C. players League of Ireland players Manchester United F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Tonbridge Angels F.C. players English Football League players Canterbury City F.C. players Association footballers from Dublin (city)