Robbie Gaffney (born 17 December 1957 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

) is an Irish former

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 ...

. He signed for

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

under

Seán Thomas Seán Thomas (died 24 June 1999) was an Irish football manager. Club management After a short playing career with Home Farm and C.Y.M.S., a left back who had to give up playing because of an injury, he attended Loughborough University for pe ...

at the tail end of the 1975/76 season. He made a scoring Rovers debut at

Oriel Park Oriel Park is a UEFA Category 2 football stadium located on the Carrickmacross Road in Dundalk, Ireland. The stadium is the home ground of Dundalk Football Club and is owned and operated by the club on land that has been leased from the Casey ...

in a

FAI League Cup The League of Ireland Cup ( ga, Corn Sraithe na hÉireann), also referred to in Ireland as the 'League Cup', is an annual knockout competition in men's football in the Republic of Ireland. It is contested by League of Ireland clubs and invited ...

tie. He made his

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally use ...

debut for Shamrock Rovers at

Flower Lodge A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...

against Albert Rovers on 5 October 1976. He won the

League of Ireland Cup The League of Ireland Cup ( ga, Corn Sraithe na hÉireann), also referred to in Ireland as the 'League Cup', is an annual knockout competition in men's football in the Republic of Ireland. It is contested by League of Ireland clubs and invite ...

and made 4 appearances in

European competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competiti ...

while at

Glenmalure Park Glenmalure Park, often simply known as Milltown, was a football stadium on the Southside of Dublin city in Ireland. Located in the suburb of Milltown, it was home to Shamrock Rovers from 1926 to 1987, when it was sold to property developers ...

. He was an unused substitute in the 1978

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

Final. In April 1979 Gaffney played for the

League of Ireland XI The League of Ireland XI, more recently referred to as the ''Airtricity League XI'' for sponsorship reasons, is the representative team of the League of Ireland, the national association football league of the Republic of Ireland. For much of it ...

against Italian League Bbr>
On 12 September 1979, he played for Republic of Ireland national under-21 football team, Republic of Ireland U21 against Poland. That season he was the first recipient of the Shamrock Rovers Player of the Year award Shamrock Rovers F.C.#Player of the Year In May 1980 Gaffney guested for

Waterford United Waterford Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Phort Láirge) formerly Waterford United Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Waterford who play in the League of Ireland First Division. The club was founded and elected to the ...

on a tour of the US He signed for

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

in August 1983 He won the FAI Cup in a shock win over his previous club in May 1984 and played in the

UEFA Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

against Everton. After a spell at Shelbourne he joined Pats in August 1988 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1988/0813/Pg013.html#Ar01305 . He played in both legs of Pats' 1988-89 UEFA Cup ties against Hearts. Under Brian Kerr he won the League Championship in 1990 as well as playing in the following season's

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. At the 2006 Shamrock Rovers Player of the Year award Robbie was inducted into the Rovers Hall of Fam

A lifelong fan and club member of Shamrock Rovers F.C., he has maintained his ties with the club attending games on a weekly basis.

Honours

: 1 **

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origina ...

1989/90 *

: 2 **

1978 ** UCD 1984 *

: 1 **

1976/77

Sources

* ''The Hoops'' by Paul Doolan and Robert Goggins () {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaffney, Robbie Men's association football midfielders Shamrock Rovers F.C. players University College Dublin A.F.C. players Shelbourne F.C. players St Patrick's Athletic F.C. players Kilkenny City A.F.C. players League of Ireland players League of Ireland XI players Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Association footballers from Dublin (city) 1957 births Living people