Pat Byrne

Pat Byrne (born 15 May 1956, in Dublin) is a former Irish football player and manager.

Playing career

A central midfielder, Byrne's playing career started with Bohemians, his debut coming against St Patricks Athletic on 25 August 1974 in a LFA President's Cup Final. He made 162 appearances in all competitions for Bohs (98 in the league, 10 in European competition) and won 2 League of Ireland titles and 1 FAI Cup before he moved to the USA in 1978, for a year with the Philadelphia Fury of the North American Soccer League where he played alongside fellow Irishmen Fran O'Brien (footballer) and Eddie Byrne (footballer). He played in eighteen matches plus one play-off game and scored three goals. Pat's team mates included Alan Ball, Peter Osgood and Johnny Giles. He played against the likes of Rodney Marsh, Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia and Bobby Moore.

He returned to Europe in 1979, playing for Leicester City until 1981, then Heart of Midlothian until 1983. While playing for the Tynecastle side he was based in Dublin, and would regularly commute for weekend fixtures. When this became too much of a burden, he was granted a free transfer and joined League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers.

Pat Byrne (singer)

Pat Byrne is an Irish singer and recording artist from Borris, County Carlow. In 2012, Byrne was crowned the winner of the first series of The Voice of Ireland.

Early life

In 2007, Byrne formed a three piece Pop Punk band called Mr Lightweight with his close friend Des Foley, where his main role was playing drums. They were joined by Ronan Donahue on bass guitar. After recording a six track EP in the summer of that year at Manor Park Studios, Co. Antrim, the band later recruited former Scuba Dice bassist Eoin 'Spud' Murphy, and Ronan was replaced by Kristian McGrath on guitar. The band toured, wrote and recorded music for another year before Des eventually left in early 2009 to start a new band, Jody Has A Hitlist. Pat, Spud and Kristian continued for several more months before quiting in Autumn. The following year Pat joined a new band called 'Moses Moorhouse and the Dinosaur Palace' with his friend, Jack O'Leary. He played drumsagain. The band eventually split up after several members moved to London.