THE DIRECTOR says the club is now a "mini-Ireland" and that there's some debate over whether the Union Jack or the Tricolour should be flown from the soon-to-be-erected flagpole on the new stand. He's even thinking of changing next season's away strip, which "already has a bit of green, white and yellow", so that it resembles the Irish home kit.

Almost one in 10 of the hits on the club's official website come from Ireland. The pub across the road from the ground, The Beehive, which feeds most of the players, is now serving Irish stew, at the request of the club's manager, and has a Bohemians pennant hanging behind the bar.

U2 are blasting from the speakers when the young fella in the Shelbourne tracksuit walks in the door. Heads turn and the locals greet him with smiles. "Hiya Richie love," says the landlady, "what'll you have to eat?" "Pasta, thanks very much," says Richie. "Pasta for Richie," she shouts to the kitchen. The kitchen downs tools and scurries to the bar. "Hiya Richie," it beams.

"Howarya," says Richie. Richie Foran - six goals in 12 appearances for a team in the nether regions of Division Three - can do no wrong around these parts.

The greening of Carlisle began at the end of July when the club needed a new manager after a season when they barely retained their place in the football league. Carlisle United? Cumbria's only professional football club, the most isolated in England. Newcastle United, over 60 miles away, used to be their big rivals, but they haven't played them in nearly 20 years. Different leagues. Different worlds.

In 1974, three games into the season, they were on top of the footballing world, leading the old first division. It has, the club's devotees concede, been all downhill ever since. Last season they barely escaped losing their place in the Football League, finishing 22nd out of 24 third-division teams after a late surge.

Claims to fame? The first club to sell coffins in club colours; rescued from relegation to the Conference two years ago by a 95th minute goal from on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass in the final game of the season; once called "home" by Peter Beardsley, Rory Delap and Matt Jansen and owned by Michael Knighton, the man who juggled a ball in front of the Stretford End in and around the time he vowed to buy Manchester United for £10 million.

He never did. Instead he bought Carlisle in 1992, and promised Premiership football inside 10 years. They're still waiting at Brunton Park. Crikey, they'd settle for retaining their place in the third division these days.

Carlisle United? The biggest Irish club in England? Well, it's getting that way. It's English alright, if only a few miles from the Scottish border, but its manager, Roddy Collins, assistant manager, John 'Bugsy' Cunningham, top scorer, Richie Foran, two other first-teamers, Peter Murphy and Brendan Magill, the young player regarded as the most promising at the club, Will McDonough, and most of the signings it plans to make in the next few months, are Irish.

When the managerial vacancy arose during the summer, former hero Beardsley was favourite for the job but, Mark Knighton, the club's 25-year-old director and son of owner Michael, left the locals dumbstruck by appointing Roddy Collins. Roddy who?

"Someone rang me on behalf of Roddy and just said 'spend five minutes with him'," says Knighton. "I'd never heard of him, to be honest, but when myself and the president of the club interviewed him - it was meant to be for 20 minutes, it lasted two hours - we were both overwhelmed by his fresh approach to football and his belief in what he could do. And his enthusiasm. Within half an hour I knew this was the man. We interviewed one or two other candidates but they weren't a patch on him, they really weren't, he blew us away. The job was his.

"This time last year we were six points adrift at the bottom of the table but we're in the pack now, a couple of wins and we'll be clear. We're very satisfied with the progress Roddy is making.

"Everyone who comes here can see that we're getting there, we're just a couple of players off. If you came here last year you'd see the difference around the place now, it's tremendous - there was so much doom and gloom, but there's been a buzz ever since the man came here, he's an absolute character. The attitude, everything has changed, there's been a general uplifting of the place."

It was, Collins says, just the challenge and just the opportunity he wanted. "This month three years ago I was on a building site. Suddenly I had the double under my belt at Bohemians so I knew I must have had a talent for it."

Leaving the family behind (his wife Caroline and their five children hope to move over in January when Collins says he'll sign the three-year contract he's been offered) was though, he says, "a nightmare". "I don't mind telling you the day I left my house in Castleknock to come over here to speak to the club I cried from the minute I got in that taxi to the minute I got out of it at the airport, I was broken-hearted. I just asked myself 'what are you doing this for?' but the burning, driving ambition in me kept me going.

"After that, every time I left for Carlisle I'd feel physically sick at the thought of having to go back and leave the family. At home, if I walk upstairs, Caroline walks upstairs and the kids walk upstairs, we're like the Simpsons," he laughs, "we're very close".

Any regrets about the manner in which he parted company with Bohemians. "I love Bohs. I signed for them when I was 17, played for them when I was 18, managed them when I was 38, I supported them all my life, I hope my kids play for Bohs and I'll always go to watch them. I love the club, but most of the people who run the club are not my type of people. They made my life hell when all I wanted to do was achieve for them. I worked for buttons, I gave them 24/7 and they gave me nothing in return, not even a handshake, not even an invitation to their centenary dinner, nothing.

"But that's history, I'm not a bitter person, never was, never will be. They can never take away from me what's in the history books. The joy about Carlisle is that there are no hidden agendas, the only agenda is to win football games and that's it - personalities and egos don't come in to it, win games or get out."

Plain sailing since he arrived? Nope. Trouble with the local paper, the News and Star, which has spearheaded the campaign to remove the unpopular Knightons from the club. Collins is seen as a "Knightons' man", so they're not entirely supportive. He was hardly a wet week in the place when he banned their reporters from the club and barred the players from talking to them. "You won't gag us Roddy," screamed their back page.

"It filled their paper for about a week," laughs Collins. "Then I went on radio and slaughtered them. I said 'we got off to a bad start when one of their journalists asked me out to dinner - I said I thought he was gay or something' - it was good craic. Their owner has asked to meet me to have a chat, I'll ask him for a ceasefire and to drop the Knighton vendetta, to be more positive - truth is, they need the club more than the club needs them."

What of the talk that Steve Collins, Roddy's brother and former boxing world champion, is about to buy a stake in the club?

"Yeah, it's absolutely true. Steve had a meeting with them last week to talk about taking over shares and becoming chairman of the club - he took all the figures away to speak to some people so we'll see what happens.

"If Steve got involved it would mean more money in the club and I know with four more players we'd get promotion, there's no doubt about that. Hopefully it will work out."

If Carlisle United was a new challenge for Collins it was, by his own admission, Richie Foran's last chance in football. The season at home with Shelbourne had hardly started when he picked up the sixth red card of his short career. Time to move on, if anyone would have him.

"I never had worries about him as a footballer because he has natural ability but I've got to know him better now and as a person he has more qualities than anybody could ever imagine," says Collins. "He's a little bit deep, a little moody. There are days he comes in and I say to him 'which Richie do we have today?'.

"The perception people had of him at home was totally wrong, saying he was a bowsey and all that. He's a winner and an absolute gentleman. He has qualities I expect from my own kids, he opens doors for women, gives up seats on buses, that's what I taught my kids.

"Over here they all like him, he has the ability to deal with people and be respectful to them, even though he's such a big shot here now. They love him, he's a hero here now. They sing his name all the time. He's going to be a good player and a good bloke - and I tell you something, he's a great future ahead of him, on and off the park."

So, Richie Foran, how's the fresh start going? "It's going well enough. I'm enjoying it, I don't want to go home, I've settled in real easy, I've surprised myself just how easily. I don't know why, it's probably down to Roddy and Bugsy and the fact there are so many Irish lads here. We'll get that tricolour up here yet."

A relief to get away? "Definitely, a huge relief, especially after that Tuesday night getting sent off against Dundalk, I was just down in the dumps after that. I deserved it, it was my own fault, but that was my sixth so it was time to move on.

"Dermot (Keely, manager of Shelbourne) spoke to Roddy and the next day I flew over and sorted it out. I knew I had to get out, I just needed a manager to take a chance. I knew Roddy would give it to me.

"I've just kept my head down and concentrated on football, it's probably my last chance, I know that - people told Roddy he was mad to touch me, I'm glad he did. I don't want to go home, there's nothing to go home for now. My family and friends come over here to see me, so I'm missing nothing."

Your manager says there are only two nightclubs in Carlisle. "Are there? I wouldn't know, I haven't been out," he grins.

"There's a library. It's beautiful. Some good books," at which point he dissolves into laughter. "I go to Mass now too with two of the Irish lads. It goes on for an hour, singing and all. I don't know why I started going, maybe it's because Roddy goes, I don't know. Maybe it just reminds you of home.

"I suppose you do these things, put all the Irish things in your house and listen to the Irish music, stuff you'd laugh at at home."

Back in the pub, Foran's finished his pasta and is going shopping. "What are you buying," asks Collins.

"Ah, just a few things to finish off my pad. A rug, a picture and a throw for my couch," he beams.

"Jaysus Richie, if that goes in the paper you'll get some slagging, it'll ruin your image."

Foran has a think. An altered image? No harm in that. He thanks the landlady for the "lovely" pasta and sets off into the Carlisle rain for the nearest "beautiful homes" store. "He's a great kid, isn't he?" says Collins. Yep, damn it, he is.

"Tell you what," says Collins. "If the only thing I achieve at Carlisle United is giving that young fella another chance that'll do for me. But I'll achieve much more, trust me. Watch this space."