AMID today's little bit of history come 3.00 at Tolka Park for today's live Premier Division showdown, it's fitting that Derry City should be there. It's even more fitting that Paul Curran be a part of it. The Candystripes have become a pillar of the domestic game these past 12 years, and local hero Curran has been their rock of ages.
Derry folk can be hard on one of their own, and some have had to escape. But Curran is a one-club man, save for a six-month loan spell at Finn Harps back in the 86-87 season,
"Faraway fields look greener," he says of departed team-mates, maintaining they'd all come back given the chance. "I do believe that. That's why I've never left. I'm five minutes from the Brandywell. I enjoy my training. I go for a beer after training with the boys, and half our matches are five minutes from home."
Derry's coming in the National League has dovetailed perfectly with Curran's career. He grew up in the hard school of the Northern intermediate league from 15-years-old to 18 with Derry.
"Believe me, you have to grow up quick when you're playing against men. It done me no harm at all."
He's something of an old-fashioned centre-half, composed and unfussy, strong in the air, and a dangerous set-piece foil, yet there's a balance and style about him as well. A nice fella to boot, with a soft Derry lilt, ready smile and a mischievous glint in his eye. Hard but fair, he's never been sent-off and has only twice accumulated five bookings in a season to earn two one-game suspensions.
Hence, since making his debut against Newcastlewest in Ballygowan Park, aka Demesne, on November 10th, 1985, he has been such a pillar of strength that he's as much a part of the Brandywell furniture as one of the floodlight pylons.
A regular in the treble-winning campaign of 1988-89, apart from a cruelly timed injury before the cup final, Curran had subsequently missed only two games prior to a rare injury ruling him out of the 1-1 draw at Rovers and the 1-0 home win over Bohemians in December.
This afternoon marks his 385th competitive appearance for City. Still only 30, he looks set to establish a landmark for the club that will probably never be beaten.
Once a highly touted youngster, and a former Republic of Ireland Under-23 international against their Northern Irish counterparts, he could perhaps have moved on, but there have been enough highs to soften the lows in a fluctuating era. The treble came with "the bonus of playing against Benfica (in the Stadium of Light) in front of 76,000 people. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up.
Surprisingly, there have three runners-up finishes - compensated for by only one Cup culminating in the harrowing last-day draw at Athlone two seasons ago. "You don't want to see things like that again," he added.
Last season was arguably the worst. "It was really a terrible year. I could have had my testimonial season last year, but I left it to this season. Now, there is a hard core of 2,000 that support Derry City. There is another hard core of 2,000 if Derry City are doing well, and then the rest follow after that.
"But these four to 5,000 are people I work with every day of the week," explains Curran, who works in his father's printing firm G&C at the Dupoint production factory amongst 2,000 workers. "They come in and they talk about the game and they say Felix (Healy) should have done this or that. They eat, sleep and breath football. I could never imagine anything like it.
"I have been blessed regarding personal abuse, I have to say, in the last 10 or 11 years. You get a bit, because you have bad games and you have to hold your hand up. But I've been personally lucky in that respect. I've got on great with the fans, always have and hopefully always will. But there have been others, locally-based, who couldn't say the same. Paul Carlyle got dog's abuse."
Yet, according to Curran, Carlyle, now at Portadown, would return a third time, as Liam Coyle did after less than a season at Glentoran. Curran cites the example of Coyle and Derry's former Dublin-based goalkeeper Dermot O'Neill, celebrating Glentoran's IFA Cup win last season "They looked at each other after the match, and shook their heads and said: "It's not the same, is it'?"
Curran maintains this is the best Derry dressingroom he's ever been in: "There are no cliques."
To the theory that Derry are not as stylish as of old, Curran responds: "We're probably the best balanced side in the league. And when we do play, we can play at pace, which is very important in the League of Ireland or anywhere. You take the likes of United with Giggs and Beckham. They can attack and break with pace, and I do think we've the same type of game as that."
Shelbourne play at a quick tempo too, which could make for a breathless encounter, at least at the outset. "I would say that for the first 15 to 20 minutes of the match it will be 100 mile an hour. It probably won't be pretty because people will be getting their bearings about them and won't want to give away an early goal. It'll settle down then and I think there'll be attractive football played."
But Shelbourne will still have a sizeable rock in their way. It's been that way for ages.
