Summer 2023 - Benchmark

鈥淚 remember going to Roger Byrne鈥檚 funeral,鈥 says the Cavan man. 鈥淚t was not at all what I expected.鈥

    鈥淒o you know who everyone forgets?鈥 says the Dub. 鈥淕eoff Bent. He was Roger Byrne鈥檚 substitute. Roger Byrne was injured, and shouldn鈥檛 have been there, but he went anyway. They were sitting next to each other.鈥

    鈥淒ave Pegg, he was another one,鈥 says the Cavan man.

    鈥淟iam Whelan,鈥 says the Dub. 鈥淧layed for Ireland.鈥

    鈥淒id you ever see them?鈥 asks the Cavan man.

    鈥淣o, I was too young. I knew about them though.鈥 鈥


Bio:

David A. Wilson, from Whitehead, County Antrim, is the general editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a professor in the History Department and Celtic Studies Program at the University of Toronto. He is a long-standing Manchester United fan.