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Michael Kearin (9 May 1943 – 27 July 2025), also known as Mick Kearin, was an Irish footballer who mainly played as a wing-half, after starting his career as a forward. Kearin was the first player from County Kildare to be capped by the international team.
Kearin remained the only Kildare man with an international cap until Mark Travers was capped in September 2019.
Bohemians struggled in the league, winning a handful of games, but the arrival of Seán Thomas as manager was soon to change things, "It was major news – Sean Thomas had managed Shamrock Rovers and brought them phenomenal success."
By the 1965/66 season, Bohs had finished third in the league and were undergoing a revival having been in the doldrums since the late 1930s.
There were offers to turn professional and semi-professional by the likes of Derry and Glentoran and Waterford.
In the end he went to Rovers in May 1966 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1966/0521/Pg003.html#Ar00321:405C6B43FC83 for four times the amount they'd originally offered. The most memorable European tie Mick played in was against FC Bayern Munich in 1966. Rovers drew 1–1 at Dalymount Park but it was the return match played in below-freezing temperature in Munich that almost caused German hearts to crash. With a minute to the final whistle the score was 2–2, and qualification was beckoning for Rovers on the away goals rule (this was a Bayern team peppered with World Cup winners like Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller – and their club had already sold 40,000 tickets for their next European game – that's how sure they were that Rovers would be a push-over). The silence of the crowd was deafening as they say, the relief palpable when Der Bomber netted the winner.
A six-week summer team to promote the advent of professional soccer in the US, the Boston Rovers games saw Mick play against the Detroit Cougars (the franchise name given to Glentoran F.C.). Boston Rovers also came up against South American teams, and the likes of Sunderland, Wolves, Hibs and Stoke City amongst others.
Kearin played a couple of matches following this loan move, but after agreeing a longer deal with the Massachusetts-based team, Rovers intervened and prevented him from signing.
He scored in the 1969 FAI Cup final replay.
Kearin earned one international cap for the Republic of Ireland national team on 10 October 1971 in a 6–0 defeat to Austria in a European Championship qualifier in the Linzer Stadion.http://www.soccerscene.ie/sssenior/matchdetails.php?id=133 Mick won three amateur caps for the Irish national team: against Scotland home and away, and Iceland away. He represented the League of Ireland XI four times while at Milltown.
He rejoined Bohs in January 1973 before he finished his career with Athlone Town.
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