Duggan: Henry Anthony (Harry)

1925-1936 (Player Details)

Outside Right

Born: Dublin: 08-06-1903

Debut v Liverpool (a): 02-10-1926

5’7” 9st 13lb (1928)

Duggan worked as an apprentice stonemason on leaving school and played for Dublin junior club, Richmond United, for whom he scored forty-nine goals in the 1924-25 season. Leeds signed the talented 19 year-old in May 1925. He developed as Bobby Turnbull’s understudy and was described by one contemporary reporter as “a livewire, enterprising and enthusiastic individual who did not stand idle and wait for things to turn up”. A speedy winger, he quickly established himself on the right-wing at Elland Road and his impressive goalscoring rate endeared him to the fans. He was a member of the Leeds United team that was runners up in the Second Division and gained promotion to Division One in 1931-32. He was selected by the Irish Free State for a friendly against Italy ‘B’ which ended in a 2-1 defeat on 23rd April 1927 at Landsdowne Road, Dublin. On 19th October 1929 the IFA selectors included Duggan in the team for the Home Nations Championship game with England at Windsor Park, Belfast. The game ended in a 3-0 defeat for the Irish. He picked up his second cap for the Free State on 11th May 1930 in a 3-1 win over Belgium in Brussels but had to wait until 1936 for his next game for the Free State. He was again selected by the IFA to play at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, against England on 20th October 1930 with England again the victors, this time by 5-1. On 22nd April 1931 he played in the away fixture against Wales at Wrexham, with Ireland going down 3-2. On 17th October 1932 he was a member of the IFA side that faced England at Blackpool. The game ended in a 1-0 defeat with Duggan in a forward line that also included southern-born players Jimmy Dunne and Paddy Moore. His fifth cap came in a 3-0 home defeat by England on 14th October 1933 at Windsor Park, but the following year on 20th October 1934 he tasted victory for the first time as Ireland beat Scotland 2-1 at Windsor Park. Other defeats followed as Wales won 3-1 on 27th March 1935 at Wrexham and in his final game for Northern Ireland, on 13th November 1935 Scotland were 2-1 victors in the away fixture at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh. He then played twice more for the Free State, on 3rd May 1936, in a 3-3 draw with Hungary in Budapest, and six days later in a 5-1 romp against Luxemberg in Letzeburg. He won eight caps for Northern Ireland and four for the Republic between 1926 and 1935, before Duggan left Leeds for Newport County in October 1936 for £1,500. He had won his fifth and final international cap from the FAI in a 3-3 draw against Norway on 7th November 1937 at Dalymount Park, Dublin, a game that Eire had to win to stand a chance of qualifying for the following year's World Cup. He scored one goal for Eire at International level, in the final minute of his final game to salvage a draw. It was his goals and leadership that helped Newport to the 1938-39 Division Three (South) title and promotion to the Second Division, before retiring the following year, after scoring twenty goals in one hundred and one appearances in all competitions, before World War Two brought a cessation to recognized League football. He played thirteen games in the first season of Wartime football in 1939-40. He was an ARP warden in the Second World War and returned to Leeds to work for a firm of glass merchants. He died in Leeds in September 1968.