Links With The Past: Gerry Taggart's 50th Cap Northern Ireland Shirt

It was quite fitting therefore that almost 11 years later, when he gained his 50th selection for the national side, the opponents were once again Norway, and the match was once again at Windsor Park. 

When he won his 50th cap, Gerry was in his third season playing for Leicester City in the Premier League. Also in the Northern Ireland side that day was his ex-Leicester City team-mate Neil Lennon, who had recently left to rejoin Martin O’Neill at Celtic.

The Norway side contained Premier League players Thomas Myhre, Henning Berg, Claus Lundekvam, Eirik Bakke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. 

To mark the auspicious occasion of Gerry’s 50th cap, Northern Ireland’s manager Sammy McIroy made Gerry captain for the match. After the game Gerry’s shirt, illustrated here, was signed by the Northern Ireland squad, in acknowledgment of both the occasion and his 10 years playing for his country.

Not long after the match Gerry was seriously injured and missed the whole of the next season, when the Foxes were relegated, apart from a brief substitute appearance in the last ever match at Filbert Street on the final day of the 2001/02 season.  

Fully recovered for the following season, Gerry’s 51st and final appearance for Northern Ireland was on 12 October, 2002 against Spain in Albacete, after which he retired from international football.