I was a bit taken aback by it all but I spoke to the Irish FA today who confirmed that the cap, which is for his appearances in the 1958 World Cup Finals in Sweden, has only just been presented to him by the current President of the IFA Jim Shaw. Back in the 1950s there were no caps awarded and so Jimmy and his colleagues were never rewarded for their contributions in the finals at the time.
Jimmy Mac played 55 times for his country, all but four of them as a Burnley player, and five of those came during those finals.
He played in the group games in Halmstad against Czechoslovakia and Argentina, won 1-0 and lost 3-1 respectively, and then in Malmo where they drew 2-2 against West Germany. They beat Czechoslovakia again, this time 1-0, in a play-off in Malmo before going down 4-0 to France in a quarter final played in Norrkoping.
Clarets Mad are delighted to carry news of the award of this cap for our club President and would like to thank the Irish FA for allowing us the use of the photograph.