LAST summer there was one glorious week when Irish cricket was making its mark on the county championship. Every English newspaper you opened saw the names Eagleson, Patterson (right) and Joyce lining up alongside Cork, Stewart and Ramprakash as three young Irish players got the chance to flex their talents against those of the English professionals. All three did well enough - and all have been contracted again for this season - but it was quite a novel turn for Irish cricket. It had been almost two decades since a man raised on our grounds got to play county cricket.

But the 1999 experience was not a new one, for more than 80 Irishmen have played first-class cricket in England, 38 of them in the championship. Only five counties - Yorkshire, Durham, Somerset, Worcestershire and Northamptonshire - have yet to field an Irishman. And not just our nearest neighbours - researches have shown that 26 Irishmen played first-class cricket in India, eight in Australia and at least five in South Africa. One Dubliner even played a first-class match in Rangoon, Burma!

Of course, the fact of so many such players is indelibly linked to the history of our island over the last two centuries. Many of the players were born here to military families stationed at the major garrisons in Dublin, Cork or the Curragh - many of these became soldiers themselves, serving in India. Others occupied the 'landed gentry' strata of Victorian society, many of whom were to leave the country in the years leading up to, and after, independence.

Several, however, were good Irish club cricketers who, like the modern clutch, attracted attention for their performances against county and touring sides and were invited to try their hand cross-channel. The most notable of these in recent years was Dermott Monteith (right), who played nine games for Middlesex in 1981-82. Monty was called over because Middlesex at the time had an embarrassment of spinning riches and often both Phil Edmonds and John Emburey were on England duty those summers.

In 1981 Monteith played eight of those games, bowling 222 overs and taking 24 wickets at 24.83 as Middlesex finished fourth in the championship. The county at the time had a bowling line up that included, at different times, test players Edmonds, Emburey, Jeff Thomson, Mike Selvey, Wayne Daniel and Norman Cowans. Monteith took a best of 5-60 v Essex at Ilford, 5-68 at Northampton and 4-85 at the Oval, while his 4-22 against Yorkshire at Lord's won the game for his county.

His last game for the county came in early September 1982, when he was called up for the visit of Hampshire to Uxbridge. He boxed 36 - his best for the club - in the first innings to take Middlesex above 200 and a crucial bonus point, but his bowling didn't get much chance and he bowled just six wicketless overs as Edmonds and Emburey ran through their opponents. The win lifted Middlesex close to the title they made sure of a few days later, when Monty was back home in Lisburn.

Between Monteith and the recent trio, several others tried their hand at county 2nd XI level without making the leap up - Peter O'Reilly and John Prior (Warwickshire), Mark Cohen (Glamorgan and Middlesex), Mark Nulty (Derbyshire), Owen Butler, Kyle McCallan and Eddie Moore (Worcestershire) and Alan Lewis (Somerset) were among several who left Ireland with high hopes of progressing in county cricket.

Some of those mentioned were unlucky, some never had it. Perhaps the reason for the relative success of Joyce, Patterson and Eagleson is that those three are better than those recent predecessors. Again, perhaps standards in English cricket are falling at a quicker rate than standards here.

Whatever, the lure of playing professional cricket in the biggest first-class set-up in the world is a strong one for players in England's nearest neighbour. Should the current Irish trio - and Patterson's brother Andy, who played a one-day game for Sussex this month - make further progress this year, they will be joining a varied and illustrious line.

Several Irish-born cricketers have gone that one step further and played a test match, and their stories have frequently been told. But the story of the men who merely turned out for county or state has been pretty well lost to Irish cricket.

Ed Joyce (left) is actually the ninth man born here to play for Middlesex. He joins a distinguished list that also includes the great Leinster bowler Eddie Ingram (who even captained the county), and Sir Timothy Carew O'Brien. Perhaps the man who possessed the best name was the Honourable Seton Robert de la Poer Horsley Beresford, a member of a notable Irish cricketing family who was born in Leixlip, Co Kildare, in 1868 and played twice for the county in 1909.

O'Brien was an extraordinary character who rivalled WG Grace in the way he stretched the meaning of the word 'sportsmanship'. He actually faced up to the great doctor on one celebrated occasion at Lord's. Grace was bowling wide of off stump, in an attempt to slow Middlesex's progress, when O'Brien countered with reverse batted shots through the slips. When one of these shots narrowly missed the head of Grace's brother EM as he dived to take evasive action, WG threatened to take the Gloucestershire side from the field if O'Brien did it again. Rising to the challenge, O'Brien duly smacked the ball through the slips and Grace led his team from the field with the Irishman at the wicket. O'Brien took his bat to the stumps and thrashed them into the distance, before charging towards the pavilion and offering to fight Grace.

Born in Dublin in 1861 on - what else - Fireworks Night, O'Brien, was educated at Downside, a Catholic public school in Somerset and first played for Middlesex as a 19 year old. He went to Oxford aged 23 with the prime aim of gaining his Blue, which he duly did after the university beat the 1884 Australians thanks to O'Brien's 92. His career took off then, and he next played against the Aussies in the Manchester test, the first of his five caps. He returned to Ireland after his county career was over in 1898 and played for Ireland from 1902-07, scoring the first - and still the largest - century for Ireland in first-class matches, an innings of 167 against Oxford University.

Besides the nine Irish-born players, two more Middlesex cricketers played for Ireland, Leslie Kidd and Peter Clarke. The latter was a stalwart of Sir Stanley Cochrane's Woodbrook club in Bray and was good enough to get a test trial in 1911.

In recent years Martin McCague (Kent and England) and Justin Benson (Leicestershire, Malahide and Ireland, pictured right) have been notable county performers. Other men who had extended county careers include Belfastman David Clugston who played for Warwickshire from 1928-46, Charles Filgate from Co Louth (Gloucestershire 1870-77), Lisburn-born Maurice Robinson who played for Glamorgan 1946-50 and Warwickshire 1951-2), and Thomas McMurray, another from Belfast , who played for Surrey in the 1930s, combining cricket with a soccer career at Tranmere, Millwall and Rochdale. Another soccer player-cum-cricketer was Cambridge blue Percy Exham, who played for both codes in Derby.

Lucius Gwynn is arguably the best cricketer the Irish game ever produced. A brilliant all-rounder for Trinity, he came to attention on the university's tour of England in 1895 when he scored hundreds against Leicestershire and Cambridge. He was invited to play for the Gentlemen (the amateurs) against the Players (professionals) in what was the biggest game outside the tests in an English summer. He made 80 in three hours against the top bowlers of the day, including Tom Richardson and George Lohmann. He made another 100 against MCC in May 1896 and was again invited to play for the Gentlemen, and later turned down a chance to play in the Old Trafford test because of exams at Trinity. Gwynn died of tuberculosis in a Swiss sanatorium at the age of 29.

Two other Irishmen played in similar important fixtures - Meathman David Trotter scored a hundred for Trinity against WG Grace's All England XI in 1875, and the good doctor clearly remembered the innings because an invitation was made for Trotter to play for the North of England v the South. Trotter did well enough, 33 and 14, but the game was most remembered for WG's 261! Malahide-born blueblood, the Honourable M G Talbot, played for the Gentlemen of the South in 1875.

The story of the Irishmen who played in India is even more remarkable, and unlikely to be repeated. The idea of men from our island travelling halfway around the world to play on dusty tracks in unbearable heat is an evocative one, but will have to wait for another day!