Shamrock Rovers is delighted to announce the signing of winger, Darragh Burns, on a season-long loan from English League Two side, MK Dons.
Speaking to shamrockrovers.ie, Head Coach Stephen Bradley said, “Darragh is one that we’ve always liked and we tried to sign him before he moved to England. We feel he has different attributes to what we already have in the attacking part of the pitch, which is really important and it gives us a good blend.”
“We’ve tried to get him before and now that we can, he’s going to be a good addition to the group. We’re delighted to get him in and get started. I’ve been speaking to Darragh regularly for some time and one thing he’s eager to do is to get back playing and show everyone what he’s about and hopefully we can help him do that. He’s really eager to get on the pitch and back playing.”
Darragh Burns bio:
Having made waves at St Kevin’s Boys and at underage level for St Patrick’s Athletic, Darragh made his first appearance in senior football in July 2019 aged 16, coming off the bench in a friendly against reigning UEFA Europa League champions Chelsea.
His competitive debut came in September that year against Cabinteely in the Leinster Senior Cup and he signed a two-year deal with the Inchicore club. Darragh went on to make over 50 league appearances in two-and-a-half seasons for the Saints with a return of eight Premier Division goals.
In 2021, he was awarded the club’s Young Player of the Year award as St Pat’s secured a second place league finish and Conference League qualification. Darragh produced a man of the match display in the FAI Cup semi-final win over Dundalk before his side beat Bohemians on penalties in the final, in front of a then record crowd of 37,126 at the Aviva Stadium.
The exciting winger continued to impress in the 2022 season, eventually signing for MK Dons in the summer. He made four league starts and 10 substitute appearances last season and scored four goals in a further eight cup competition ties.
Two of those strikes were in the FA Cup in November, with an overhead kick in a win over Newport County before netting the opener against Portsmouth at Fratton Park, but the Dons were knocked out and relegated to League Two.
His first team opportunities were limited to two EFL Trophy games this campaign, scoring a goal against Northampton Town a little over a month ago. Raised in Stamullen, Meath, Darragh represented Northern Ireland at Under-17 and Under-19 level but switched allegiance to Jim Crawford’s Republic of Ireland U-21’s, for whom he has two caps.
