CONTINUING our feature looking at the claret and blue contribution
to the international scene we look back at the Hammers who have
represented Northern Ireland.
There have not been so many Hammers to hail from Ulster as the
other home nations or the Republic. In fact, the first Northern
Irish international to be capped at West Ham was Bertie Lutton, in
1973 - 71 years since the very first international.
He was signed from Brighton, but had previously played at Wolves, where he won the first two of his six caps. The other four came at Upton Park against Cyprus, Scotland, Wales and Portugal. Bertie made only 13 appearances for West Ham and scored once against Derby County.
Roy Carroll can hold claim to the current representative of Northern Ireland with 17 caps. He has to share his duties with Birmingham's Maik Taylor, and thus hasn't been capped yet at Upton Park. His last Ulster outing was a 1-0 defeat to Canada in February 2005. Roy made his debut way back in 1997 in a 0-0 draw with Thailand.
The most famous of recent years however, must be Hammers and Northern Irelands long term captain Steve Lomas.
Steve was born in Germany but made his Northern Ireland debut in 1994. He won 45 caps and scored three goals. Steve spent seven years at West Ham, leading the side out on many occasions. He made 227 appearances for the Hammers scoring 13 goals.
The beginning of Lomas' West Ham career proved to be the end of another legend Northern Irish football. Iain Dowie made his national team debut in 1990, and went on to earn 59 caps, and score 12 goals.
He was first capped at Luton before signing for his boyhood team West Ham, and won another two caps at Upton Park, against Yugoslavia and the Faeroes, before moving on to Southampton.
Dowie returned to the Hammers in 1995 an established international after a spell at Crystal Palace, where he now manages. He played for Ulster throughout and finally retired in 2001.
At the Boleyn Dowie scored only four goals in his first spell, although he netted three times in successive games against Swindon, Newcastle and Blackburn. During his second period he did rather better appearing in 83 matches between 1995 and 1998.
Jimmy Quinn played alongside Dowie for Northern Ireland and for the Hammers during his first period in 1991.
Quinn was rather more prolific for the Hammers, scoring 22 goals from 56 appearances in between 1989 and 91, including six in the promotion campaign in his final year. He was a latecomer to the game, only signing professionally with Swindon aged 22. Jimmy made his Northern Ireland debut whilst playing for Blackburn, versus Israel in October 1984. He went on to amass 46 caps and score 12 international goals.
Two left sided players that represented West Ham in the mid 1990's also played for the country at the highest level during that period.
Michael Hughes was initially signed on loan by Harry Redknapp in 1995 in a bid to avoid relegation. West Ham eventually made it to safety with a game to spare, after beating Liverpool 3-0 in the penultimate match. That left just the visit of Manchester United on that memorable afternoon, where they just needed a win to hold on to the Premiership title.
Hughes scored in the first half to give West Ham a shock lead, and after a McClair equaliser, Hammers held on to win the league for Blackburn. He eventually signed permanently and spent three years at the Boleyn.
Hughes won 66 caps and scored five goals for Northern Ireland.
He scored for Northern Ireland in a 1-1 draw with Portugal in 1995, in which Iain Dowie, Steve Lomas and Keith Rowland were all playing.
Keith signed for West Ham in 1993 and has the honour of being one of the first 11 players to have appeared for West Ham in the Premiership, making his debut at home to Wimbledon on August 14th, 1993, on the opening day. He also made his international debut a month later against Latvia.
Keith was in and out of the Hammers side but always put in a 100% performance. He made 91 appearances during his five year spell, scored only one goal against Newcastle at St James Park.
Kevin Horlock spent a season with the Hammers as a trainee, and then came back for a season as an experienced pro in 2003. He made 27 appearances and has 32 international caps.
Grant McCann, now playing in League Two with Cheltenham, has won nine caps for his country, most recently in the 1-1 draw with Portugal on November 15, 2005. Grant only made four sub appearances for the Hammers. His final one coming in a 7-1 defeat at Staurday's opponents Blackburn in which he scored a bizarre own-goal.