Paul Ferris is hardly your conventional former footballer: a qualified barrister; a masters degree in the history of ideas; as well as being a physiotherapist for Newcastle United during its renaissance. Now he has written a book, An Irish Heartbeat. Sportswriter Will Scott spoke to the multi-talented Irishman about his first novel and life at St James' Park.

AREN'T you Paul Ferris?" asked a Newcastle United fan as the Magpies' former starlet queued in Westgate Hill unemployment office, on Westgate Road, to pick up his unemployment benefits.

An embarrassed Ferris acknowledged the Magpies supporter and, after a brief chat, turned back to the rank and file of other job seekers looking to pick up their dole money.

Two weeks earlier, Ferris was employed as a professional footballer. Now, aged 21, he was on the scrapheap after failing to recover from a medial ligament injury to his knee.

Many people would have crumbled under the uncertainty of their future and used their misfortune as an excuse to turn to alcohol, drugs or crime. But for Ferris, it turned out to be an epiphany.

"I was thinking I was in for a tough time, " reflected the 46year-old. "I had no job, no qualifications, my leg was in plaster and my mother had just died. You think, where do I go from here? It's sink or swim.

"If you talk about highs and lows and defining moments of your life, that was a time when I got a moment of clarity and made a decision.

But you don't have much choice, you have to fight it really."

His football career had started so well. Ferris arrived at St James Park from Lisburn Juniors, Northern Ireland, as a 15-year-old in 1981 and was soon hailed as a new George Best in the making.

Unfortunately, this tag has become an albatross around the neck of every Ulster youngster who has arrived on the doorstep of an English football club.

But a year later he looked to be fulfilling this early proclamation when he made his debut for Newcastle against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.

He replaced future England star Chris Waddle during the 4-1 defeat to became the youngest player ever to pull on the black and white jersey of Newcastle United.

Unfortunately, Ferris managed only an unlucky 13 outings for his adopted club, netting one goal, before a knee injury brought a premature end to his five-year career on Tyneside.

Undeterred, after the devastating realisation his career was over, he decided to re-train and give something back to the game.

The Irishman did not have the necessary qualifications to enrol on a physiotherapy course, but such was his determination to succeed he completed an access programme to prove he was academically competent.

After a year in limbo, waiting to enrol on a physio course, he signed up to do A Levels in history and politics to keep his mind occupied.

Ferris' hard academic work eventually paid off in 1993, when he was fortunate enough to land a position under United physio Derek Wright at St James' Park.

It also meant he was reunited once again with his former captain and teammate, Kevin Keegan. It proved to be the most memorable time of his life, never mind his career.

Newcastle had just been promoted to the Premier League as Division One champions.

"My favourite time at the club was undoubtedly when Keegan was there, " said the married father of three boys.

"I don't think you appreciated the moment when you were there. There was such a great, friendly, family atmosphere it was an enjoyable place to be. After he went things weren't quite the same.

"But I remember when we signed Keegan as a player. We were on tour in Madeira and we couldn't believe it when (manager) Arthur Cox told us he had signed Kevin Keegan.

"When you're a boy everyone wanted to be Kevin Keegan in the park and, by the time I was 16, Kevin Keegan was sitting beside me.

"When he arrived at Newcastle he was a superstar footballer in the old First Division and I think he finished top goalscorer at Southampton and was probably player of the year.

"And we were a very average mid-table Second Division team.

"Everyone thought it was a practical joke when we were told.

"I mean, you can see what he did as a manager, but he did the same as a player. He lifted the place by its bootstraps.

"I did love my time with Kenny (Daglish) if I'm honest, but for whatever reason it didn't work out for him.

"But I certainly didn't enjoy my time after that when the team wasn't doing well. Bobby (Robson) was great and everything that has been said about him is true and he was an exceptional man.

" And then Graeme (Souness) came in and well, I've actually thought about writing a book about that period but. . ."

Ferris had already decided to leave the club, at the end of Souness' hapless time on Tyneside, prior to Glenn Roeder taking over from the Scot in 2006.

He had already studied part time to get a masters degree in the history of ideas, but needed to go full-time for the Bar Vocational Course, to become a barrister.

It is this time after his barrister studies which, arguably, is of most interest to United fans.

Ferris believed he had cut his ties with Newcastle for good, only to receive a call from former Magpies legend Alan Shearer.

"I was doing my law stuff when Alan gave me a call to say you're coming back with me as part of my management team (with Iain Dowie).

"I can't say anything about that time because you never know, I may have to go back into football, " said a tentative Ferris.

Shearer's brief tenure as United boss has been well documented and his snub by the Newcastle hierarchy has left a bitter taste in the mouths of most Magpies' supporters.

Neither owner Mike Ashley nor Derek Llambias had the courtesy to give the club's leading all-time goalscorer, icon, hero and legend a phone call to tell him his services would not be required.

On the contrary, Ashley and Llambias intimated Shearer would be leading the club back to the top flight after its relegation to football's second tier.

"I was there when he had talks with Mike Ashley. I don't want to say what was said, " said the former physio diplomatically, "It looked as if we were going back but something happened and he decided not to get back in touch with us.

"Do I think Shearer will ever be a Newcastle manager?

Not under the current regime, no. But I have no doubt in my mind he will be a huge success when he becomes a manager."

A tale of love, a Republican psychopath and Ireland's continuing identity crisis

AN Irish Heartbeat tells the story of Cormac O’Reilly, a junior Government minister who returns to Ireland after a 22-year absence.

He comes face to face with the fiancé he abandoned, while at the same time confronting a dark secret from his past that not only threatens his very existence but could also destroy the hard won peace in Northern Ireland.

“The germ of the story was with me for a long time,” revealed Ferris about his debut novel. “I knew the story in outline and in my head for about two or three years.

“Obviously I was watching what was going on back in Ireland and my family still live there. I wrote about a country I love and a situation that is on-going. But you don’t need to have an interest in Irish history or Irish politics to read it.

“It’s about a chap that doesn’t go back home for 20 years and why he didn’t go home.

“He meets up with a girl he abandoned all those years ago. That is the main crux of the story and in the background there is this underlying menace from a former friend, who happens to be a Republican dissident.

He is a psychopath, first and foremost.

“He is a Republican dissident in my novel but if he was in Iran he would be something else. He is looking for a reason to be violent. The politics and the history is in the background but there is a sinister undercurrent and it is using the current situation of Ireland to tell the story of the two main characters.”

While Ferris says the story is not autobiographical he does acknowledge he was aware of the atrocities in his home nation as he grew up as a child in a politically sensitive Northern Ireland.

“Wardrobes were put against windows before you went to bed at night,” he reflected. “But you grow up thinking that is normal. I was a Catholic in a big Protestant town.

“There is a real identity crisis being brought up in Ireland. I am very proud of where I am from.

“People might think, he’s written about a Republican, is he a Republican? I don’t want to spoil the book for people interested, but does the story of the raging Republican psychopath have a happy ending?

“But I’m not glorifying any of that.

“In essence, the story is about this guy’s search for redemption and forgiveness from the girl he abandoned and something horrific he was involved in when he was a youth that he’s had to live with.

“It sounds a bit heavy but it’s not and it is written with humour.”

In Roddy Doyle’s The Last Round Up trilogy (A Star Called Henry, Play That Thing and The Dead Republic), he concludes somewhat romantically that Ireland would become one nation again 100 years after the Irish Rising 1916. Does Northern Ireland’s latest novelist feel the same way?

“First and foremost I would like to see Ireland peaceful and no-one dies,” said the 46- year-old, “and after that we can sit down and have a sensible political debate.

“I think it has more chance of happening now because people have stopped shooting each other. People can now live alongside each other without being completely polarised.

“They are very proud of where they come from.

“But I think now there are a lot of Catholics who are quite happy with the situation who wouldn’t vote for a united Ireland.

“And I think there are lots of Protestants who are proud of being Irish more than ever.

So there is definitely an identity crisis.”