irvine began his career with blackburn united, but was also on schoolboy forms with hibernian, before signing at 16 on professional forms until 18. irvine failed to make a senior appearance for the easter road side and moved to whitburn juniors, before joining falkirk in 1983. after four years, and over 100 league appearances for the "bairns", irvine moved to liverpool. however, he made just four appearances during his time on merseyside, one of which was as a second-half substitute in liverpool's littlewoods cup quarter-final win against everton at goodison park.