Kirrane began playing hockey as a child on a neighbor's pond with his brothers. In high school, he participated in baseball, track and field, football and ice hockey. In 1948 Kirrane became the youngest member of the United States Olympic ice hockey team. When the team headed to St. Moritz, Switzerland to take part in the Olympic Games, there was a conflict over Olympic eligibility (the tournament was strictly amateur at the time) and two United States teams were sent. It was a situation that nearly caused the cancellation of the entire ice hockey tournament. Eventually a compromise was made. Kirrane's team was allowed to play, but were disqualified from medal contention. In the end the disqualification was unnecessary as the United States finished the tournament in fourth place. Following the Olympics Kirrane continued to play amateur hockey for the Boston Olympics in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL), a farm team of the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins. He lost out on a chance at an NHL career when he was drafted into the United States Army to serve in the Korean War. When he returned home from the Army, he became a firefighter in his home town of Brookline, Massachusetts. He played one more season in the EAHL this time with the Worcester Warriors. In 1957, two years after his last season in the EAHL, Kirrane again played for the US national team and led his senior team to the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States National Senior Championship.