Buckley began his League of Ireland career with Shelbourne and signed for Shamrock Rovers as a full-time player in the 1979 close season.
On 30 April 1980 he represented the League of Ireland against Argentina at the River Plate Stadium where Diego Maradona scored in a 1–0 defeat.
While the following season was a disappointment he still ended up as top goalscorer at Milltown and guested for St Patrick's Athletic in a friendly with Manchester United.
After a decade at Richmond Park, manager Brian Kerr left in December 1996 to take up the position of technical director at the Football Association of Ireland.
Buckley wasn't offered the managers job at Pats and he left the club in February 1997 to move to Sligo for the rest of that season and later went on to become player-manager at Athlone Town.
Pats retained their league title but two bad defeats in Europe followed by indifferent domestic form saw Buckley sacked in December 1999.
[5] However Rovers form dropped alarmingly after the UEFA Intertoto Cup games and a seventh-place finish had the fans worried.
[6] [7] In 2008 Buckley took on the role of manager of Sporting Fingal a brand new team that were awarded a licence to play in the League of Ireland First Division.
In their second season in 2009, Buckley guided Fingal to promotion through the play-offs,[8] and capped off a superb campaign by also winning the FAI Cup.
[13] On 3 May 2023, Buckley was named as sporting director of Cork City, with his role focusing primarily on player recruitment, along with supporting management on all football related matters.