IT’S NOT often I’ll spout off about anything of a sporting nature but I just had to say a few words about the Ireland v France game last week — the game that saw our boys booted out of the next World Cup.
The luck of the Irish, it seems, has run out again.
Ireland, against all the odds, forced the tie into extra time having won the 90 minutes 1-0 in the cauldron of the Stade de France.
The match was heading towards the lottery of a penalty shoot-out when the ‘Hand of Henry’ intervened as the referee and linesman both missed the Frenchman controlling the ball with his arm — not once but twice — before crossing to Gallas to score the decisive goal. Oh the injustice!
After the match Henry freely admitted that he had handled the ball saying that it was up to the referee, not him, to rule out the goal.
But his honesty after the event will do little to console the legions of Irish fans whose dreams were shattered by an act of cheating right up there with Maradona’s hand of God.
Unlike a lot of people I don’t support a Premiership team, so if Liverpool, Manchester United or Chelsea win, lose of draw — I couldn’t care less.
But when Ireland play I tend to sit up and take note. It all started for me around the time of Italia ’90.
There was just something hypnotic about the force that was the Republic of Ireland football team under Jack Charlton.
Everywhere you looked there was some mention of the boys in green and it seemed that nothing would stop them from winning. Even the Vatican wanted in on the action — granting the team an audience with Pope John Paul II.
Back home the entire country came together as one to support the boys and their World Cup campaign — it was magic.
The streets would be eerily quite when the matches were being televised as most stayed inside glued to their television screens.
I remember collecting everything from sticker books to fan memorabilia — and it was almost as if the more you owned the more passion you had for Jackie’s Army.
We held our breath when Packie Bonner made that vital save and David O’Leary scored to beat Romania on penalties.
And OK, so we didn’t quite go on to win the cup that year (West Germany beat Argentina 1–0 in the final to win the competition for the third time), but it was an amazing few weeks.
And it’s something that hasn’t quite been equalled since.
Now it’s going to be another few years before we get the chance to see the Irish back on top.
South Africa’s out of the picture — can the magic return in time for Brazil in 2014? Olé!