Learning the Lesson From 1973

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Irish Voice Sport

Learning the Lesson From 1973

April 9, 2008

By Cathal Dervan

A GREAT football man by the name of Peter C. Collins, currently residing in Bethpage, Long Island, wrote to this column recently with a fascinating account of his efforts to mount a campaign for an All-Ireland soccer team.

It is a subject very close to my own heart. Not only would I unify the soccer leagues north and south of the border ASAP, as businessman Fintan Drury is trying to do, I would also bring the Northern Ireland and Republic teams together tomorrow morning given half a chance.

Peter has a similar outlook on life and has enlisted the help of several famous and influential people in his efforts, efforts I promise to highlight in more detail in this column in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I’m sure that Peter and those of his ilk will be intrigued and delighted by the comments of both Pat Jennings and the great Martin O’Neill — not to suggest that big Pat isn’t great by the way — at a lunch in Dublin the other day.

The occasion was designed by the Association of Sports Journalists in Ireland and their sponsors Lucozade to celebrate the famous day in 1973 when an All-Ireland team played under the title of a Shamrock Rovers XI against the mighty Brazil in a Lansdowne Road game that was the brainchild of the late, great Derek Dougan.

Sadly Dougan was never picked again by Northern Ireland for his part in organizing the controversial fixture, but his memory was very much alive at last week’s lunch when both O’Neill and Jennings backed the notion of an All-Ireland team once again with words that will be sweet music to Peter Collins’ ears.

“George Best would always have cried out for a united Irish team and it would be a phenomenal step,” said the Aston Villa manager and former Celtic supremo O’Neill, who played on that famous Dublin day.

“I certainly think that the political climate has changed greatly since 1973 and I suppose, if there are possibilities, then you might think in this particular time that there is a possibility of an All-Ireland team.

“I don’t know even at this particular stage if everyone would want it to happen. But, from a playing point of view, you can imagine what it would be like.

“For instance, Northern Ireland went to the World Cup in 1982 and we eventually played in the quarterfinal. You can imagine what our side would have been like if it had included Frank Stapleton and Liam Brady. It would have been phenomenal.

“We had a great old spirit about ourselves at that time, but you can imagine adding one or two of those players. I’m sure there would have been a stage in later years when the Republic would have thought they could have done with one or two players from the North.”

Jennings, himself a former Gaelic footballer with Down in his youth, was also enthusiastic about an idea that has largely stood still since that historic 1973 fixture.

He said, “It’s the bureaucracy involved in changing things that has always been the problem, and it’s a measure of the opposition there was to the fixture from the IFA that the team had to play under the guise of a Shamrock Rovers XI.

“We all knew what the occasion was and what the possibilities were, but it’s never been a players’ problem. I wrote about it in my book in 1982 that there is no doubt a united Ireland team would have a better chance of qualifying and going further in competitions, because of the players and the numbers that you have to pick from.

“You would have a better squad. If you have one or two injuries in key positions, none of us, north or south, could cope with that at the moment. But you have to say, when looking back, that the success both sides have had is unbelievable for the size of our country and what we are playing against. We are only a small country and we have done unbelievably well, both associations.”

The suggestion here is that a unified team could do better on a sustained basis for fans north and south of a border that diminishes in importance by the way.

Considering Liam Brady went to great lengths on Tuesday to convince us that the Republic can move forward again with Giovanni Trapattoni at the helm, but only with a huge dollop of good fortune and a lot of hard work, maybe it is time Irish football listened to men like O’Neill and Jennings and even to Peter Collins out in Bethpage.

We didn’t listen to 1973, and despite World Cup appearances for both sides since then, life has been the poorer for that outbreak of deafness.

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