By Robbie Butler
I am just old enough to remember Ray Houghton’s goal at Euro ’88. It’s not even the first Irish goal I remember. Paul McGrath has that honour: Ireland 2–0 Bulgaria, October 1987. This was the great arrival of the Republic of Ireland in major “finals” on the international stage. I was lucky to catch the first great wave of Ireland’s football team: Euro ’88, Italia ’90, USA ’94.
RTÉ'S Darragh Moloney named cities after Troy Parrott’s recent heroics in Budapest last week: Stuttgart, New York, and Vienna. He could have added Genoa (probably our most famous hour) and Lille.
I was lucky enough to see all of these. And seeing them made me want to replicate our team’s achievements when I was young. How do we do this? We buy the jersey. I had various Ireland kits from 1988, 1990, 1994, and 2002. I did buy some after this, but not to the same extent; age and the performance of the team are probably to blame.
What has been noticeable in recent years is the failure of children here to wear the green jersey I wore so proudly as a child. Instead, you are more likely to see Liverpool, Man City, PSG, Barcelona, even Inter Miami or Al Nassr. The world has never been smaller, and global clubs have never been bigger, but it still feels like something of our own has been slipping away.
There may now be light at the end of the tunnel. Last week at underage soccer training, two children turned up in green Ireland jerseys. It was just days after Parrott’s famous hat-trick. It felt like a small but genuine spark; the kind of moment you hope might catch. If Ireland can manage to qualify for the World Cup next summer, only Czechia and either Denmark or North Macedonia stand in the way, I suspect the number of children wearing Irish jerseys will rise exponentially. When the national team is vibrant, it pulls people back in: pride, identity, belonging. The jersey becomes more than just a shirt again.
Good news for revenue at an association ridden with debt. And also good news for a country that rallies around its football team. The bad news is that there appear to be supply-side issues. An online search for kids’ Ireland jerseys returned a blank. Demand seems to have soared in recent days following the heroics in Hungary. Let us hope supply can be ramped up quickly and that this is the start of the good times returning on all fronts.
I am just old enough to remember Ray Houghton’s goal at Euro ’88. It’s not even the first Irish goal I remember. Paul McGrath has that honour: Ireland 2–0 Bulgaria, October 1987. This was the great arrival of the Republic of Ireland in major “finals” on the international stage. I was lucky to catch the first great wave of Ireland’s football team: Euro ’88, Italia ’90, USA ’94.
RTÉ'S Darragh Moloney named cities after Troy Parrott’s recent heroics in Budapest last week: Stuttgart, New York, and Vienna. He could have added Genoa (probably our most famous hour) and Lille.
I was lucky enough to see all of these. And seeing them made me want to replicate our team’s achievements when I was young. How do we do this? We buy the jersey. I had various Ireland kits from 1988, 1990, 1994, and 2002. I did buy some after this, but not to the same extent; age and the performance of the team are probably to blame.
What has been noticeable in recent years is the failure of children here to wear the green jersey I wore so proudly as a child. Instead, you are more likely to see Liverpool, Man City, PSG, Barcelona, even Inter Miami or Al Nassr. The world has never been smaller, and global clubs have never been bigger, but it still feels like something of our own has been slipping away.
There may now be light at the end of the tunnel. Last week at underage soccer training, two children turned up in green Ireland jerseys. It was just days after Parrott’s famous hat-trick. It felt like a small but genuine spark; the kind of moment you hope might catch. If Ireland can manage to qualify for the World Cup next summer, only Czechia and either Denmark or North Macedonia stand in the way, I suspect the number of children wearing Irish jerseys will rise exponentially. When the national team is vibrant, it pulls people back in: pride, identity, belonging. The jersey becomes more than just a shirt again.
Good news for revenue at an association ridden with debt. And also good news for a country that rallies around its football team. The bad news is that there appear to be supply-side issues. An online search for kids’ Ireland jerseys returned a blank. Demand seems to have soared in recent days following the heroics in Hungary. Let us hope supply can be ramped up quickly and that this is the start of the good times returning on all fronts.
RSS Feed
