Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps not, but Giovanni Trapattoni last night responded to Aiden McGeady’s suggestion Ireland’s players are jaded by giving his men a day off.

It’s the middle of the day and there’s a man sitting in the bar of a hotel by Croke Park showing me a video nasty on his laptop. “Look at this,” he says with a grimace, “it’s a horror story.”

Five of Ireland’s top movies are to be screened as part of a travelling film festival in Poland, it emerged today.

Five of Ireland’s top movies are to be screened as part of a travelling film festival in Poland, it emerged today.