Forever burned into my memory from the New York Jets game this past Sunday will be my good friend Rob Gallo leaning back at an almost impossible angle, silent joy gripping his face, his eyes wide, his happiness complete.

IRELAND’S captain tonight, Stephen Kelly, has revealed that the poor attendances at the Aviva Stadium have become a talking point among the Irish squad — and he believes lowering the ticket prices is one way fans could be enticed to fill the new home of Irish football.

AT the turn of the last century, as the hem of American society was dampened by wave after wave of European immigrants, the Irish stretched out their legs beneath the table, threw a cap onto the coat hook behind the closing door and made themselves at home.

“A CROWD of us were going along the Shepherd’s Bush Road when out of a lane came a chap with a donkey — just the sort of donkey and just the sort of cart they have at home,” Michael Collins recalled. “He came out quite suddenly and abruptly and we all cheered him. Nobody who has not been in exile will understand me, but I stand for that.”