When Charlton went from a Jack to a king
On March 26, 1986, Jack Charlton took charge of an Irish team for the first time, with Wales the visitors to Lansdowne Road for a friendly game. We all know what followed — 10 years of unprecedented success on the pitch, with Ireland qualifying for their first European Championship finals two years later followed by successive appearances at the World Cup finals of 1990 and 1994.
And with it came all the joyful madness of those days of heaven, with the country repeatedly taking leave of its senses, Big Jack himself being elevated to a kind of sainthood and, if you’re to believe more impressionable types, even the first audible roar of the Celtic Tiger (not that we talk about that too much nowadays).