When Charlton went from a Jack to a king

I’M sure Giovanni Trapattoni doesn’t need any additional pressure going into tonight’s European Championship qualifier against Macedonia, but if he does chance to feel the hand of history on his shoulder this morning, it might just be because, on this day 25 years ago, the most celebrated period in Irish football history officially kicked off.

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).