Aligning goalposts across Ireland divide

After the big freeze, the thaw, but you suspect that not even the most advanced computer models could have predicted that the temperature of Irish football would rise as dramatically as it has done over the past few days.

As Martin O’Neill rather delicately put it on Thursday, when called upon to respond to Michael O’Neill’s controversial interview from earlier in the week, “the unexpected nature of the comments” had come as “a bit of a surprise”.

It’s not difficult to understand how seeing the defection of players they have helped develop is a source of frustration for the IFA but the reality is that a combination of Fifa eligibility rules and the Good Friday Agreement means the FAI are well within their rights to try to procure talent from north of the border.