Liam Mackey: Throwing the book at Italia ’90

Liam Mackey recalls how his first assignment as a national football reporter 30 years ago opened his eyes to a literary sensation.

Jack Charlton, to Liam Mackey: “it’s not going to be easy for us, but it’s not going to be easy for them either”

As always, the great man said it best. “I missed Italia ’90,” Con Houlihan confessed. “I was in Italy”.

We all know what the Castleisland Colossus meant, of course. For precisely the opposite reason, I didn’t miss Italia ’90 because I was indeed in Ireland, caught up like the rest of the country in the euphoric madness of what felt like the happiest, most fantastic summer of our lives. (And, for all too obvious reasons, seems even more like that today).