Former Irish greats full of optimism
Back in the 1990s, when Jack Charlton’s Ireland was cramming punters into Lansdowne like stuffing into a turkey, Phil Babb used to drive past the half-completed ground with its stands straining for the sky and think ‘why can’t we play there?’ Three generations, 159 caps in a combined 37 years of service in the green jersey of Ireland and yet the forbidden fruit that was Croke Park was still a chapter in all their dreams.
Today, they will most likely sigh and think of what might have been had it happened in their day but, with Packie Bonner comparing Croker to Giants Stadium in 1994, Babb especially will know how the Irish players feel when they walk down that Hogan Stand tunnel shortly before 3pm this afternoon.
“I wasn’t prepared for the stadium when I came out. You walk out the tunnel and see the first tier and think ‘wow’, then you see the second tier and again it’s ‘wow’. The third just blows you away.
Liam Brady, ingrained in our thoughts as one of the three wise, but grumpy, men on TV, actually shares that optimism, pointing to a full squad, an on-form Robbie Keane and the level of opposition as his reasons why.
“I’m really looking forward to it, to seeing Ireland playing soccer at Croke Park. I’m looking forward to the match and hopefully to a win for us. I’d like to see Steve Staunton get a win under his belt and another onWednesday.
“The majority of people in Ireland wanted (today) to happen and the GAA deserve enormous credit for allowing it to happen. The rugby boys did the stadium justice because it is a most marvellous stadium and I hope we can do the same.”
For Mick Martin, today’s game will bring into focus just how far Ireland has come since his father, Con, suffered a fate shared by many under the strictures of the ‘Ban’ on foreign games.
A man who played international football for both the Republic and the North, Con Martin also won a Leinster Championship medal with Dublin in the 1940sl, but it took him 30 years to receive it.
Did his son ever think he would see the day when ‘soccer’ would be played at the home of Gaelic? “I did, to be honest. The stadium is so immense now and the soccer and rugby were always going to need somewhere to play their big games and Croke Park was the obvious venue. It was just a matter of convincing the GAA people that it was the right thing to do and I’m looking forward to going back there.”
At a time when the international side is being lambasted for performances and results, it is instructive to look back at the start to Mick Martin’s own career in green and to a night in Linz when Ireland went down by six goals to Austria.
“I was very honoured, first and foremost, to be selected by Liam Tuohy to go and play Austria in Linz. Regardless of the result, it was a marvellous day for me and one I will remember for ever.”
Today is another for the catalogue, even if he predicts what “could be a tough day for Steve Staunton”.
The frown on his face as he delivered that verdict was the first and last on a night where he slapped shoulders and swapped stories with the dozens of other former Irish internationals at the FAI’s international player reunion in the Burlington Hotel.
Even Eamon Dunphy was smiling, posing for photographs with John Delaney at the front door, one hand on a wine glass, the other curled in a fist and aimed firmly in jest at the chief executive’s jaw line.
It was a night for the good — the Chris Morris and Jeff Kennas — just as much it was for the greats like Giles and Brady.
“I met half a dozen of the lads from my era at the airport and, within two minutes, we were talking in the same old banter,” says Babb. “There’s a unique camaraderie in team sports that is hard to describe.
“It was better than usual in the Irish teams I played in and credit for that goes to Jack. He knew the players and how to get the best out of them. He gave us a fair amount of leisure time but there was a price for that the next day.”
No doubt some of them are paying it again this morning.
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