Bragging rights for Republic

AT the start last night, the talk was all about those who chose to stay away, from James McCarthy and Marc Wilson to the boycotting Northern Ireland fans to the many thousands of locals who found they had better things to be doing on a sunny evening in early summer than coming to the Aviva Stadium.

But the die-hards haven’t gone away, you know.

After a week of historic bridge-building, the local supporters managed to roll back time by roundly booing the playing of ‘God Save The Queen’ — the first time the anthem was ever heard in the Republic before a north-south football match — and then treating the small but noisy band of travelling supporters at the Havelock Square end to a rendition or two of ‘There’s only one team in Ireland’ and, a newer one, ‘Do you want to play for us?’.