The hands that rocked the nation

STUTTGART, June 12, 1988. Ray Houghton’s goal. Packie Bonner defying Gary Lineker and everything else England could throw at him. The full-time scoreboard reading ‘England 0 Rep of Ireland 1. And, beneath it, the Green Army going positively bonkers.

To those indelible images from one of the greatest days in Irish sport, must be added two more. And they both revolve around the same man: silver-haired physio Mick Byrne. Before the game, it was Mick who was seen by millions of television viewers stepping off the team bus outside the Neckarstadion and, in broad Dublinese accentuated by a clenched fist, shouting to some nearby Irish supporters: “We’ll do them for yiz today, lads.” And after the game, it was Mick who was photographed down on his knees in prayer on the pitch, another shot which went around the world.

Or, as veteran reporter Peter Byrne so memorably put it at the time: “I could visualise Ireland beating England and I could even visualise Ireland winning the Championship. But in my wildest dreams I could never have pictured Mick Byrne following The Pope, General De Gaulle and Ronald Reagan onto the front page of The Daily Telegraph.”