The quest for life after death

The inquest has begun, the tribunals of investigation have been convened and, already, there’s a whiff of cordite in the air.

All of which feels a little unseemly with one game still to play in Euro 2012, sort of like performing an autopsy on a corpse in the full knowledge that it is required to get up and walk again in a couple of days’ time.

If Giovanni Trapattoni and the Irish team can do the resurrection shuffle against Italy in Poznan on Monday, the feat will be as welcome as the prospect right now appears unlikely but, of course, it will make no material difference to the fact that Irish dreams of an extended stay at Euro 2012 have already turned to ashes.