Perhaps now, it’s best to move beyond the perennial straw-clutching

Maybe it’s better this way.

How many times have Ireland been tortured by the pernicious illusion of hope for far too long? How many times has the national side done just enough to allow dreams overshadow logic, only for those tables to be turned at a campaign’s bitter end?

Even the last inglorious failure — when the side finished fourth behind Germany, Sweden and Austria in the race to make the 2014 World Cup in Brazil — didn’t dawn until the summer had long passed and the Swedes turned Ireland over 2-1 in Dublin in September.