There is a TV debate going on right now about Ireland's greatest sporting moment, and for me, it's not even close. It's not about the greatest performance or achievement necessarily. There may be those of you who don't remember Italia 90, but it captivated the nation like nothing has before or since.
Soccer is the most popular sport in this country, and winning on the global stage of a worldwide religion is the pinnacle of what we can accomplish. There have been brilliant individual sporting victories to make us so proud internationally, from Ronnie Delany, to Barry McGuigan, to Michael Carruth, to Padraig Harrington, to Katie Taylor, but the collective is possibly greater. The team represents the nation, it carries it's colour, it goes to sporting war.
In 1988, the Republic of Ireland beat England at the European Championship, our first major finals, consisting of 8 teams. It was a seismic day and Ray Houghton's goal against the auld enemy is arguably the most important moment in Irish soccer history. It allowed us to believe we could compete and win at that level. We were unlucky not to defeat the USSR, who reached the final, and unfortunate to be eliminated by Holland, who won the tournament.
The progression of the Jack Charlton era to the World Cup in Italy in 1990 created a feverish expectation in the nation, attracting new fans, making the most casual aficionados hooked. We qualified in style, beating Spain at home and hammering Northern Ireland. The fever had spread and it dominated our waking hours. That our first World Cup finals were in an accessible place to travel gave Irish fans the trip of a lifetime, and they were magnificent in illuminating Italy with their good nature and craic.
We are carried by moments in sport, and many will argue that Ronan O'Gara's drop goal to win the Grand Slam for Ireland's rugby team in 2009 is the greatest moment. However this was in a competition played by six teams, in a sport which we cherish but doesn't have the global reach and popularity of soccer. In my view, the Republic of Ireland team unifies the nation unlike anything else.
Italia 90 kept on giving us moments, as we escaped from a tricky group consisting of England, Holland and Egypt. I always felt watching it as an 11 year old that another special moment was on the way. Kevin Sheedy's driving goal against England - a moment. Niall Quinn's equaliser against the Dutch - a moment. And after 120 minutes of agony against Romania in Genoa, without any goals, we were venturing into the unknown.
It's the last 16 of the World Cup. A penalty shoot out. Deserted streets across the country. Not a soul. The prize, a place in the last 8, the quarter finals, against the hosts, Italy, in Rome. It was magical.
The first 4 penalties for Ireland were dispatched. Sheedy, Houghton, Townsend, Cascarino.
Then Packie Bonner saved from Daniel Timofte. Pandemonium in every house and public house in the country. Pandemonium.
George Hamilton, the commentator, has a knack of saying the right thing at the right moment, and 'A nation holds it's breath' could not have been more apt. David O'Leary, who had spent most of the Charlton years in the wilderness, sent the decisive spot kick into the roof of the net. Bedlam. I jumped onto the sheepskin rug at home and I bawled my eyes out.
It was the pure drama of the moment. The tenterhooks, the continuation of an amazing journey that made it so special. We got further in that World Cup than Brazil, Spain and Holland. We gave it our all in the quarter final to Italy, succumbing 1-0 to the golden feet of Toto Schillaci. Jack Charlton and his players had placed Ireland firmly on the global map. It gave a small country tremendous confidence after the despair of the 1980s. And that's why the dramatic penalty shoot out victory over Romania will always stick with me as the zenith of Irish sporting moments.
