November 13th, 1985.
The Republic of Ireland succumbed to a crushing 4-1 defeat to a brilliant Denmark side in a World Cup qualifier. The Irish Independent‘s football correspondent Noel Dunne wrote in his match report: ‘I said it after the Copenhagen game, and I’ll say it again. This is one of, if not, the best sides I have ever seen.’
While Dunne was talking about the Danes, the Irish side that day also possessed some brilliant players, despite what the scoreboard suggested. On the pitch at Lansdowne Road that day there was Mark Lawrenson, Liam Brady, Paul McGrath, David O’Leary and Frank Stapleton. Manager Eoin Hand could call on players from Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester United and Arsenal, but still selected Shamrock Rovers midfielder Pat Byrne.
Byrne came on as a first-half substitute to earn his eighth Ireland cap and remains, 30 years on, the last League of Ireland player to feature in a competitive fixture for the national team.
While Ireland and Martin O’Neill have more pressing concerns with the play-off games against Bosnia-Herzegovina over the next few days, the form of Richie Towell has made the issue a talking point once again, highlighted by this article by League of Ireland focused website 2016 Rising.
Has the Dundalk midfielder’s exploits warranted an inclusion in the international squad? How long will it be before another League of Ireland player gets an international call-up? And if Towell doesn’t earn international recognition while playing Irish domestic football, what chance does any other player have?
It’s no surprise that League of Ireland players fell out of favour when Hand left the job. His successor Jack Charlton made great use of the so-called ‘Granny rule’, selecting English and Scottish born players eligible for Ireland and the team experienced unprecedented success over the next 10 years.
It’d be 16 years before another League of Ireland player got the shout to join the national team. Glen Crowe and Wes Hoolahan were called-up for a friendly against Greece in 2002. Don Givens was caretaker manager, following Mick McCarthy’s departure the previous month, and the goalless draw was so memorable that this is the best picture we could find.
However, Bohemians striker Glen Crowe certainly wasn’t out of his depth. The Irish Independent gave the striker a respectable 7 out of 10 and wrote that his: “touch and movement were excellent…” and he “did enough to suggest his first cap won’t be his last.”
It was, in fact, Crowe’s second last cap, as the striker made another appearance for the national team a few months later in a friendly against Norway at Lansdowne Road. Hoolahan would have to wait almost six years for his first appearance for the national team.
Brian Kerr had a greater pool of players to select from than most of his successors, which perhaps explains why he failed to cap any League of Ireland player, despite his strong links to the domestic game.
Kerr’s successor Steve Staunton did cap Joe Gamble on a tour of the United States in May 2007. The then Cork City midfielder made a substitute appearance against Ecuador, and started against Bolivia… Both friendlies.
However, despite Gamble’s appearance, this tour did little to enthuse League of Ireland players or fans, as Staunton gave a cap to an American born Notre Dame student, Joey Lapira ahead of any number of domestic based players.
An act so unjustifiable it’s still difficult to fathom over eight years later. Of all the terrible things Staunton done as Ireland manager, and there were a lot, this was surely his greatest folly.
Since then, the League of Ireland has had a healthy representation in the Ireland team, albeit not directly.
Made in the League Of Ireland @ExtratimeNews #IREVPOL #Long #Hoolahan #Coleman #McClean pic.twitter.com/zXAw4JUiiJ
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League of Ireland alumni Kevin Doyle, Wes Hoolahan, Shane Long, James McClean, David Forde and Seamus Coleman are mainstays of the current squad, and have 201 caps between then. David Meyler only played two games for Cork City before joining Sunderland and making 14 appearances for Ireland, proving that he wasn’t going to have a fruitful time playing for Ireland while playing in Ireland.
However, the same wasn’t true of Keith Fahey. The Dubliner was in fantastic form for St Patrick’s Athletic during 2008, winning the player of the year award before joining Birmingham City in December 2008.
18 months later, Fahey made his debut for Ireland. Had the midfielder become a better player in that time? It’s unlikely, but what he had gained was a sense of legitimacy that comes with playing in England’s top flights.
Which brings us back to Towell. The Dundalk midfielder has scored an incredible 25 league goals from midfield, the winning goal in the FAI Cup Final and was the key variable in his side retaining the league.
He’s also supremely fit and dedicated to improving as a player. If he was playing across the water, at this point, there’s no doubt that he’d be in O’Neill’s squad but Towell seems resigned to the fact that international recognition won’t arrive while he’s playing in Ireland.
“At the end of the day I want to test myself against the best,” Towell told Second Captains this week. “I want to play at the highest standard possible. Obviously it’s a dream of mine to play for the Republic of Ireland so I’ll probably have to play at a higher standard if I want to do that.”
“I think history tells you that [you have to play in England]. There’s nobody from the League of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland squad and it’s disappointing because you look at the amount of people that are [in the squad] that have played in [the League of Ireland], the likes of Seamus Coleman and players like that.
“I think you do get called in if you make the step over [to England] and you’re playing well. Obviously there are players playing at a higher standard than I am, so I have to be realistic as well.”
However, can anyone honestly say Towell isn’t a better footballer than some of those already in O’Neill’s squad? Is James McClean for example, really a better footballer than him because he currently plays in the Premier League? It’s doubtful.
There’s not a lot more Towell can do to get a call-up, other than move across the water. In Daire Whelan’s book Who Stole Our Game, about the decline of the League of Ireland from the packed crowds of the 50s, the author claims that domestic based players suffered a psychological blow when Shay Brennan was called-up in 1965.
The Manchester-born Manchester United defender was the first second-generation footballer to play for Ireland. The decision, albeit necessary at the time and in the decades to come, was a sign that the domestic players weren’t good enough.
What does it say about the league now, and in the future, if a player is good enough but remains unselected? If Richie Towell doesn’t receive a call-up, it’ll be a lot longer than 30 years before another domestic based player features for Ireland.
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