Fights, boos and ‘plastic patties’: how the English and Irish football teams became forever intertwined

For some in the Irish team, it is still strange to be preparing for a match against Lee Carsley's England. Ireland have made a big push for their admired manager, as he has 40 caps for the country. A solid Irish midfielder is now the most important figure in English football culture and will wear the tricolour alongside his name as he leads England to the World Cup.

Carsley was born in Birmingham but qualified for Ireland through his Cork grandmother and spoke last week of how he feels both nationalities naturally. The same can be said for many for Saturday's game in Dublin, notably Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, who are at least nine England regulars over the past five years who could have played for Ireland. It is almost an inevitable reversal of the game's history, when Ireland benefited most from the country's diaspora to Britain.

That history has been shaped by one of the most complicated relationships in international football – on the Irish side, at least. Those complications include “800 years” of British occupation, a century of post-colonialism, decades in which the English top flight served as both one of Ireland's most important cultural influences and hundreds of players. A phrase often uttered in Irish scholarship is “England is a huge part of Irish history, but Ireland is a tiny part of English history.” This is perfectly illustrated by football.

For England, Ireland is not really of any importance, apart from the occasional romantic story at tournaments. For Ireland, England is the football culture they are constantly dealing with. Before their first game at Euro 88, Irish physio Mick Byrne addressed the fans and growled: “Today we're going to finish them off!”

There was a lot in that set and in that game. The eventual 1-0 victory over England has gone down as one of the greatest moments in Irish history, a celebration of nation-building for a young, independent country. Ireland was finally on the international stage, against the country that shaped its international outlook.

Many Irish players were annoyed by the “arrogance” of the English media before the 1988 match, particularly comments about Ireland being there to boost numbers and references to the “English” players. Midfielder Liam Brady took his anger to ITV, criticising Brian Moore's comments about the backgrounds of some players and Brian Clough's comments about their quality.

After the game – and Ray Houghton’s winning goal – there was only joy.

The fact that the late, great Jack Charlton was in charge of the match gave it additional depth and showed how closely intertwined the two national teams had become.

Ireland's greatest football star is English. Many of Ireland's greatest players were half Irish, half English. The same is true of many of the current England team.

Anthony Gordon and Harry Maguire are of Irish descent, which, according to calculations by the Irish Foreign Office, applies to 25 percent of the English population. Ten percent of the population are entitled to an Irish passport through at least one grandparent – and thus to the national team. In the current constellation, this applies to Carsley, Rice and Grealish as well as Harry Kane, Conor Gallagher and Jude Bellingham. This is due to some of the most open citizenship laws in the world, which should recognize the diaspora.

Charlton were the first to seek to exploit this, pragmatically seeking out any viable player with Irish connections. This led to the infamous 'plastic Paddy' claim that was so common in the 1990s and always provoked a reaction from children of the diaspora such as centre-back Gary Breen. Born in London, Breen spent his career in English football, playing for Coventry, Sunderland and Wolves.

“For me, despite my accent, it was never a decision,” said Breen The Independent“I have always considered myself Irish. I have no English relatives. I grew up in Camden Town in the 70s and 80s, where there were probably more Irish people than in some counties in Ireland. Holidays in Ireland, Irish music…”

While Breen's words show that there was always some awareness of accents – and of the many English accents in Irish teams – he says the team paid more attention to “feelings”. All that mattered in the end was engaging with the spirit.

The bigger point here is that there are distinct shades of grey, not green and white. Rice and Grealish are the next generation of players like Breen, with the Irish flavour naturally toned down.

“My background is very different to Declan's, being a grandmother,” says Breen. For many of the next generation's parents, that feeling is even stronger. Like Breen, Harry Kane's father Pat is known for frequenting the long-established Gaelic games pubs of north London. Such Irish experiences are a good talking point for the families of many English players at tournaments, particularly the Grealishes.

In total, seven Irish players with English eligibility will face five Irish English players with English eligibility on Saturday. This is certainly a change from the 1988 European Championship, when it was 10 against two.

For the same reason, this is almost a new generation of England-Ireland games. You can see the relationship through the games.

The 1991 European Championship qualifier at Wembley, a rare time when Ireland were the superior team, took place at a turbulent time in the Northern Ireland conflict. Paddy Hill, one of the Birmingham Six wrongly convicted of an IRA bombing, attended the match just two weeks after his release. Chants of “No surrender” permeated the evening. Charlton, playing his only away game against England at Wembley as Ireland manager, was called “Judas”. He angrily told his players: “I won the World Cup for this country.”

Particularly notorious was the 1995 friendly match at Lansdowne Road, which had to be abandoned after English fans started rioting five minutes after the home team had taken the lead. The Irish fans constantly defended themselves against this aggression and emphasized good behavior.

That match led to a long gap between matches, a time when Ireland was enjoying an economic boom. Rather than going to London to look for work at all, Irish people emigrated to pursue high-potential careers. Meanwhile, their only interaction with England on the international stage was watching them in tournaments, as the gap between the teams grew ever wider. However, as a reflection of new Irish confidence, those summers sparked public debates about whether the country was now “mature” enough to support England. Many said no, citing “arrogance”, history or just plain emotion.

A common counterpoint to all this was that those same Irish people have absolutely no problem supporting Premier League clubs as if they were their own competition.

It is often said in Ireland that you can guess a person's age by the team they support. While Manchester United and Liverpool are constants, Leeds United, with John Giles, is a child of the 1970s, and Aston Villa, with Paul McGrath, is a child of the 1990s.

This has long angered some in the League of Ireland, particularly given the impact on revenue and development. It is also changing. Brexit and the Premier League's evolution into a truly international league have meant fewer opportunities for Irish players due to the rising hurdle. This has sparked a debate in Ireland about whether the national team even needs talent from the diaspora like Grealish and Rice.

A big question ahead of Saturday's Nations League opener, when the duo will face an Irish crowd for the first time, is whether they will be booed.

It would be nice to think that this was just pantomime or that too much time had passed, but this points to another oddity. Saturday will be only the 18th meeting between the two countries and only the fifth in 34 years.

Given the close ties, this is almost as strange for fans as the fact that England is coached by an Irish international.