Christy Moore has yet to write a song about either game but Ireland has twice reached the summit of the football world.
This is according to Paul Brown, a journalist (a truly brilliant one) who had both the time and the personality to put together the fabled list 'The Unofficial World Championships.'
Working off the boxing principle (and perhaps inspired by Denis Law's claim that Scotland were World Champions after their defeat of England in 1967) that whoever beats the world champions then become the world champions, he complied a list of world champions since England became the first champions after their victory over Scotland in March 1873.
Ireland first scaled the summit in March 1977 after beating France 1-0 in a World Cup Qualifier with a goal from Liam Brady. We held the title for 63 days until we suffered a controversial defeat against Bulgaria in Sofia in June of that year.
Youtube credit / sp1873
And then under the reign of Brian Kerr, we secured the title again after a 2-1 friendly victory over the Czech Republic in March 2004 (thus gloriously vindicating Steve Staunton's much mocked but statistically sound claim that Ireland are usually strong in March), a result which was greatly appreciated but which, in retrospect, was not greeted with the appropriate delirium. But then we surrendered our title on May 29 2004 after an obscure defeat to Nigeria in the Unity Cup, a result which was not treated as the calamity it was.
To Dublin City Council's eternal shame neither triumph was greeted with an open-topped bus through O'Connell Street.
Youtube credit / sp1873
