The day before Ireland played England at the Aviva Stadium this year, Steven Reid wrote an article in the Irish Independent in which he outlined his feelings on the thorny business of English born lads playing for Ireland.
When Ireland walk out to play England tomorrow, there is no doubt in my mind who I want to win - and it won't be the country I have lived all my life in.
You could offer me anything now - the extra millions I could have earned had I won 23 caps for England rather than Ireland, the offer of leading England out at Wembley - and I'd turn it down.
And, when criticising the FAI's chase for the indifferent and thoroughly English Curtis Davies, Irish underage star Liam George spoke about his attitudes growing up in Luton in the '80s and early '90s.
I was in Ireland every six weeks on my summer holidays. I were forced to go over there. I was in Ballymun, I was in Fairview. I was a kind of bona fide Dublin boy, all my cousins played for St. Vincents, so I was brought up in that environment. I was always very aware of being Irish.
Scanning the twitter account of Jack Grealish, which is replete with Shamrock emojis and #coybig's, one would have presumed he was of a similar cast of mind. Hell, he even played Gaelic football for Warwickshire at underage level.
Colchester born TV presenter Dermot O'Leary, an ardent Arsenal, Wexford and Republic of Ireland fan, feels let down by Jack Grealish opting for England over Ireland.
Far too much going on in the world to be actually annoyed by this,but Jesus @JackGrealish1 HB ice cream, and Taytos count for nothing!
— Dermot O'Leary (@radioleary) September 28, 2015
Cont... White pudding, iceburgers, 6 week summer holidays with grandparents, red lemonade, getting beaten up by cousins, peat, Gay Byrne... — Dermot O'Leary (@radioleary) September 29, 2015
We hear a lot about national anthems these days. The rugby boys standing to attention for onecomposed in a PR agency in Ballsbridge in 1995, Jarlath Burns suggesting that the GAA abandon the playing of 'Amhran na bhFiann' if it could help the sport reach out to unionists...
Reviling 'God Save the Queen', Nick Hornby once proposed that the Ian Dury song 'Reasons to be Cheerful' become the new English national anthem, which was simply a rundown of the things that made Dury get out of bed in the morning. Things that made him happy to be English. Dermot O'Leary's list of things that make one think of Ireland could form the central tenet of the new national anthem...
