They have drifted from the moniker of late, but at the height of the Jack Charlton era, the FAI became colloquially known as Find Any Irishman, such was Big Jack's exhaustive search for a passport bearing a harp. He did leaven the policy with a bit of humour, and he once had this exchange with Paul Gascoigne:
After taking the Ireland job he'd asked me if I had an Irish wolfhound?
I said no, I hadn't - but why was he interested?
'If you had an Irish wolfhound, you could qualify to play for Ireland.
But the 'Granny rule' remains in vogue in Ireland, evidenced by the fact that Scott Hogan recent declaration for Ireland and his presence in the squad at this stage of the World Cup campaign. Hogan's was a bit of a saga, which ended in success for Martin O'Neill. There have been plenty of other such examples, however, of players who were chased by Ireland, but ended up turning us down.
Here are a few players who could have played for Ireland that you may have forgotten.
Dave Kitson
Kitson is rumoured to be The Secret Footballer, but Steve Staunton's interest in the Reading striker's declaring for Ireland was not so clandestine. Staunton more or less issued a public plea for players upon his appointment, and among the players who he confirmed interest in was Kitson, who qualified for Ireland through his grandfather. Kitson was in decent form when Staunton floated his interest, and was on his way to scoring 22 goals in Reading's promotion season.
Having initially snubbed Staunton's overtures, he then publically reconsidered, but ultimately to no fruition for Stan.
Lee Trundle
Trundle is among the first footballers to thank Soccer AM for his cult status (Jimmy Bullard is the ultimate example, to the extent that he has gone through the looking glass and now hosts the ailing show). He made his name when Swansea were plugging away in League One, and his was a case of him being desperate to play for Ireland rather than the reciprocal. Having been ignored by Brian Kerr, Trundle responded to Stan's global plea for any of Ireland's exiled children with a pair of shinpads with an equally public plea (on Soccer AM, obviously):
I was made up when I read what Steve said about me and hopefully the dream will come true at last.
Steve made reference to John Aldridge being a late starter on the international stage and hopefully I can make a similar impact.
It ultimately never happened for Trundle in a green shirt. The precise reason why has been told by Brian Kerr to Mikey Traynor of this website. Mikey shouted to Kerr from the crowd at the Carlisle Grounds as to why he hadn't picked Trundle. The response was sharp:
Have ye seen him play?!
Mark Noble
Noble was linked with being an alternative to Glenn Whelan before ever there was such a thing as Glenn Whelan.
But Noble is an example of us pursuing lads who have little interest of ever playing for Ireland.
In fairness to Noble, he has been honest and admirable about his reasons for not crossing the Irish Sea:
There are young Irish kids playing well that deserve and would appreciate an Irish cap more than I would. I played through all the age groups as a youth international (with England), went to tournaments and sang the national anthem. But obviously I’ve never got a senior cap.
So for me to turn up to play for Ireland without it having been a dream of mine, and there’s an Irish kid out there who might miss out when it’s their dream to play for Ireland. I couldn’t do that.
Franck Queudrue
Ireland could have had the then-'Boro full-back as part of Brian Kerr's assault on qualification for the 2006 World Cup, but for a mistake regarding ancestry. The French-born defender turned out to be desperate to play for Ireland, and pursued it when he realised that he wasn't held back by his solitary France 'B' cap. Queudrue was pretty serious about it all, saying that "given the chance to play for Ireland I would have walked there". His Long Walk To International Caps was scuppered, however, when it turned out that his Irish grandfather was not Irish at all; his Irish heritage, instead, descended from his great-grandfather.
Kevin Nolan
Another Premiership player coveted by Steve Staunton, who was willing to navigate kilos of red tape in order to get his man. Nolan had been capped at under-18 and under-21 level by England, but Stan held a couple of meetings with Nolan to convince him to play for the land of his ancestors.
Ensuring Nolan's eligibility would have involved Ireland lodging an appeal to FIFA, drawing on the precedent of Tim Cahill's being permitted to play for Australia despite being capped by Samoa at youth level. It never happened, ultimately, but it wasn't for the want of desire on the part of some Irish fans: a petition was launched to beseech Nolan to declare for Ireland. It read "We, the undersigned, call on you, Kevin Nolan to join the Republic of Ireland squad and to become a legend in Irish football", and to date it has...44 signatures.
Curtis Davies
Davies is a very decent defender for Hull, and while he qualified for Ireland through a grandparent, he expressed precisely zero interest in declaring for Ireland. He said he preferred to focus on earning a cap for England or Sierra Leone, the land of his father.
Davies told the Irish Independent that he feels no emotional link to Ireland, and also questioned whether he could work with Roy Keane. Speaking on ITV, Keane found some scorn to pour on Steve Bruce's tipping Davies as an England call-up for the 2014 World Cup, saying that "this talk of him going to the World Cup is crazy; I think Brucie's maybe had a quick beer after the game. He's not at that level, but he's a very good player."
Davies told the Indo:
However, I'm not sure after Roy Keane's comments – am I good enough for Ireland? It didn't annoy me, but he's saying I'm not international quality.
Does that mean he thinks I'm not good enough for Ireland? If he doesn't believe I'm good enough for England, then say England. Maybe it was a ploy to steer me away from England.
It's well documented that O'Neill and I had problems at Villa. Is that really going to work? Do I really want to sell myself down the Irish route and then I've got an assistant manager who doesn't rate me and a manager who maybe there is a bit of ill-feeling with.
Paul Scholes
We could have had Keane and Scholes for Ireland, but not only did it not happen, we didn't even get a frenzy of public speculation wondering if it would happen, and a petition to help make it happen. Scholes revealed that he could have played for Ireland in 2015, in an Independent column urging He Who Must Not Be Named to declare for England rather than Ireland.
I had the same options as Jack Grealish when it came to international football, in fact I could have played for Northern Ireland as well as the Republic. On my mum Marie’s side, my Nana was from the Republic of Ireland and my Granddad was from the north. Lots of families in Manchester have strong Irish connections but it never occurred to me to play for anyone other than England....
...What I don’t understand is why he has taken time off from international football. You need to start playing international football first before you think about taking time off. I guess it is about giving himself time to choose between Ireland and England. The Republic will always need him more but England is where he will play at the higher level.
Wayne Rooney
Whatever happened to him?
