I mentioned previously about Wales in the 1958 World Cup Finals, well Northern Ireland were there too.
They too reached the Quarter Finals but were knocked out by France with a 4-0 drubbing.
A member of that ’58 Northern Ireland team included Billy Bingham – who went on to manage the team and take them to the finals in 1982.
Did you see who was in that team back then ? They had some decent names:
Pat JENNINGS, Jimmy NICHOLL, Mal DONAGHY, David MC CREERY, Chris NICHOLL, Martin O NEILL, Gerry ARMSTRONG, Sam MC ILROY, Billy HAMILTON, John MC CLELLAND, Norman WHITESIDE
Teamsheet taken from their final game – where they lost 4-1 to…France.
Thankfully we have lots of people who headed into the studio before the team headed to Spain and for the official song they roped in the lovely® Dana.
You remember the lovely® Dana ? She won the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland (the Republic of) with All Kinds Of Everything.
After Eurovision she continued singing, did panto for 15 years, found Jesus and had a go at trying to become the Irish President. She lost but did come third. The lovely Dana® got a taste of politics from this run and eventually became an MEP running on a crusade of family values and anti-abortion.
She was back in the headlines again in 2008 when she lost her rag when Ireland sent Dustin The Turkey over to compete.
– Back to 1982 though and have a listen to the backing vocals of current footie managers Martin O’Neill and Sammy McIroy with the feature vocals from lovely Dana®
O’Neill doesn’t look happy in there. Wonder what he was thinking ?