The cast of characters may change, but the story stays the same. New Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson will welcome his England counterpart Lee Carsley to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday for the latest instalment in our neighbourly rivalry.
Former Republic of Ireland international Carsley is serving as England’s interim manager following the post-Euro departure of Gareth Southgate, while Hallgrímsson landed the Irish job after an eight-month search to replace Stephen Kenny.
Since their first meeting in September 1946 at Dalymount, Ireland and England have faced each other 17 times. England hold the upper hand, with six wins to Ireland’s two, but eight were drawn and one infamous encounter had to be abandoned in the first half.
Here’s a recap of how those 17 fixtures over the last 78 years have played out.
September 30th, 1946
Republic of Ireland 0 England 1
An Irish Times report of England’s 1946 trip to Dublin described it as “the most exciting international football match ever played at Dalymount Park”. The Irish defence put in a good shift but ultimately came undone when Tom Finney broke the deadlock in a snap attack 10 minutes from the final whistle, earning Walter Winterbottom’s side the win before the 32,000-strong crowd in Phibsborough.
September 21st, 1949
England 0 Republic of Ireland 2
“The vast majority of the 51,847 people streamed out of Goodison Park, Liverpool yesterday with a dumbfounded look on their faces,” wrote the correspondent for The Irish Times. “The reason was that the cream of England’s footballers had been beaten 2-0 at home by Ireland, who had been given little or no chance by so many people.”
So a shocking result, to put it lightly. A good day between the posts by Tommy Godwin earned him an ovation as he left the pitch, while Con Martin’s netted penalty just shy of half-time and a late goal from Everton’s Peter Farrell at his home club ground left Ireland with a result we would be 39 years trying to emulate.
May 8th, 1957
England 5 Republic of Ireland 1
The road to a World Cup never was an easy one for Ireland, a point exemplified by their 5-1 loss away to England at Wembley Stadium as they attempted to secure passage to the 1958 tournament in Sweden.
Unfortunately for Ireland, Tommy Taylor was in flying form, bagging a brace before the 20-minute mark and making it a hat-trick in the 40th. John Atyeo added to the visitors’ woes, beating goalkeeper Alan Kelly twice in the second half. A headed goal from Dermot Curtis was the only silver lining for Ireland, but the overwhelming verdict was that the boys in green were simply outclassed.
May 19th, 1957
Republic of Ireland 1 England 1
After the horror show at Wembley, England made the return trip to Dublin. Thankfully for the record 47,500 crowd at Dalymount Park, the result was a lot less bleak. But although a 1-1 draw was a vast improvement on the 5-1 defeat of two weeks previously, Irish supporters felt aggrieved at the final whistle.
Alf Ringstead opened the scoring early on for Ireland at Dalymount, spawning hope that the home side could prevail. But you know what they say about hope. Less than a minute from the death, Atyeo once again added his name to the score sheet.
“The spectators, one and all, stood silent, bewildered and mournful. Could it be true? Had England, behind for 87 minutes and 10 seconds, really crawled from jaws of defeat that had all but clamped shut?” read Frank Johnstone’s report.
Yes, England had. And with that last-gasp goal, Atyeo secured England’s place in the 1958 World Cup.
May 24th, 1964
Republic of Ireland 1 England 3
The sunshine in Dublin was all the Irish contingent had to be thankful for in May 1964, as another friendly visit by the neighbours ended in an away win.
George Eastham was first to score in what would ultimately be a 3-1 win for England, joined by Johnny Byrne and Jimmy Greaves either side of the break. Fred Strahan clawed back Ireland’s only goal, but as Séamus Devlin’s report noted: “Few people, least of all the players themselves, went to the Phibsboro enclosure in the expectation of being party to a first class surprise”.
September 8th, 1976
England 1 Republic of Ireland 1
It was more than a decade before Ireland were welcomed back to Wembley for a friendly, and they were now led by player-manager Johnny Giles.
The national team were finding their stride, with Peter Byrne stating in his report that the 1-1 draw in London “was our best result in six meetings with the most uncompromising of our ancient enemies”.
Stuart Pearson scored the first goal of the evening for England just before the half-time whistle, but a penalty in the 57th minute offered an opportunity to level the game, and Gerry Daly was happy to oblige.
October 25th, 1978
Republic of Ireland 1 England 1
In late 1978, qualification for the European Championships was again the goal for Ireland, but it proved an uphill battle.
“The road to Rome, never better than stony, was rendered virtually impassable to Johnny Giles and his Republic of Ireland team at Lansdowne yesterday when the loss of a home point to England may well have doomed our prospects of qualifying for a place in the finals of the European Championship,” Peter Byrne wrote of the Group One encounter.
It could have been worse. With Giles confined to the stands and his influence sorely missed, Bob Latchford scored for England in the opening 10 minutes, leaving Gerry Daly to supply the equaliser in the 27th.
Ireland showed character to get back on level-pegging, but as Byrne surmised of a late near-chance by Don Givens: “In that moment, I think, we all sensed that this Homeric struggle was, indeed, destined to end in deadlock.”
February 6th, 1980
England 2 Republic of Ireland 0
And back to Wembley we go. Ireland’s chances of qualifying for Euro 1980 had already gone up in flames, but England still had designs on qualifying with an unbeaten record in Group One, which is exactly what they did.
A brace from Kevin Keegan secured Ron Greenwood’s men their place at the tournament in Rome. The only consolation is that England then failed to get out of Group Two.
March 26th, 1985
England 2 Republic of Ireland 1
To set the scene, this 1985 friendly came after Ireland failed to qualify for both the 1982 World Cup and Euro 84. The team was at a low ebb, and this result at Wembley did nothing to change that.
The “mere fledglings” of Trevor Steven and Gary Lineker were the scorers for England, while a late goal from Liam Brady “did little to sap the sting from a deeply disturbing defeat,” wrote Peter Byrne.
June 12th, 1988
England 0 Republic of Ireland 1
The latter part of the 1980s marked a golden era for Irish soccer with the appointment of Jack Charlton, epitomised by a magic win in Stuttgart.
Facing England in their first fixture in Group Two at Euro 88, a Ray Houghton header in the sixth minute put Ireland in control. But the performance of Packie Bonner in goal to keep Bobby Robson’s men scoreless was equally important to the end result.
“Somebody once said that fortune favours the brave,” Charlton said after the 1-0 win, “and God, our lads were brave this afternoon.”
Unfortunately, Ireland failed to make it out of the group stages, drawing 1-1 with the Soviet Union before losing 1-0 to the Netherlands.
June 11th, 1990
England 1 Republic of Ireland 1
Italia 90 – the tournament that lives fondly in the Irish psyche.
Group F had Jack Charlton and his charges in the company of Egypt, the Netherlands and, of course, England. The Ireland-England game was the group opener, ending in a 1-1 draw.
Gary Lineker gave England an early lead, with Kevin Myers writing from Cagliari: “Up to 15 minutes from full time, it seemed that an England victory was a formality.” However, “Kevin Sheedy’s late equaliser brought jubilation to the Irish crowd, whose support for their team never diminished throughout the 90 minutes.”
Sheedy’s goal came in the 73rd minute, securing the first of Ireland’s three group-stage draws, which were enough to put them through to the knockouts, where we got past Romania after penalties. We probably don’t need to remind you of how the quarter-finals played out.
November 14th, 1990
Republic of Ireland 1 England 1
With the craic, chaos and, ultimately, heartbreak of Italy behind us, Ireland were back to focusing on qualifying for the European Championship finals of 1992.
Group Seven had us again up against England, welcoming them to Lansdowne Road. Described by Peter Byrne as a “contest of willpower”, Ireland extracted a point from the meeting after Tony Cascarino replied to David Platt’s goal, both coming in the second half.
“It was, in many respects, a re-run of the World Cup game, hard and combative with the tension of the occasion compensating fully for the deficiencies in sophistication,” Peter Byrne wrote of the game, adding that as in Cagliari that June, “the character of the Irish was quite superb and jutting their jaws, they came back to contrive an equaliser which will live long in the memories of a capacity 45,000 crowd and the millions who followed an absorbing plot on television on either side of the Irish Sea.”
March 27th, 1991
England 1 Republic of Ireland 1
Ireland travelled to London for the return fixture and as was the theme with these fixtures, there was a goal within the opening 10 minutes, this time from England’s Lee Dixon via a deflection off the unfortunate Steve Staunton.,Ireland chased the equaliser and got it,in the 29th minute thanks to Niall Quinn.
A draw was a disappointing result for Ireland given how they outplayed their hosts for most of the match. “Coming here, I would gladly have settled for a point and yet I feel just a little disappointed,” the gaffer said after the game. “We dominated the game in the second half and we may yet live to regret the fact that we didn’t make that superiority count.” Unfortunately, Charlton was on the money. Ireland finished a point below England in the group and failed to qualify for Euro 92 despite going undefeated in the qualifiers.
February 15th, 1995
Republic of Ireland A-A England (match abandoned after 27 minutes)
A game remembered for all the wrong reasons.
“50 hurt as England supporters go on rampage at ‘friendly’ match”, stated the front-page headline of The Irish Times the morning after Terry Venables’s English outfit came to Lansdowne Road for a friendly that had to be abandoned just short of the 30-minute mark.
At least 45 fans were arrested and around 30 people were taken to hospital, many of whom had sustained minor head injuries after violence broke out shortly after David Kelly scored for the home side in the 22nd minute.
May 29th, 2013
England 1 Republic of Ireland 1
It was almost a decade before the sides met again, with Giovanni Trapattoni now at the helm. The Italian, whose tenure had started strongly despite Ireland missing out on a spot at the 2010 World Cup (merci beaucoup, Thierry Henry’s) and he had guided Ireland to the Euro 2012 finals, our first major tournament since the 2002 World Cup.
Fast forward to May the following year, with Trap and his men in Wembley. England’s starting XI wasn’t short of a few household names, including Michael Carrick, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and captain Ashley Cole, but Ireland had John O’Shea, Robbie Keane, Séamus Coleman and a 26-year-old from Tipperary who loved to score.
Shane Long’s header off a long cross supplied by Coleman to beat England goalkeeper Joe Hart set the Irish fans rocking in the 13th minute, and even Lampard’s 23rd-minute reply did little to dampen the mood. Win some, lose some, draw some.
June 7th, 2015
Republic of Ireland 0 England 0
As an interlude to qualification for Euro 2016, at which we did ultimately make an appearance, the dynamic duo of Martin O’Neill and his assistant manager Roy Keane offered Roy Hodgson an invitation to bring his team to the Aviva, two decades on from the trouble of 1995.
“The riot squad were on standby throughout, lurking in the background like the ghost of the abandoned game from 1995,” Frank McNally wrote of the game. “But any prospect of England fans throwing seats on to the pitch again disappeared early. This time they had come armed only with sarcasm.” The sarcasm in question was a chant by the English crowd claiming ex-Fifa president Sepp Blatter had paid for the Aviva’s facelift.
As McNally concisely put it: “If only the exchanges on the pitch had been as lively.”
November 12th, 2020
England 3 Republic of Ireland 0
Ireland’s last outing against England was a Covid visit to Wembley, and given the result, it was probably best that the game was behind closed doors.
Granted, England were flying high under Gareth Southgate at the time, while Stephen Kenny was still in the early days of his stewardship, but the 3-0 loss was hardly good for morale during a global pandemic.
Emmet Malone highlighted the friendly presented a good opportunity for England to hand out some international debuts, and get a confidence boost of a handy win, but added: “It is a little harder to gauge precisely what the benefits to the visitors were, but after so many games against teams ranked roughly around the same level, they were certainly reminded of the fact that a better team will punish the sort of defending they produced at times here.”
Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho and Dominic Calvert-Lewin all capitalised on that shaky defence, the latter from the penalty spot, ending Ireland’s 35-year unbeaten run against the noisy neighbours.
