My conversation with Stephen Byrne seemed to attract mention of the year 1990. The Irish sporting significance of the year needs no explanation, not even to the most ardent of footballing philistines. The summer of that year gave birth to anecdotes, embellishments and bolloxology that have kept lit a twinkle in the eye of every Irishman and woman ever since; the summer "the country shut down", as the story goes.  The Irish soccer team's exploits at that summer's World Cup in Italy inspired a level of adoration and booze-lined celebration that serve as a fine microcosm for the passion brought about in fans by football in general. Italia '90 is an example of why we are so enamoured with football, why we are so obsessed. It is fitting, then, that this was the year in which Stephen Byrne, himself a lifelong footballing devotee, was born.

1990 should have given the footballing world more than just the joy of a World Cup: it was also the year in which Justin Fashanu, football's first black £1million signing, came out to the world as being gay. Yet, the girders that upheld homosexuality as a taboo in football were not so easily toppled. Fashanu died tragically by suicide eight years later; in the intervening twenty-seven years since his announcement, not one active professional player in the top four flights of English football has announced their homosexuality publicly.

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