Although they have watched the World Cup in large numbers and turned Cape Verde’s Dublin-born defender Pico Lopes into a national treasure, Irish football fans have endured a difficult summer.

After the ecstasy of Budapest and the agony of Prague, it has been tough not to think what might have been had Heimir Hallgrímsson’s team made it through the World Cup qualifier play-offs.

And it has been equally impossible not to hark back to the Boys in Green’s wondrous first World Cup. From Kevin Sheedy’s daisy cutter against England to the sight of 500,000 people welcoming Jack Charlton and his players home, Italia 90’s significance for Ireland went beyond football and into the realm of nation-building. These memories merit their place in the national photo album.

Still, we shouldn’t forget that 1990 was also a formative year for the women’s game, which is finally getting the recognition it deserves nearly four decades later.

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