Tonight is a historic moment in the history of the game in Ireland. Ours is a long game, in which sacrifices must be made in order to reach the final glorious target of victory. This evening we continued to execute the plan we set in motion from day 1. The road saw defeats against Turkey and Switzerland which were hard to bear, and brought sorrow to our isle. Yet these were necessary to reach our ultimate goal.

This evening as we sat down to play Portugal, every member of the team was determined to bring happiness to our people. The scoreline quickly reached 2-0 in our favour, a dangerous moment, which was skillfully brought under control by Eoghan ceding his own game on board 4. This brought too much pressure to bear on Portugal’s board 3. As James laid the final stone, cementing the perfect 3-1 result, tears began to form in my eyes with the sudden realisation of the great work we had accomplished. The irish team had finished in 4th place in the league, 1 place above the UK.

Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death.
Horseman, pass by!