1955: v Yugoslavia

It was religion, not politics, which was responsible for the furore which preceded the first of Yugoslavia's two games in Dublin. In 1955, the visit was somehow construed by the Irish Catholic Church as an endorsement of President Tito's communist regime.

John Charles McQuaid, the Archbishop of Dublin, was responsible for orchestrating the campaign to have the game cancelled. And when the FAI refused to do so, he called on Catholics to boycott the match.

RTE went ahead with plans to broadcast the game, but when members of the sports department refused to co-operate, the programme was abruptly cancelled.

Some 22,000 soccer enthusiasts refused to heed the call, however, and in spite of protest demonstrations in the vicinity of the stadium, the game went ahead.

In a game which marked the first appearance of Liam Tuohy, the visitors won 4-1 and the crowd streamed away convinced that if Yugoslavia was on the road to religious and political ruin, at least they had a decent football team.

1974: v Chile

The atrocities perpetrated in Chile in the early 1970s invoked the wrath of much of the world. Thus, when the Republic of Ireland's game with the Chileans was arranged for the National Stadium in Santiago, scene of at least some of the outrages, it occasioned a huge backlash.

Before the game, some players voiced the opinion that by playing in the National Stadium, they would be seen to endorse the despised political regime in Chile.

Controversially, however, the FAI decided that they would fulfil the fixture, a judgement which was heavily criticised in a spate of correspondence to the national newspapers.

Ireland won with goals from Eoin Hand and Jimmy Conway.

1982: South American Tour

The FAI stumbled into further controversy in 1982 when a hastily arranged South American tour was cobbled together at a time when Britain was at war with Argentina.

With scant regard for the implications of the Falklands War, somehow agreed to a game with Argentina as part of a three-match schedule.

Not surprisingly, several English clubs, among them Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, refused to allow their players to join the tour, leaving manager Eoin Hand without the nucleus of the team which had come so close to reaching the World Cup finals in Spain.

Eventually, the Argentinian segment of the programme was deleted but at that stage, attitudes had hardened and the bigger English clubs refused to take account of the new situation.

Not surprisingly, the team's performances suffered and an embarrassing 7-0 defeat by Brazil in Uberlandia was compounded by defeats at the hands of Chile and Trinidad and Tobago.

1981: v Poland

Before the FAI agreed to accept a fixture against Poland at Bydgoszcz in May 1981, they had been warned of impending civil unrest in the country.

Poland's Solidarity movement was under renewed threat by the authorities and the advice to the association was to return home after fulfilling the first game of their close season tour, against West Germany at Bremen.

They decided to travel on to Bydgoszcz, only to discover that the movement, spearheaded by Lech Walesa, had been crushed the previous day and the country was in turmoil.

Even then, there was no order to retreat and after days of deprivation with little or no food in the city, the Irish party was met by a hostile crowd when they turned up at the stadium for the game. Packie Bonner, winning his first cap on his 21st birthday, had to retrieve the ball from his net on three occasions.