During the pandemic Ireland became transfixed by the television adaptation of Normal People.
Director Lenny Abrahamson was faithful to Sally Rooney’s novel with one notable exception – he made Connell a fan of GAA rather than soccer. In one key scene in the book Marianne is in Connell’s room hoping for a lift home but he is too busy watching the Netherlands play Costa Rica for a place in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals to notice.
In Roddy Doyle’s The Van, Maggie’s attempts to market ‘Bimbo Burgers’ using T-shirts featuring Niall Quinn’s head the day after Ireland played Holland at Italia 90 literally dissolve when the striker’s image disappeared after two washes.
In the Father Ted Christmas episode Father Dougal predicts that behind the window on his advent calendar he will find Ruud Gullit sitting on a shed. And then there was the Cork Indie band who simply called themselves Jonny Rep.
So what is it about Dutch football that makes Irish artists reference them so regularly?
One explanation might be that Ireland’s golden era was stage-posted by major tournament meetings with the Netherlands. The Wim Kieft fluke that eliminated Ireland from Euro 88, a mutually satisfactory draw at Italia 90 and the Wim Jonk shot that squirmed though Packie Bonner’s hands at USA 94.
Perhaps appropriately, the Dutch ended the Charlton era with a 2-0 victory at Anfield in a Euro 96 play-off. Even qualification for the 2002 World Cup was sparked by a 1-0 home victory over the Netherlands and when things began to spectacularly unravel the Dutch got their traditional reference with Roy Keane asking “Do you think Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is eating cheese sandwiches?”
But links between Ireland and Netherlands go back to the very start. Ireland’s first international competition was the 1924 Paris Olympics when they were eliminated in the quarter-finals 2-1 by the Netherlands. And when the Netherlands entered the World Cup for the first time in 1934 their first ever opponents were Ireland, who they beat 5-2 in Amsterdam.
In 1910 the Wicklow-born John Kirwan became the first professional manager of Ajax. A remarkable sportsman, Kirwan won an All-Ireland Football Championship medal with Dublin aged just 17 before later winning the FA Cup with Spurs. Kirwan managed Ajax for four years, guiding them into the top flight for the first time and was behind the club’s adoption of their iconic white jersey with a red vertical stripe.
The Irish connection with Ajax was reinforced in 1987 when Frank Stapleton was bought by Johan Cruyff to replace AC Milan-bound Marco Van Basten. However the honour of being signed by the greatest Dutch footballer ever to replace the second greatest Dutch footballer ever was somewhat diminished when Cruyff revealed in his autobiography that he had spent months attempting to sign Cyrille Regis instead.
However, when Coventry City unexpectedly beat Spurs to win the FA Cup, Regis became too expensive so Cruyff signed Stapleton instead who “didn’t cost anything, because he was still vulnerable to injury”. Stapleton only made a handful of appearances for Ajax with his only goal coming against Dundalk in the European Cup Winners Cup.
More recently a number of Irish internationals have played in Holland including David Connolly (Feyenoord) and Jack Byrne (SC Cambuur). Currently competing in the Eredivisie are Troy Parrott at Excelsior Rotterdam and under-21 international Anselmo García MacNulty who last weekend started a match for PEC Zwolle for the first time. Making the reverse journey is Dutch midfielder Thjis Timmermans who plays for St Patrick’s Athletic.
However the greatest Dutch contribution to Irish soccer has been made by coaches rather than players. In 2013 Ruud Dokter replaced fellow Dutchman Wim Koevermans as the FAI’s high performance director, holding the position for eight years. And coach Vera Pauw led the Ireland’s woman’s team to a historic first World Cup only to be then denied a contract extension.
Pauw can at least console herself that disgruntlement with the FAI runs all the way to the very top of the Dutch football hierarchy. In his autobiography Johan Cruyff reveals that he was heavily involved in the negotiations to move Wimbledon FC to Dublin but “unfortunately the plan came to a standstill because the Football Association of Ireland didn’t want to co-operate”.
The FAI took the view that if a club played here they had to participate in Irish competitions which Cruyff believed explained why “…even today Ireland has to get by without a top-level club”.
Ronald Koeman is in his second spell as manager of the Netherlands and is the son, brother and father of professional footballers. He is particularly close to older brother, Erwin, who was his team-mate on the victorious Dutch team at Euro ‘88 and has been one of his coaching assistants at Southampton, Everton and now the Netherlands.
Koeman’s last professional trip to Ireland came in December 2018 when he visited the Convention Centre for the Euro 2020 qualifying draw little realising the neither he nor Dublin would actually end up participating in the finals.
By the time the delayed tournament took place in 2021 Koeman had left to manage Barcelona and Ireland had withdrawn as co-hosts for the competition.
A number of Koeman’s squad will return to Ireland with much happier memories having won the European Under-17 Championships here in 2019.
Unsurprisingly, a number of the outstanding Netherlands team that defeated Italy 4-2 in the final at Tallaght Stadium have already graduated to the senior squad including Brian Brobbey and captain Kenneth Taylor (both Ajax) and Ian Maatsen (Chelsea) who recently rejected a £31.5 million move to Burnley.
The most recent meeting between Irish and Dutch clubs came in 2021 when Dundalk were beaten 4-3 on aggregate by Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League.
Encouragingly, Stephen Kenny has a good record against Dutch opposition as he was Dundalk manager in 2016 when they drew 1-1 away to AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League group stages, thus securing a historic first ever point for a League of Ireland team in European club competition.
