Saipan 20 years on - Part V: Aftermath, a World Cup

Fifty-eight years before Roy Keane called Mick McCarthy a ‘c***,’ and a ‘w***er,’ the Battle of Saipan claimed the lives of 50,000 soldiers and civilians, including thousands of mass suicides sparked by Japanese misinformation about the barbarity of the invading Americans.

Or so we’ve been told by the victors, who tend to write history.

This is an oral account of a phoney war, where nobody died and everybody lost, with the factual record diverging over the past two decades depending on each person’s perspective.

"We had a lovely day yesterday, we went up to Suicide Cliff and learned the history," Roy Keane told The Irish Times on May 23rd, 2002. "I enjoyed that, that's the nice side of it, but I keep saying to everybody we're here to prepare for the World Cup.

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“I was going to go back up there today to that cliff!” Keane laughed. “Add an Irishman to the list.”

Saipan – the actors

Mick McCarthy – Republic of Ireland manager Roy Keane – Republic of Ireland captain Malachy Logan – Irish Times sports editor Paul Howard – Author of 'The Gaffers' and 'Triggs' Bertie Ahern – An Taoiseach Johnny Fallon – Republic of Ireland kitman Tommie Gorman – RTÉ news and current affairs Liam Gaskin – McCarthy's agent and friend Jason McAteer – Right midfield (interview via LV Bet) Kevin Kilbane – Left midfield Chiedozie Ogbene – Age 5

Jason McAteer: The 1994 World Cup was the best experience of my life. It was just amazing. Everything about it was brilliant.

Kevin Kilbane: Off we went to a little town in the middle of nowhere. Izumo. Crop fields everywhere. You could imagine how Japan used to be. But the facilities were top class.

Paul Howard: I remember going to the first training session in Japan. It was indoors. There was a Nike ad at the time that said 'losers go home' and at the end of the session McCarthy shouted 'losers go home' and everyone took it as a pointed attack at Roy Keane. And then he announced that he wouldn't be talking about Roy Keane anymore.

Johnny Fallon: The atmosphere was really difficult. Media lads were all outside the hotel. Strange phone calls were coming from home. Bertie was getting involved. And Roy was coming back. We had a meeting and Mick asked the players what they wanted to do.

Mick McCarthy (to squad): "You can do one of three things. You can back me, you can do nothing at all or you can support Roy."

Kevin Kilbane: We knew we were a better team with Roy. We also knew, having been in that meeting, that it would be really difficult for Mick to pick Roy.

Paul Howard: That whole week before Cameroon the story was changing by the hour – will he or won't he come back? It became the first story where the internet had taken over from newspapers.

Liam Gaskin: I had Mick's contract signed. It was in my bag. I went to Mick to sign it two or three months before we went. Mick said I will sign it but 'I don't want you to give it back to them because I want you to negotiate bonuses for the backroom staff.' When I got out there Mick said 'Hold onto it' because if this goes badly 'I'll walk away, I won't want another two years.'

Paul Howard: It was the only World Cup I covered and I didn't enjoy any of it. I was only at six matches because we had press conferences the whole time. The Roy Keane stuff made it hard to concentrate on the football. Even the happiness of Ireland reaching the last 16, you were kind of faking it because you knew Ireland's best player wasn't there. He was the other side of the world walking a Labrador.

Jason McAteer: I went there as a senior pro, and had to deal with all the stuff off the pitch as well. I was heavily involved in that. I'd to do more interviews and be accountable for what had happened. It soured the experience.

Kevin Kilbane: Even now, living in Canada, not a week goes by when someone doesn't ask me about Roy Keane, Saipan and eventually the penalty shoot-out.

Liam Gaskin: Before the Spanish game Mick said to me 'You know this World Cup is going to be remembered for my spat with Roy Keane and Roy going home? Not for the next 50 years, it will be talked about in 150 years.' I thought he was exaggerating but he is right and I don't get it.

Part VI - Sliding Doors

Roy Keane (September 2002): "I couldn't go on. I'm sure Mick would say the same. It just wasn't happening for us. We tried. He tried as hard as me. And I did try."

Kevin Kilbane: When someone is calling the manager a 'c***' in front of his players there is not much wiggle room! But that streak in Roy to say 'no, f*** you,' that's what made him the best in the world.

Johnny Fallon: Twenty years later, like leave football out of it, you are able to talk to the ex-taoiseach about it. It was such a seismic thing. We were in Saipan so we missed it.

Bertie Ahern: We would have beaten Spain. I know it is funny to say now but they weren't a great team.

Kevin Kilbane: We would have made the semi-final, easily, and probably the final. I feel we would have beat Germany. Luis Enrique, in midfield for Spain, would have felt differently playing against Roy. Because we felt differently. We felt it against Portugal, we felt it against Holland. He would have dominated midfield against Germany and Spain. In every big match around that time I felt we were going to win. We had two players, in Robbie and Damien, who became two of the best we've ever produced. We may not have beaten Brazil but we would have given them a game.

Paul Howard: Looking at what happened at United with Ferguson a few years later, it was almost an exit strategy for Roy Keane.

Liam Gaskin: I think he was just an unhappy guy and it overcame him. I know families fell out over it. I had no ideas these things could happen. I am a Leinster fan since I was 12 and friends of mine are Munster fans – I fucking hate them – but we don't fall out over it. So I never really got families being divided by it.

Jason McAteer: I was there, I lived it. I think, because we had such a good tournament, that it still rankles with people that Roy went home. There are unanswered questions: Why didn't you get him back? Why didn't he come back? There are still a million reasons why it happened and I don't think anyone will ever get to the bottom of it.

Paul Howard: At the time, like a lot of people, I thought it was a 50-50 issue. Two men who couldn't agree over their places in the hierarchy just found it too difficult not to have a row. Years and years of bitterness and resentment just came out. But Keane has fallen out with everyone he has worked with since then and Mick McCarthy has proved himself to be a very good manager and the most eminently decent human being as well.

Liam Gaskin: When Wolves were playing Sunderland [in 2006] I said: 'This is going to be the biggest scrum in history, trying to get a photo of that handshake' and Mick said, 'No, I've contacted Roy and we are meeting for a cup of tea.' Really? 'Yeah, we need to put this thing behind us as the only people benefiting are the media, so we'll finish it.' They had a cup of tea and both exchanged views about how neither of them was wrong, but it was cordial. About three months later Roy was doing a TV programme and he ate the bollicks off Mick again.

Jason McAteer: Roy has his own reasons, he keeps them to himself, as far as I am aware. He's not quite as open as everybody else. So we can't speak for him. Now I am more aware of what goes on mentally I can probably understand why he went home, why it was too much for him. Do I wish it was different? I do. But Roy is a very impulsive character. He believes in what he says. He does what he wants. But listen, he chose to go home. He wasn't sent home. We didn't want him to go home and he made that decision and he has to live with that.

Tommie Gorman: The way Keane performed as a player, he has never been able and never will be able to transfer that into management skills. Because it's entirely instinctive, it's in the genes and I don't think you can pass on that magic. It's like the Bradán Feasa.

Bertie Ahern: I thought about what I would have said to them, many times. I would have been pitching it on: 'Listen, you are two professional guys. Both of you have served the country really well, but this is for the people back home. This is for the kids. This is for the football supporters. This is for the people of the country who need something in their lives to lift them. You guys can do that. You don't have to love each other but in the name of the country, put all this aside.' I would have appealed to their national inclination. You have to leave the argument at the door and get into the discussion: 'The country needs both of you. Don't let a good football team be lost over personal disagreements.'

Paul Howard: The only pity was they couldn't put it off for a few more weeks. Then again, it is hard to share joy with somebody you don't like.

Tommie Gorman: A bit like the Battle of Kinsale or the Armada being blown off course, it will always be a case of, 'What might have been?' There is no total villain in the piece. There was a haphazard level of professionalism by the FAI, which grew and then crashed and burned.

John Delaney (The Irish Times 2012): "I looked upon it as a watershed moment for us . . . Sometimes you've got to hit the bottom of the barrel."

Paul Howard: After the World Cup, when they were destroyed in Russia, the players looked like they had PTSD. Shell-shocked. Exhausted. And then the books came out. Then McAteer was in Keane's ear when they played against each other and Keane eventually cuffed him and got sent off. There was all these afters. They played Switzerland at home and the crowd was chanting 'Keano, Keano, Keano' which let McCarthy know 'We all enjoyed the World Cup but we think you were wrong.'

Jason McAteer: People have this perception that me and Roy despise each other. I can't speak for him, I can only speak for me; I got no problem with Roy. I have bumped into him and it hasn't gone according to my plan.

Chiedozie Ogbene: I am going to be honest, [Saipan] doesn't mean anything to me. I do know Roy Keane from being a Manchester United fan, we used to watch him a lot. It's crazy when you hear that kind of story and what the team did. We just hope to imitate that, to take Ireland back to that position.

Jason McAteer: Saipan, and the 2002 World Cup, just leaves a tinge of sadness. I am not angry with Roy, I am not disgusted with him, I am just sad he wasn't there to prove to the world that he actually was the best centre midfielder of that time. Because he was.

Epilogue

June 16th, 2002 World Cup, round of 16 - Spain 1-1 Ireland (AET, Spain win 3-2 on pens)

“I came out later that afternoon to walk the dog and it was amazing, the street was dead. No story any more. It was like that scene from The General when Martin Cahill comes out on the morning he was shot and there’s absolutely nobody there. I’m looking around wondering if there’s somebody in the bushes, waiting for me.”

Roy Keane, September 2002

[ This is a six-part series. Read parts I and II here ]

[ Read part III here ]

[ Read part IV here ]