Advertisement

How well do you remember Irish football's most infamous event?

This week marks the anniversary of the time when Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy fell out ahead of the 2002 World Cup.

Which of these players did Keane have a heated argument with?
Alan Kelly
Damien Duff

Steve Finnan
Matt Holland
What film did Keano watch on the journey home?
Moulin Rouge!
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Reign of Fire
Training Day
Which of these musicians did Keane not reference in a newspaper interview with Paul Kimmage at the time?
Phil Collins
Sting

Bob Dylan
Tupac
And which song did Kimmage quote back at him?
'Smooth Criminal' by Michael Jackson
'I Wanna Be Adored' by The Stone Roses

'I am a Rock' by Simon and Garfunkel
'Sorry seems to be the hardest word' by Elton John
What did Keane famously liken the football pitch in Saipan to?
A nightclub
A rugby pitch

A swimming pool
A car park
After the heated row, which two players visited Keane in his room to show their support for him?
Niall Quinn and Steve Staunton
Robbie Keane and Damien Duff

Gary Breen and David Connolly
Shay Given and Clinton Morrison
What did Mick McCarthy reportedly accuse Keane of doing during their falling out?
Not trying hard enough
Faking an injury

Being too harsh on the young players
Hurting his feelings
Who was Keane less than impressed with seeing at the airport on their way to Saipan?
Bertie Ahern
Mary Robinson

Jason McAteer
Bono
What did Keane deny having, as he made his way through the airport?
Bottled water
Personal problems

Homesickness
Regrets
"And did you not see the [chaos at] check-in? And then we go into this lounge and there's two guys dressed as leprechauns... Telling me to cheer up. They want me to pose for a photograph." Which paper were the leprechauns representing, as the Irish team prepared to fly to Saipan?
The Irish Times
The Mirror

The Sun
The Irish Independent
Answer all the questions to see your result!
You scored out of !
Niall Quinn
You remember Saipan so well that you were probably there.
Share your result:
You scored out of !
Passionate Irish fan
You remember it well enough to have a decent knowledge of what went on. But what's more important is that [insert name here] was right.
Share your result:
You scored out of !
John Delaney
It didn't go exactly as planned, but you made the best of a bad situation.
Share your result:
You scored out of !
Jack Grealish
You may have been born, but you were probably too young to remember anything significant.
Share your result:

Ireland bow out of European Championships after Spurs youngster’s spectacular strike>

Kenny Cunningham is wrong — Jack Grealish deserves time to make up his mind>

Close
41 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cosmo Kramer
    Favourite Cosmo Kramer
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:11 PM

    Some set of baps on the bird on the second question

    361
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gabbi Johnson
    Favourite Gabbi Johnson
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:25 PM

    This is why i like coming to ‘the 42′. None of that feminist bs round here.

    174
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute gary jordan
    Favourite gary jordan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:29 PM

    After scrolling back up furiously I totally concur

    368
    See 6 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ben Redline
    Favourite Ben Redline
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:56 PM

    Please don’t call them baps – everybody knows they’re called Funbags

    91
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fran Heavey
    Favourite Fran Heavey
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 6:01 PM

    Looks like a porno

    51
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean Kerr
    Favourite Sean Kerr
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 6:40 PM

    Don’t be stupid, everyone knows they’re called Chesticles

    49
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scrap Croke Park1
    Favourite Scrap Croke Park1
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 7:42 PM

    Screen did a wheel spin heading back up to check. And yes. Impressive

    54
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pearse McMullen
    Favourite Pearse McMullen
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 8:36 PM

    Baps?
    I thought it was that old pop group Right Said Fred hiding out

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tommy Leydon
    Favourite Tommy Leydon
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 10:18 PM

    They call them baps in glenflesk even named the two domed hills after them The Baps!!

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peter Keenan
    Favourite Peter Keenan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:20 PM

    Only scored 6/10. But I’m definitely renting ‘Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

    140
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jackson O Sullivan
    Favourite Jackson O Sullivan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:23 PM

    “Which newspaper were the leprechauns representing?”

    A no-brainer…

    135
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gene Parmesan
    Favourite Gene Parmesan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 8:16 PM

    @Jackson the question or the readership of the paper?

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sinead Hanley
    Favourite Sinead Hanley
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:07 PM

    I am John Delaney… ooo e’er. At least I am not Mick Mccarthy..

    I thought I’d get 10 out 10 cos I read every paper at the time and I still have to this day all the cuttings in a scrapbook for my grandchildren.. How sad am I. .

    118
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sloop John G
    Favourite Sloop John G
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:31 PM

    Very sad Sinead. I would use both sad and pathetic to the Journal for putting up this article. What’s this continuous fascination with Roy Keane, the Saipan story is 13 years old for Christ sake and is hardly newsworthy. Slow day at the office today Mr Fennessy?

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul O Mahony
    Favourite Paul O Mahony
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:12 PM

    I thought the mist infamous event in Irish football was Mick McCarthy not realising Spain were down to ten men.

    112
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Ryan
    Favourite John Ryan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:25 PM

    I thought it was the riot at Landsdown Rd tbh .

    68
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jimmy Murphy
    Favourite Jimmy Murphy
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:54 PM

    It was an unbelievable mess from which everyone lost out.

    Mccarthy lost his job afterward, Keane lost his only chance to shine in a WC and the fans lost a chance to see the team really progress in a tournament full of wild cards & dark horses.

    All round balls up, really.

    90
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ciananto
    Favourite ciananto
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 8:06 PM

    They were both wrong! The preparations were clearly a royal f*** up, Roy couldn’t hack it and flew off the handle! McCarthy should’ve handled it better and Roy shouldn’t have lost the rag, but it isn’t an ideal world. At the time I was all pro Roy but lookin back the whole thing was a sorry sorry mess! How the fai sat back and let the whole thing fester to the point of no return still beggars belief! Even without Roy we should’ve beaten Spain, mick not seeing they had ten players and then admitting that they hadn’t practised penalties (some of the worst penalties ever taken by the way). Still not fully over that game, but Iv since gotten over my dislike of mcarthy and respect him a lot, he’s a very good club manager and a decent man. But back then the whole thing was all wrong wrong wrong by everybody and for everybody! To argue he was sent home / walked away is all too simplistic!!
    Ah it’s still hurts!!

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Will Derbylight
    Favourite Will Derbylight
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:24 PM

    Saipan made Keane world famous – as the only player to desert his country during a World Cup finals.

    At least – he now ( in his book and elsewhere) admits to his error.

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor O'Callaghan
    Favourite Conor O'Callaghan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:30 PM

    He was sent home. But who needs facts anyway.

    61
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor O'Callaghan
    Favourite Conor O'Callaghan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:39 PM

    Hi Omar, here’s a link to Mick McCarthy saying he sent him home. Feel free to ignore it sure.

    http://www.irishtimes.com/news/this-week-they-said-1.1058507

    58
    See 6 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor O'Callaghan
    Favourite Conor O'Callaghan
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:54 PM

    I doubt it. He didn’t walk though, as you stated. That’s the point I was arguing.

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Will Derbylight
    Favourite Will Derbylight
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:57 PM

    Sent home/walked – he orchestrated it, in any event. His action (whatever it may have been!) has been acknowledged by himself as wrong.

    Football since has moved on – a long way. And it is unlikely that Ireland all ever be in a WC finals again.

    Saipan had a distinct last 16 possibility, for non-moaners.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul O Mahony
    Favourite Paul O Mahony
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 6:45 PM

    Maybe if our manager at the time realised Spain were down to ten man and tried to capitalise on it we would have. That wouldn’t happen in school boys football.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Póg Mo Goal
    Favourite Póg Mo Goal
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 7:09 PM

    The player himself has said multiple times since “Mick sent me nowhere”. As recently as in his newest book. Christ after 13 years you’d think people would finally grasp this

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mark
    Favourite mark
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 8:14 PM

    Do you mean japan/Korea. There was no world cup in saipan

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute TellingItAsItIs
    Favourite TellingItAsItIs
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 11:04 PM

    The arrogant tool left us when we needed him most. I’ll never forgive him for that.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute pokethebear
    Favourite pokethebear
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:34 PM

    Faster Pussy Cat, Kill, Kill…..the story board sounds like a classic: Three strippers holding a young girl hostage come across a crippled old man living with his two sons in the desert.

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Colin Treacy
    Favourite Colin Treacy
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:54 PM

    Going to see if I can find it on show box.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute tmwtbc
    Favourite tmwtbc
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 6:23 PM

    Saw it years ago on Channel 4. Russ Meyer, the director, had a definite preference for the busty girls in his films.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rodger 5
    Favourite Rodger 5
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 6:15 PM

    All water under the bridge, but interesting that Bertie’s appearance wound him up, seems he had good instincts.

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul O Mahony
    Favourite Paul O Mahony
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 6:47 PM

    Ya, he could spot a bluffer a mile away.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mossy lyons
    Favourite mossy lyons
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:46 PM

    Did he not watch fawlty towers on the plane back to cheer himself up

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Hickey
    Favourite David Hickey
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 7:42 PM

    I think the main confusion over the event is the fact that Keane was sent home. He didn’t leave. (Not that he gave them much choice).

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Póg Mo Goal
    Favourite Póg Mo Goal
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 8:12 PM

    David, there is absolutely no confusion. You can convince yourself all you like. Search Tony O’Donoghue’s one on one interview on YouTube and go to 2.30 and hear it from straight from the horse’s mouth

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave O'Hanlon
    Favourite Dave O'Hanlon
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 9:14 PM

    Idiots in Leprechaun costumes, could only be the Sun

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David adams
    Favourite David adams
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 5:59 PM

    This is not Irish footballs most infamous event. That French mut Thierry Henry and his big fat hand. That’s more terrible. The mut that he is.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute StevenSeagull
    Favourite StevenSeagull
    Report
    May 27th 2015, 10:26 AM

    Get over it. You would have done the exact same if you were in that situation. Anybody that says otherwise is a liar. Elaborate on how he is a mut ? This probably coming from a fella who lives the life of one.

    Gobdaw.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mindfulirish
    Favourite Mindfulirish
    Report
    May 15th 2015, 12:08 AM

    Roy Keane is a traitor and should be shunned in public for his behaviour in Saipan.
    Imagine if Stephan Gerrard or David Becham did that to his team mates and his country, they would never feel safe to walk around.
    We promote him and give him a top job. That is the FAI and Money from rich businessmen with similar values ie screw the country and as many of its people as possible.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Middle Class Cork
    Favourite Middle Class Cork
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 8:36 PM

    I remember Gerry Ryan covering it. He was the only person, at the time, to support Keane.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Middle Class Cork
    Favourite Middle Class Cork
    Report
    May 14th 2015, 8:37 PM

    *publicly

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.