Jack Charlton 1969 Dutch National Archive (Wikicommons)
Dermot Carmody
A visit to this year’s Little Museum Of Dublin exhibition Italia 90 And Jack Charlton (before the museum’s activities were curtailed by lockdown measures) reminded us not just of the sad departure in July of an English and Irish football giant, but of a very different summer 30 years ago.
In many ways it is hard to imagine a greater contrast in mood and atmosphere in Dublin summers than that between the summer this year and that of 30 years ago in 1990. Look at the front page of The Irish Times for the 1st of July 2020 and, as has been the case for much of this year, the news is dominated by Covid and the uncertainty, fear and anxiety associated with the pandemic which have affected the city and the country. But look back at the front page of the same publication thirty years before and there’s ample evidence of a different and much more beneficent fever which had gripped the whole country with its thrilling and dramatic ravages. That was the day when at least 500,000 people turned out in Dublin to welcome back the Republic of Ireland football squad from their heroic exploits in the World Cup Finals of Italia 90. Heroes to a man, no doubt, but none more so than the lanky, flat-capped Northumberland-born mastermind of the unlikely adventure, Jack Charlton.