A player can score and miss a game due to suspension, or injury, or just not picked by the manager, or management committee in the early days of the international side, and then score in their next appearance.
With that in mind, we've examined the playing records of all players with three or more international goals, and from that we've found the following players who scored in three or more consecutive appearances.
For the purposes of the article "consecutive games" refers to consecutive games of the Irish national side, and "consecutive appearances" refers to two or more caps by a players, which may not be in consecutive games. Where a record is the same as in the consecutive games article, we'll refer to it, but won't go into any detail.
Paddy Moore scored against Spain on his debut in April 1931, but missed the return game against the Spanish the following December, and went on to score against the Netherlands in 1932, then scored against Belgium and the Netherlands again in 1934 (there were no international games in 1933) becoming the first international to score in four consecutive appearances in the process.
In 1936 Jimmy Dunne became the second player to score in three consecutive games for Ireland, scoring against Switzerland, Hungary, and Luxembourg. The Dublin born striker had also scored in his previous appearance, his international debut, against Belgium in 1930 and scored again against the Swiss in his next international appearance in 1937. As previously mentioned, the striker also scored in three other consecutive games against Norway twice in late 1937 and Czechoslovakia the following May.
Tom Davis scored on his international debut against Germany in October 1936, and found the back of the net from 12 yards in the following game against Hungary two months later, but had to wait 18 months for his next cap, and goal, against Czechoslovakia, the same game where Jimmy Dunne completed his five appearance scoring streak.
The next player to score in three consecutive appearances was Con Martin, scoring against Spain, Finland and England in 1949.
Six years later, Arthur Fitzsimons scored in the first of his three consecutive international appearances against Yugoslavia, Spain and then the Netherlands in 1956
A year after the final goal of Fitzsimons' triple, Dermot Curtis scored against Denmark before scoring again when the national side faced both Poland and Austria in 1958
Fionan Fagan became the second player to scored in four consecutive appearances for the Republic with his strikes against Germany, Sweden, Wales and Norway in 1960
Two years later, Liam Tuohy scored in three consecutive appearances against Austra in April, and then home and away against Iceland
No player would manage to score in three consecutive appearances again until Frank Stapleton reached double figures for the Republic with a late winner in a Euro 84 qualifier against Malta in 1983, having scored against Iceland and Spain in the two previous qualifiers for the tournament to be held in France.
Tony Cascarino's goals in the last two qualifiers for Euro 1992 against Poland and Turkey were preceded by a strike in his previous appearance for Ireland against the USA in a friendly in June.
As was detailed in Part I, Robbie Keane scored in four consecutive games beginning with his equaliser against Germany in 2002, but Ireland's record striker also scored in four consecutive appearances in 2011 when he scored against Northern Ireland and Scotland in the Nations Cup, bookended by two strikes against Macedonia in home and away qualifiers against the former Yugoslav Republic in March and June.
The research we've conducted into scoring records was inspired by the three consecutive appearances where Stephen Ireland scored, the opener against Cyprus in the 5-2 loss, the last minute winner against San Marino and the first goal scored by and Irish international at Croke Park in the 1-0 win over Wales.
Robbie Brady is the latest player to score in three consecutive games, after scoring against Italy, and France at Euro 2016 and the friendly against Oman which also marked the end of Robbie Keane's international career.
| Player | Streak | Games | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jimmy Dunne | 5 |
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| Paddy Moore | 4 |
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| Fionan Fagan | 4 |
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| Robbie Keane | 4 |
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| Robbie Keane | 4 |
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| Tom Davis | 3 |
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| Jimmy Dunne | 3 |
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| Con Martin | 3 |
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| Arthur Fitzsimons | 3 |
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| Dermot Curtis | 3 |
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| Liam Tuohy | 3 |
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| Frank Stapleton | 3 |
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| Tony Cascarino | 3 |
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| Stephen Ireland | 3 |
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| Robbie Brady | 3 |
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