Claire Foy, The Three Manchester Martyrs, and Italia '90

I don't usually watch "Who Do You Think You Are?", the show where celebrities climb their family tree to see where they came from, and who they really are, but recently came across actress Claire Foy's episode while channel hopping (something we did before streaming) and found it quite interesting.

Foy's 3x-Great Grandfather John Henry Martin, and his brother William, were two of many arrests made in Manchester following the murder of Manchester police officer Charles Brett, who was shot while escorting Thomas J. Kelly and Timothy Deasy, two leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, to prison.

Both brothers were released after testimonies from friends and family established that they were not present when the attack took place.

The episode referred to the three men who were convicted of the crime - Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien - which triggered a memory of the folk song "Erin's Lovely Lee", which refers to the three men using their surnames as "the three Manchester Martyrs". Searching the term online led to the wikipedia entry for the trial, and this interesting piece of information - at the end of the trial, while addressing the court, Edward O'Meagher-Condon, another man convicted of the murder, whose sentence was overturned following the intervention of the US government(he was a US citizen), ended his speech with the cry "God Save Ireland!", a slogan echoed by his co-accused in the dock and supporters in the public gallery.

The slogan was used in the following days and weeks by supporters of the men appealing for their release, eventually inspiring the folk song "God Save Ireland", written by future Lord Mayor of Dublin Timothy Daniel Sullivan in December 1867. Many versions of the song have been released in the decades since the lyrics were first published, including the Dubliners

You might wonder what this has to do with Irish football? Well, the song gained popularity across the Irish diaspora, to the point where it was the unofficial anthem of Ireland until Amhrán na bhFiann was officially adopted as the national anthem by the Executive Council of the Irish Free State in July 1926. God Save Ireland's popularity continued to grow, eventually becoming a terrace anthem at Celtic Park. The familiarity of the tune in Scotland was confirmed after its melody was used in Scotland's 1978 World Cup unofficial anthem "Ally's Army"

If any of the lyrics sound familiar to fans of the Irish national side, even those born long after Ally McLeod's men returned from Argentina, it's because when Ireland first qualified for the World Cup, they were reused, along with quotes from manager Jack Charlton, in Ireland team song Put 'Em Under Pressure!

So, there you have it, how Claire Foy's great-great-great-grandfather was involved in a case that led to two football anthems!

Further reading

The Manchester Martyrs

Thanks, Jack

We're delighted to welcome Ireland and Brighton striker Rianna Jarrett to the show to discuss her career, and the rising role of minorities in sport in Ireland. Does Sheffield United's success in the Premier League give any clues as to how the new Ireland manager will use their Irish players? Will the Irish players on the fringes of the Southampton squad have a part to play in the manager's future plans? A year ago, Jason Knight hadn't made his professional debut - 12 months on he could be their player of the season. Finally, on the occasion of his passing, we remember Jack Charlton's time in charge of the Irish national side, and what it meant to each of us.

Managerial record

To end the week of Trapattoni statistic blogs, let's look at the record of the Italian, as compared to his predecessors.

Jack Charlton
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	57	25	44.64%	21	11
Friendly	37	22	59.46%	9	6
Total	74	47	50.00%	30	17

Mick McCarthy
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	40	19	47.50%	13	8
Friendly	28	10	35.71%	7	11
Total	68	29	42.65%	20	19

Brian Kerr
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	16	7	43.75%	7	2
Friendly	17	11	64.71%	4	2
Total	33	18	54.55%	11	4

Steve Staunton
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	11	4	36.36%	4	3
Friendly	6	2	16.67%	2	2
Total	17	5	35.29%	6	5

Giovanni Trapattoni
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	35	14	40.00%	13	8
Friendly	29	12	41.38%	9	8
Total	58	26	44.83%	22	16

The history of Ireland competitive victories over higher ranked opposition

In order to qualify for the World Cup in 2014, the Boys in Green will more than likely need to accomplish something not yet achieved under the current regime - defeat a higher ranked opposition in a competitive international*. At the time of writing, Trapattoni's men have fallen two places to 41st in FIFA's rankings, while opponents Sweden are ranked 27th in the world, a drop of three places from their previous ranking, and Austria are 76th after falling five places.

Looking at the history of internationals since the rankings system was first introduced in 1993, there are only six occasions when a superior ranked opposition fell to the Green Army

Date	Level			Rank			Rank
18 June 1994	World Cup Finals	Italy	0	4	Republic of Ireland	1	14
10 September 1997	World Cup Qualifier	Lithuania	1	42	Republic of Ireland	2	55
5 September 1998	European Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	2	48	Croatia	0	4
1 September 1999	European Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	2	38	Yugoslavia	1	22
1 September 2001	World Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	1	25	Holland	0	10
28 March 2007	European Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland	1	51	Slovakia	0	37

Previous managers Jack Charlton, Mick McCarthy and Steve Staunton all claimed the scalp of higher ranked opposition. Charlton's solitary win was arguably the most high profile, the 1-0 win over Italy in Giants Stadium during the group stages of World Cup '94. Although it has to be remembered that rankings were introduced towards the end of his tenure. McCarthy has four of the six wins, including the only away win in Lithuania (Charlton's win over Italy was at a neutral ground), with the memorable 1-0 victory over Holland with ten men the outstanding result. Steve Staunton's win in Croke Park over Slovakia, who were ranked 15 places ahead of the Dundalk man's side, completes the short history. Brian Kerr failed to defeat an opponent ranked higher than his own side during his three year tenure.


An interesting statistic of the wins is that four of the six wins all came in September, and three of those in odd-numbered years which hopefully be a positive omen for the coming game against Sweden.

* Giovanni Trapattoni's side did manage to beat France in 90 minutes in the infamous World Cup Play Off in 2009. At the time, Ireland were ranked 34 to France's 9th ranked side. The result is recorded as a draw after extra time on fifa.com, so is not included in the list.