Casement Park in west Belfast. File photo by Jonathan Porter, Press Eye
THE England football team comes to Dublin on Saturday to play the Republic of Ireland in a Nations League match.
Almost 30 years ago, the infamous 1995 game between the two sides was abandoned when English fans rioted.
The images of trouble in the old Lansdowne Road stadium were shocking, even in those troubled times, with outright hostility having anti-Irish undertones.
How times have changed. England came back to Dublin in 2015. That match was played in a peaceful atmosphere and any angst this Saturday is more likely to be due to passionate football rivalry.
The historic old Landsdowne Road was demolished in 2007 to make way for the large Aviva stadium. Between the Aviva and the home of GAA at Croke Park, Dublin has two venues which bring in thousands of people for gigs and sporting events, generating millions of revenue.
Casement Park anyone?
But it’s not just the stadium that’s changed since 1995.
Sport is a reflection of wider society, and on Saturday the team in green will shown the more culturally diverse, pluralist Ireland of the 2020s.
The Ireland team was managed for most of the 1980s and 90s by Englishman Jack Charlton whose use of the “granny rule” relied heavily on players who were eligible due to their Irish ancestry.
However, the team of 2024 includes Chiedozie Ogbene, loved by the Irish fans as one of their own, who was born in Nigeria but came to Ireland as an eight-year-old and was brought up in Cork.
Sammie Szmodics, the Ipswich striker, was born in England and is entitled to play for Hungary, his grandfather’s birthplace, but chose his Irish grandmother's home country.
Andrew Omobamidele’s father is Nigerian, but the player was born in Kildare.
This summer, Ireland celebrated the glory of Olympians, from sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke, born in Tallaght to Nigerian parents, to gold medal winning boxer Kellie Harrington, from Dublin's north inner city.
Gold-medal winning swimmer Daniel Wiffen was born in Leeds but moved to Magheralin, Co Armagh, aged two.
Their Irishness is not in question.
It's natural that our sporting figures should reflect increasing diversity of heritage across the island.
Ceremonies are held each year to formally welcome people who have been granted Irish citizenship. Last month, in two events in Dublin and Killarney, more than 10,000 people from 143 countries across the world became official Irish citizens.
Those new citizens work in everything from the health service to the police, business and the service industries.
The three most common heritages of migrants to Ireland are Polish, British and Indian.
In the small border town of Clones, Co Monaghan, a third of the population is made up of “new communities”. Ukrainian migrants fleeing war have added to a list of migrants including Syrians, Brazilians, Polish, East Timorese and Romanians. In Donegal, there is a thriving community of people from Kenya.
Many of the new Irish have quietly integrated into life in communities north and south and have been welcomed.
Stories of people facing horrible racism are disturbing. But the revulsion shown against racist attacks shows the majority of people welcome the new Irish.
Even with an increase in migration, the vast majority of people in both parts of the island are white, with a Christian heritage.
And amongst Protestants in Northern Ireland, although most still identify as British, Brexit has led to more fluid and multi-faceted identities.
What does it mean, therefore, to be Irish in 2024?
There is much talk about a new Ireland, but perhaps it is already here.
Roger Casement said: “A nation is a very complex thing. It has never consisted solely of men of one blood or one single race. It is like a river, rising in the hills with many sources, many converging streams, that become one great stream.”
A new Ireland’s greatness can come from such diversity.