Republic of Ireland

Home, 2008/10

I have already written about one Ireland shirt, so I won't go into much here.  This is from 2008-10, a time most notable in Irish football history for Thierry Henry's famous handball, and William Gallas' subsequent goal that knocked Ireland out of the 2010 World Cup play-offs.  It is fair to say that the country lost the run of itself in the days that followed, with calls for boycotts of French holidays and goods, as well as diplomatic moves to get the French or FIFA to award a replay.  They didn't of course, and the French went on to fall apart in South Africa. If you believed in such a thing, you might call it karma.

This shirt itself is quite nice, but I do wish the Umbro logo and FAI crest were symmetrical.  Apart from that, the flashes of white and orange down the sides are a nice nod to the flags colours. And of course, it would be infinetly better without the sponsor on the front.