The summer of 2002 was a hard time for the Irish people.
The boys in green had just arrived in Saipan in order to prepare for a World Cup campaign and they were ready to conquer… And then everything fell apart.
Depending on which version of the Saipan saga you heard, Ireland’s talismanic captain Roy Keane was sent home – or left by choice.
Either way, it’s undeniable that the whole escapade sent the country into something of a spiral… According to Wikipedia, the Saipan incident was responsible for an awful lot:
Twitter user Matthew Mulligan noticed that somebody holds Roy leaving Ireland behind as responsible for the ‘Irish property bubble.’
We don’t know enough about the bubble to say for sure that this isn’t true, but we do know that ‘Mick McCarthy’s baby’ was certainly not a participant in the debacle.
The page has been edited now, and ‘Irish property bubble’ has been removed – but ‘Prolonged national self-examination’ remains under the ‘Outcome’ heading. Can’t really argue with that one though.
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