This article is a part of The42′s USA 94 Week, a special series of commemorative features to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Fifa World Cup. To read more from the series, click here >

For the World Cup in 1994, RTÉ strayed from tradition and included in their post-match analysis a ‘Football Forum’, in which a collection of people from various walks of Irish life appeared in studio to join the debate.

Here, we look back at the forums that took place after each of Ireland’s World Cup games, and, for the first time, take from the archives the TV Wrap columns published on The42.ie on each of those summer nights.

Ireland 1-0 Italy, 18 June

YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY reading this (through massive, saucer-like glasses that have yet to go out of fashion) in June 1994, so you may not see the point in this column now telling you about things that you already know are happening in Ireland.  

But, y’know, context and all that.

These are heady times.

There is a faint hope of an end to the Troubles, and we’ve obviously won the Eurovision yet again – with the cost of hosting it offset by the fact our economy is on the verge of a stunning, long-lasting success.

Liberalism is general all over Ireland; a sweeping wave that might soon end in us all marrying each other just for the sheer legal thrill of getting divorced afterward.

There are some holding out against all of this progress, of course.

A recent Morning Ireland report on a supposed apparition in Grangecon of the Virgin Mary – weeping from one eye and bleeding from the other, apparently – was taken as a warning against the irreconcilable moral decline of holding a national referendum on divorce.

(Liberal-minded japes focus on this being nothing more than a sign that she had spent the weekend on the sesh.)

But leading this outward charge into modernity is Jack’s Army, who have now won a game at a World Cup.

And what a game to win!  

Ireland has not just taken her place among the nations of the Earth, we are now so comfortable we’re inviting them around to tell us how great we are.

With Eamon Dunphy in America for the Sunday Independent and thus uninvolved in RTÉ’s coverage this time around, they have replaced him with 20-odd people from all walks of life, invited to add to the studio debate before Bill and the Panel.

They’ve called it the ‘Football Forum’ – Match of the Day meets Questions and Answers. 

Tonight, Bill kicked conversation straight to the invited members of “The Eye-talian Community” to give their opinion on Ireland.

Vincent Giglione tells us what we wanted to hear, that “I feel very sad for Italy but congratulations to Ireland, they won well. You can’t take away from them.”

He also criticised Arrigo Sacchi for being stuck in the past, from which we are to infer that Jack is at the cutting edge of modernity and will no doubt come to influence the great coaches of the future.

Elsewhere, June McConnell spoke breathlessly of how passionate she was becoming, to which Joe Kinnear responded by asking, “Where are you going later on?”

Nell McCafferty lamented the lengthy tension of the day – “Smile for us, Nell!” said Frank Stapleton – and how she was denied a calming drink given the pubs in Dublin were closed because of a workers’ strike.

Senator Frank Fahey bragged about being served a pint at the Burlington Hotel.

There was much love for Paul McGrath and Ray Houghton, while Mick O’Dwyer hailed the victory as one for passion and pride. Giles decided that Roy Keane merely had a “reasonable” game, but all agreed that this was Ireland’s greatest-ever win.

So get used to looking at us now, world. We are among you… and soon we will be looking down on you.

Ireland 1 – 2 Mexico, 24 June

How did that happen?

Having spent the last few heady, glorious days prepared to look down on the world, now we have to look back in on ourselves and blame…something.

The heat! The heat’s the thing!

RTÉ have happily cut through (some) lazy speculation by employing a Heat Expert (who has nothing to do with a rumoured upcoming movie starring Al Pacino and Robert de Niro.)

Pat Duffy from the National Coaching Centre in Limerick advised the FAI ahead of the tournament on how best to adapt the searing heat of Orlando, and tonight showed how Steve Staunton struggled in the heat.

Plenty agreed that our downfall proved to be the conditions, as Cathal Mac Coille asked innocently whether the heat had affected the flight of the ball.

Pat Spillane, meanwhile, called for a bit of perspective at this godless hour, saying that Charlton and this Irish team had done more than the church or the politicians to unite the country and imbue in us all a sense of national pride.

Not everyone followed the heat line. Declan Lynch foresaw trouble when the FAI invited Bishop Eamon Casey to the game, citing the fact everything went wrong at Italia ‘90 when the squad went to meet the Pope.

Journalist John O’Shea, meanwhile – famous for racing Mick McCarthy in a 1985 training session to prove a point about the player’s lack of pace – admitted he was prepared to dice with excommunication by being critical of Jack and Ireland. 

We had been “stuffed”, said John, and could have lost 7-1.

There were a few other explanations thrown up, with Joe Kinnear pointing out that “we are struggling for a proven goalscorer”, a problem we will hopefully sort soon.

As for John Aldridge’s profane touchline set-to with the “gentleman in the yellow cap” – Bill O’Herlihy derided the “gross interference on the part of the bureaucrats” like a popular finance minister. 

We have no idea what will follow against Norway – but it surely won’t be dull. 

Ireland 0-0 Norway, 28 June

“Who wants to say Olé?”, exclaimed Bill.

Yes, the world’s eyes may have bled throughout Ireland’s 0-0 win against Norway, but nobody in Montrose was in the least bit arsed.

Malcontents like John O’Shea were shunted aside as the diverse panel paid glowing tribute to Jack’s Ireland, who have once again bludgeoned their way out of a World Cup group.

“Paddy Mulligan, say something bright and breezy!” demanded Bill.

“Bright and breezy”, deadpanned Paddy.

He loosened up from there, and said that this is “the best time Ireland has known, in anything.”

An exuberant Ted Walsh self-deprecated that the public probably see him as a “soccer gobshite”, to which Giles cracked – perhaps encouraged by Dunphy’s absence – that the panel are but “knowledgeable gobshites.”

There was no taming Ted – “To say we’d be involved in two World Cups… you might well have said the queen would sing the national anthem in Croke Park!”

The GAA – remember that?

Giles said he was thrilled that this latest World Cup run had ended petty squabbles between soccer and The Gah, and now we could merely consider it all as sport.

Elsewhere, Eileen Dunne hailed the fact that this football team have given us all something to talk about, while a bronzed Tony Ward – recently returned “from the continent” – spoke of how great it was to be a “Paddy abroad”, and of exotic images of Portuguese fans in Irish shirts cheering on our boys.

Tony Ward, recently returned from the continent.

Our friend the Heat Expert was back, telling us how a return to the Orlando furnace would be offset by the likelihood of facing a Northern European team in the next round.

Cathal Mac Coille made a complex gag about Brian Boru that nobody else was intelligent enough to understand.

There was even one surviving member of the Eye-talian Community – Concetto la Malfa, who had been mistaken by many as the token Norwegian.

“Ireland”, he crooned, “are in a crescendo of quality.” Nobody was quite sure what this meant, but it sounded like a good thing to go along with.

Particularly as it wasn’t one of us saying it.

Michael D. Higgins, meanwhile, having compared the quality of the game favourably to the League of Ireland, parlayed the game into an antidote to our own fragile self-confidence, which had taken a battering against Mexico.

Sometimes, he opined, “we are damaged by people telling us we’re a small country.” We had just drawn at a World Cup with a country infinitel- well, a bit bigger than us, so now is not the time for our self-prescribed enfeeblements! This is where we belong!

Giles warned us all to enjoy it for now as all of this would soon end, but few around him were in the mood to agree.

Ireland 0-2 Holland, 4 July 

“I felt we were going in over-confident”, lamented Noel King.

Our friend the Heat Expert agreed, moving away from his field of expertise – heat – to say that Ireland had been a little “over-relaxed”, and that we were missing the “psychological honing.”

Wait, only five days ago we were supposed to act as – if not confident, then not insecure – members of the global elite. Who exactly are we meant to be?

Others said we weren’t confident enough, citing Jack Charlton’s press interview in which he said that Ireland were never good enough to win the World Cup, and that success was getting out of the group.

Bill said this was a “corrosive attitude” and if you could hear a pin drop, it was the one he had plucked out of the grenade.

Hot Press’ George Byrne said that “deep down, Irish people aren’t winners, we are happy to accept second-best.”

On nights as devastating as this, it’s easier to talk in vague terms about national character and so forth than focus on the unforgiving, clinical result.

Some had their diagnoses rooted in something more tangible.

Jim McLaughlin said that we erred in playing a pre-tournament friendly against the Dutch in Tillburg, giving them too much of an insight into the Irish tactics ahead of the game. Nobody decided to quibble with him that Jack’s tactics aren’t exactly shrouded in mystery and nuance at the best of times.

Also, the unity among sports declared by Giles after the Norway Win dissolved, with Declan Lynch saying that Ireland had spent the first-half playing “Gaelic football” as Bonner launched the ball long to the Dutch players at every available opportunity.

Jimmy Deenihan immediately snorted, both in disagreement and in derision at the soccer man’s ignorance that Gaelic footballers even kick the ball now, given the poison of short-passing that will soon render the game unwatchable.

Deenihan also added tactical insight in praising the Dutch for exploiting our “corner-backs.”

Bill pondered aloud whether this was the end of the Charlton era, and was met by a chorus of disagreement, citing his achievements thus far with Ireland and the young players – Babb, Keane, McAteer – who had been part of this team.

He did try to lighten the mood by saying that we will all be poorer in the morning for the loss of what Brendan Kennelly has called “this most beautiful madness.”

Then, pressed for time, he rushed a question to Noel King as how best to trickle this international success back to the domestic game. George Byrne clarified that the League of Ireland is a “minority sport”, and looking to the future, King said he hoped the FAI would pay the panel – Giles, Kinnear and Pat Crerand – to go into schools to coach the game.

This column is sure the FAI won’t let us down.

There was, of course, much sympathy for Packie Bonner, whose hideous mistake capped Ireland’s exit. The lesson from Bonner’s wildly different World Cup experiences, one panelist said, was never to be a goalkeeper.

Finally, Cathal Mac Coille meditated that, in 25 years, we will inevitably be asking Packie both about his glories and this mistake.

This column expects him to be wrong, given our international status, football pedigree and exciting young players – Keane! – there should be even better days to come, so rich in their own rewards and glories that, in a quarter-century’s time, we won’t be left merely trading off nostalgia.

See you all for Euro ‘96.