As we build-up to England's first visit to Ireland since the abandoned 1995 friendly, we'll be looking at many aspects of the footballing rivalry between both countries on Off The Ball as part of our Ford Sporting Moments series.
Tonight, we kicked it off by looking at the pre-independence clashes between ourselves and the Three Lions with UCD sports history professor Paul Rouse, who joined Joe Molloy and Dan McDonnell on the show.
Of course, the parallel course of politics and nationhood had an effect on the relationship as Rouse explained.
"In terms of the team that became the Republic of Ireland, there is of course no history because England declined to play Ireland between 1921 and 1946. Indeed Scotland refused to play Ireland until '60 - same as Wales. Northern Ireland didn't play Republic of Ireland until 1978 and it comes down to a dispute about recognition," he said, before explaining the details of that particular situation.
Rouse raised the example of Johnny Carey who played for both the Republic and the North in international matches against England within the space of three days in 1946.
But Rouse also went back to the beginning of soccer on the island as well as the formation of the Irish Football Association (IFA) in 1880 in Belfast, which dominated the scene in the early years.
The first game for that Ireland national football team came in 1882 but ended in a 13-0 defeat to England as Rouse put it, "it's still England's record victory and it's still Ireland's record defeat".
It was not until 1913/14 that Ireland managed to get on a par with England, defeats being the most common trends in the intervening period.
But those years also saw soccer spread to other parts of Ireland.
"But the game slowly spread in the 1880s, very, very slowly around Dublin and then in the 1890s it took off to the point where by the early 1900s, there are 29 soccer pitches in the Phoenix Park and just two GAA pitches. This, of course, causes consternation in GAA circles, who believe they are being discriminated against by the office of public works and the people who control the pitches. But they're met immediately with the answer, saying 'we respond to demand,'" said Rouse, who also emphasised that many Republicans played soccer at a time when sports was not overly-politicised - with a caveat.
"Be in no doubt that people who played soccer were criticised for playing soccer by certain people within the GAA - but not by a huge swathe of the organisation - but there was a hardcore of zealots who really saw the GAA as something that could be used to free Ireland," he said.
However, before Ireland started qualifying for major tournaments in the Jack Charlton era, Rouse says "for at least the first 100 years of Irish soccer history , the great achievements was winning the Home Nations in 1914" whereas the team appeared to be going nowhere a year previously - although it is more nuanced than results suggested.
Listen to the full interview with Rouse via the podcast.
