Listen to the full interview above via the Off The Ball Football Show podcast 

As a Leitrim lad, The Guardian's Paul Doyle's assertion that Gibraltar's population is a similar size to my native county is an interesting fact.

All the more interesting given that Ireland will be taking them on en route (hopefully) to Euro 2016.

The tiny British Overseas Territory on the tip of Iberia became UEFA's 54th member after a long battle for recognition due to Spain's opposition.

But are they even an insignificant threat to the Boys in Green once qualification gets underway?

To find out a bit more about the team who will play home games in Portugal, we spoke to Paul Doyle.

"Their greatest international claim to fame probably came in the 2006 FIFA Wild Cup which was for states not affiliated to FIFA. They reached the semi-finals where they were beaten by Northern Cyprus. But they had an impressive 5 - 0 win over Tibet to make it that far," said Doyle who added that the Republic of Ireland U19s beat the Gibraltar senior side by a narrow 1 - 0 margin.

"It was a rearguard action which is probably what they are going to do when they face bigger teams - which means every team other than themselves! They'll be battling to hold on to narrow defeats. It's almost impossible for Ireland to fail to beat them."