In November 1993, the IRA Ceasefire was just around the corner, though most people couldn’t possibly have known it.

It had been a brutal year in the North with some of the worst atrocities of the conflict including the Greysteel Massacre in Derry.

In such an atmosphere, perhaps the last thing Ireland needed was a World Cup qualifier between her two jurisdictions and footballing representatives but that is exactly what happened.

The name of Alan McLoughlin will forever be synonymous with that famous match in Windsor Park, scoring the goal that sent Ireland to the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

Donal Fallon joins Gavan to reflect on the significance of that period in Irish political and sporting life and the role that Alan McLoughlin played in it.

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