By SHANE MCGRATH

Published: 17:00, 20 October 2025 | Updated: 17:00, 20 October 2025

A hard pitch, big goals and tired keepers were the final straws.

Roy Keane had had enough, and what would follow was a series of events so extraordinary that they divided Ireland down the middle during the unforgettable summer of 2002.

Keane was sent home from a World Cup training camp on the remote island of Saipan, a three-hour flight from Japan in the US overseas territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, following a showdown with team manager Mick McCarthy.

Attempts to repair the damage included an offer from the Taoiseach of the time to intervene, a melodramatic interview on RTÉ watched by millions, and an insight into the shambolic workings of the FAI that would later become wearily familiar.

Friendships were under strain, families rowed furiously over what side you were on, and there had never been anything like it in Irish sport.

With the upcoming dramatisation Saipan starring Steve Coogan and Éanna Hardwicke pitching it back into the spotlight, it’s an opportunity to revisit a...