The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off next week, and once again Irish fans are left pressing their noses to the sweet shop window, wishing they were on the inside.

The boys in green have qualified three times in the event’s 96-year history - a golden 12-year spell between 1990 and 2002. There will be a record 48 teams taking part in the USA, Canada, and Mexico - but, sadly, Ireland failed to qualify.

Bud did you know that the first ever World Cup game played by an Irish team took place 92 years ago? And that FOUR of that team were from Cork, a record number for the Rebel County that has never been beaten in an Irish XI since?

After declining to participate in the first World Cup, in Uruguay in 1930, when a qualification process was introduced for the next one, in Italy in 1934 - the Irish Free State team threw its hat in the ring.

This country’s first ever World Cup game was thus a qualifier that took place against Belgium at Dalymount Park, Dublin, on February 24, 1934 - a thrilling 4-4 draw in front of 30,000 fans.

The quartet from Cork who played in that match were goalkeeper Jim ‘Fox’ Foley, full-backs Tom Burke and Miah Lynch, and forward Timothy Joe O’Keeffe.

Remarkably, three of them were Cork city men who had all begun hurling as juveniles at the Geraldines GAA club on the Albert Road in the same year - 1922. The other, player, Burke, was from Cobh.

Goalkeeper Foley - known as ‘Fox’ owing to his red hair - was........

© Evening Echo