Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Coghlan is disagreeing with me. Maybe he went from the leafy suburbs, where he was born. I am talking about the real Dubs. Now look at them. They are proudly wearing the Dublin shirt, not just at the football matches which they attend in enormous numbers, but all over the place. There are so-called colours nights in Copper Face Jacks where one will see the Dublin shirt and all the other county shirts as well. Many college students in Dublin go to that particular venue. I do not want to give it too much free publicity, because the Dublin captain has already given it enough. My daughter used to go there and she wore the Leitrim colours with great pride. That venue hosts colours nights and all the young people there wear their county colours. That would never have happened years ago.

I remember Ireland's wonderful success in Italia 90, which captured the imagination of the entire country. I am sure the Minister of State would agree that it was another benchmark moment when Irish people embraced the Irish soccer team, which did wonderful things for the country. Even those who did not know or care much about soccer were impressed that Ireland was out there, within a whisper of getting to a World Cup semi-final in Italy. I remember that in the years subsequent to 1990 the number of Italians visiting Ireland increased significantly.

An interesting fact is that when Sunderland won the FA Cup in 1973, productivity rose in the north east of England in the weeks and months following that success, such was its uniqueness. That has happened in Ireland too. Economic performance is not necessarily gauged by the number of international companies coming to Ireland. It is as much gauged by the success of Ireland abroad in various sporting activities. I have no doubt that the people of Bray and most of those in the boxing fraternity have an extra spring in their step since last Sunday, when Katie Taylor won the World Championship. When Ireland wins the Rugby World Cup next year, we will all have a spring in our step.