Saipan: Will 2002 World Cup movie open old wounds for Irish football fans?

Saipan: it’s the one word that can, even 23 years later, cause a row and Irish football fans still divide into two camps.

When it comes to events in Saipan where the Irish team were acclimatising before heading to Japan for their first game in the 2002 World Cup, everyone has an opinion. You’re either Team Roy or Team Mick.

A new movie that captures the simmering tension and eventual blow up between Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy and team captain Roy Keane will hit our screens on January 1st. But already Saipan has been seen on the international film festival circuit, garnering glowing reviews.

Keane is played by Éanna Hardwicke and McCarthy by Steve Coogan – a challenge given how familiar both men are in the public mind. Does it work? And does it capture the tension and the shock waves that Keane’s decision to walk out on the team caused.

Irish Times consumer correspondent Conor Pope got a preview and says that going in to the cinema he knew he’d be traumatised by Saipan – and he was.

Pope tells In the News why the film will open old wounds for many people and how he left the cinema “feeling shaken and sad and weighed down by what might have been”.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey and Andrew McNair.

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