30 years on: Once upon a time in America

June 17, 1994 – The day before the Irish supporters would paint the sides of Giants Stadium with green jerseys, Ardara’s Damian Diver, having only landed in the Bronx hours earlier, sat in his aunt’s living room to watch TV. 

Some of sport’s most fascinating events of the year dominated the public’s screens that day. 

Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer played his last round at the U.S. Open, the World Cup opened in Chicago, the Rangers celebrated winning the Stanley Cup, the Knicks played game five of the NBA finals against the Houston Rockets, and Ken Griffey Jr tied Babe Ruth for the most home runs hit before June 30. A day of sport to say the least.  

But all was to be ignored as the public watched the white Ford Bronco of one Orenthal James Simpson pass slowly across the world’s TV screens chased by an army of police cars.  

For those blissfully unaware of the event - an American sports icon had just been charged with double murder, pushing USA 94, or as it was called at the time ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ to the periphery of local media priorities.  

“I’m not sure, but I think I had heard of him (OJ Simpson) before that whole car chase, but I remember that being on the TV in my aunt’s house,” Diver said.   

“It was the day before the World Cup game in Giants Stadium. Obviously, it’s a very famous video now of the White Bronco being chased down the highway, it was pretty mad at the time.”  

Little did the future Donegal football star know, that he himself would feature across the national airwaves for a mere few seconds, less than 12 hours later.  

Diver had, that night, first experienced the mayhem and media circus that so often features in the Land of Opportunity, but the next day he and his father Tom would feature as part of a day more relevant to Irish sport, on a day when the Irish football team made the world stand up and shake their heads in astonishment.  

At the time, before Ireland faced off against the Italians in the opening round of Group E, the Irish diaspora was resigned to believing they would be seriously outnumbered compared to the Italians in the 75,000-seater stadium.  

After all, the FAI was only given a tiny allocation of tickets for each match and was only officially granted 3,325 tickets for each first-round game.  

The story goes that as the teams marched out from the tunnel, Italy’s star Roberto Baggio turned to his striker Beppe Signori to ask "Where are our supporters?" 

Even in that, the location of East Rutherford was a stereotypically Italian area but it didn’t stop 20,000 fans from traveling across the pond with tickets distributed through travel agents offering various packages. The three-match package - which some 8,000 fans availed of - cost £1,500, a two-match package cost in the region of £800 - £900.  

“I always had the idea of going out to America for the summer, I actually went out in 1995 then to work, but the idea of following Ireland to the World Cup was really something my father wanted to do,” said Diver. “He booked it, and I think because I was the oldest in the house, he took me along with him.  

“I never really found out how Dad got tickets for the matches, I think it was some package deal through a travel agent. I never asked any questions regarding that, I just wanted to go and watch the football and get to the World Cup.  

“I wasn’t with the county senior team at that point, so I didn’t have major commitments because the county U-21 season was over, so it was only club football I was playing by that point. 

“It was a phenomenal few days. We spent four days in New York before traveling down to Florida to watch the Mexico game and then we went back to New York again to see Ireland draw against Norway in the final group game.”  

But it was that day in Giants Stadium that lives in infamy. 

The injured Niall Quinn cited Ireland’s 1-0 victory over Italy on June 18, as “the greatest event ever”, as 50,000 Irish supporters whooped and hollered across New Jersey as Ray Houghton collected a misguided header clearance, first from Alessandro Costacurta, and then from Franco Baresi to rattle it home into the Italy net at 10 minutes past eight.  

“I’m not sure what the expectation was that day in Giants Stadium, being honest, we were probably going into that game living off hope because Italy was such a good side, but Ireland was a top team back then too,” Diver said.  

“The one thing that stood out was the amount of support for Ireland that day, it really was savage and the heat was nothing like I’ve experienced before. In the first half, we were sitting at the side of the stadium where the sun was beaming in our faces.   

“At the time, with Houghton’s goal and the performance Paul McGrath put on that day, we probably didn’t realise how historic that day was going to be, it was just the way things worked out and I was happy to be there in person.  

“It was my first time in New York, but my father was familiar with the city because he was there when he was younger and he worked there for a while, for me it was a whole different experience.”  

During the match, the TV cameras panned to a shirtless 20-year-old Diver, waving his arms in the air, his father Tom next to him supporting a Donegal hat and a half-and-half Ireland-USA jersey.  

“The Bronx, where my aunt and uncle lived, there house was just next to Sam Maguire’s Pub which was owned by an uncle of Anthony Molloy, so we were well stationed with a lot of Irish people there,” Diver said. 

“I know you had to be 21 to drink in the States, but I wasn’t drinking that time anyway, we went back to Sam Maguire’s Pub in the Bronx for the party, and I think on the same night there was a big function or concert in Gaelic Park and Brendan O’Carroll was doing a performance at it, as were a few other bands.”  

Diver and his father attended the other two group games, and while Ireland escaped the so-called ‘Group of Death’ the remaining matches of the tournament from an Ireland point of view were seen as an afterthought with the Irish team returning home to a vastly smaller crowd than the one that greeted them in 1990, despite winning a match.   

Thirty years on, many would find it hard to believe that Ireland would only win one more World Cup game (in 2002). The Jack Charlton years were well and truly over after that, but that day in the heat in Giant’s Stadium lives on.  

“It’s hard to believe . . . 30 years, it was just a great experience to be a part of.” 

It was the perfect start to Ireland's World Cup adventure. Or, as Roy Keane would later admit in his 2002 autobiography, the day it ended.