Red cards and frosty relations - New York's last visit to Ireland

On Saturday afternoon, the New York footballers will emerge from the tunnel at Bord na Móna O'Connor Park for their Tailteann Cup quarter-final clash with Offaly, and in doing so they will end a 21-year wait for the side’s last football championship appearance in Ireland.

Back in 2001, it was Roscommon who provided the opposition at Dr Hyde Park in a Connacht quarter-final and with 15 minutes remaining, one of the GAA’s biggest-ever shocks looked on the cards as the American outfit trailed by just two points with the hosts a man light.

Roscommon, helped by a couple of New York dismissals, would finish strongly though to win 3-13 to 1-09 and they would go on to lift the provincial title after beating Galway in the final.

The Tribesmen would get their revenge in the first-ever set of All-Ireland quarter-finals before travelling on to lift Sam Maguire – the last time the famed trophy has come West.

For New York, to get to the point of nearly causing that shock first required the jumping of a few hurdles.

Just three months earlier, the first case of foot and mouth on the island had been reported in Armagh and the country had to deal with the first outbreak of the disease since 1941. As a consequence, thousands of animals were culled while travel to the country in the second quarter of the year fell by 7%.

The sporting arena wasn’t left untouched either. Ireland saw three Six Nations matches postponed by six months while in the Connacht Championship, London’s clash with Mayo was cancelled due to travel restrictions.

It meant extra checks and form filling for the New York party, but of more concern, as defender and Donegal native Niall McCready explained, was the threat of overzealous American emigration officers.

The year previous,