SPORT:Handball! How Henry's Hand Exposed Fifa's Failings By Siobhán Gibney and Eugene Gibney Brandon, pp157. €10.99
WHERE WERE YOU when it happened? No, not the fall of the Berlin wall or 9/11 but that infamous moment in recent Irish history when Thierry Henry handled the ball and put Ireland out of the World Cup. This was a defining moment of a generation, with 99 per cent of the Irish race able to recall exactly where they were and what time of day it was when it happened – not to mention the hurt and confusion that went with it.
I can still vividly remember watching the match in a friend’s college house. With six fair-weather fans squeezed into a space never intended to fit more than two, we watched in disbelief as an inspirational Irish football performance turned into one of the most crushing sporting moments we’d ever witnessed.
Handball! How Henry's Hand Exposed Fifa's Failingstaps into our still-present outrage to supply a comprehensive if not particularly illuminating account of the controversial incident.
Eugene Gibney, a lifelong football fanatic, and his daughter Siobhán are clearly enthusiasts. They attach an emotional edge to the facts that lifts their words off the page, bringing readers back to the feelings that coursed through Irish veins as Ireland’s World Cup hopes were crushed last November in Stade de France. Everyone else would be heading to South Africa, vuvuzelas blaring – but we wouldn’t be at the party.
The book starts with a brief account of that fateful match in Paris and its immediate aftermath before delving back into a history of Ireland and France in the World Cup. One chapter deals exclusively with Ireland’s many failures and recent successes in attempting to qualify for World Cups, emphasising the hurdles that “the boys in green” have had to overcome to reach the biggest stage in international football.
Fast forward to France’s World Cup history, and the multiple encounters les Bleus have had with controversy over the years.
Then there’s a spotlight on the surprisingly frequent occasions on which the two nations have faced each other in qualification.
"How could you get a whole book out of that?" asked a colleague who spotted Handball!on my desk, and of its 16 chapters, nine do feel superfluous.
When the incident itself looms into focus, the authors give an excellent account of all that happened – and how the international media reacted.
The thoughts of the players, managers and officials, revealed in subsequent public interviews, advance this sad story, which inevitably carried on long after final whistle. The problem is that no new light is shed on the topic; no fresh insight into a controversy that entered the Irish zeitgeist and will probably always linger there somewhere.
If, for some reason, you decided to remain oblivious to the media hype at the time, then this book would be an excellent way to bring yourself up to date. Most sports fans hoping that Handball!would reveal something more should prepare to be disappointed, however.
There are some hidden gems along the way; a list of memorable quotes on the handball and an excellent list of the 10 most infuriating aspects of Ireland’s elimination that sums up the frustration that still exists today. But that’s just not enough.
Cían Nihill is an editorial intern at The Irish Times and a senior Irish international basketball player
