SOCCER: MARY HANNIGANtalks to a passionate player, who would dearly love to qualify for a major championship for the sake of the fans

IT’S FIVE years since Stephen Kelly made his senior Republic of Ireland debut against Chile, but despite being a defensive all-rounder, capable of playing at centre-back and in both full-back positions, the caps haven’t quite flowed for the Dubliner since then, his appearance against Scotland last Sunday just his 23rd.

Much as he did for Fulham for the bulk of the club season just ended, during which he started only eight league games, Kelly has, more often than not, been consigned to the bench when on international duty. That experience has been a source of some frustration for the 27-year-old, although when Giovanni Trapattoni named him as captain for the friendly against Uruguay in March such was his elation, it almost purged past disappointments.

Never, though, he insists, has he once considered not answering a call-up, even when he knew it was unlikely he would get off that bench. That, he says, is why he’s at a loss to understand why so many players withdrew from the squad for Saturday’s European Championship qualifier against Macedonia.

“No, I don’t understand it, to be honest. For me, playing for your country is the highest honour you can have in football. You grow up watching World Cups, getting half-days from school to go home and watch the games. Having street parties. The buzz I get from thinking back to those times.

“I remember in ’94 how the whole country was in a craze. And in 2002, when Robbie and Damien took part, I remember going to the Phoenix Park to watch them come back. It was amazing, and to be part of the squad now, well, words can’t really describe how it feels.

“I think it’s probably different for some of the lads who haven’t grown up in Ireland, they don’t feel the same Irishness about things, they don’t have the same background and commonality that we all have from growing up here and seeing all these events take place. But if you’re committed to your country, you should be committed 100 per cent – and not just when it suits.”

Few in the squad, bar, perhaps, Kevin Kilbane and Shay Given, speak as passionately as Kelly about what playing for Ireland means to them, and such are the strength of his feelings about this week’s “no-shows” it’s hard to imagine a word won’t be had when – or if – they return.

It has, most definitely, been a subject for discussion among the players, he says.

“Of course it has – if it wasn’t we’d all be like zombies. We’re all human, we all know what’s been said, so we have a chat about it. We’re delighted to be here, we all love playing for our country, any opportunity we’re given we’ll take. That’s the way it is.”

“It’ll be hard to go head to head with someone when they come back in and say ‘what were you playing at?’. You don’t know the ins and outs, people have said they’re injured – and if they are you hold your hands up, that’s fine.

“But if there are other reasons then, for me and the other players, that’s just not on.

“And if we’re going to qualify for the European Championships and we have people knocking on the door to come and play for Ireland, then you’re going to be thinking, ‘well hold on a minute, we’ve been here the whole time’.

“But if it’s people who were willing to come in for friendly games, then you’d take them back with open arms and see how it goes. All Irish people want is 100 per cent commitment from the team. No one expects us to be Brazil and go out and play amazing football, they just want to see the passion that Irish people deserve from the players who are representing them – the players who are here now have got that.”

And not that it’s really just about football now, he says. He recalls the days when the team gave the country a lift, and how the country responded by giving the team the most stirring of support. “But that feeling will dwindle if we don’t get to a major championship soon. You could see how much of a blow it was when we missed out on the last World Cup, the whole country was on the edge of something fantastic, and the way things were economically it would have been such a great boost to everybody.

“Just to get that lift and have something to support, to put their minds on something else apart from what’s happening here.

“You could see that the spark was coming back, that passion. That night in the Stade de France, the Irish people were ready to go with that again. Hopefully we can get that back again. We have to.”