{"id":275169,"date":"2026-01-09T02:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/275169\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T02:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:23:13","slug":"roy-typifies-so-much-of-what-i-love-about-cork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/275169\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Roy typifies so much of what I love about Cork\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The summer of 2002 conjures many memories, but in Ireland, it will always be remembered as the moment Roy Keane pulled out of the FIFA World Cup in Saipan.<\/p>\n

The country was left deeply divided following Keane\u2019s fallout with Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy in the build-up to the tournament.<\/p>\n

The team captain ultimately left the Ireland camp before the World Cup began in Japan and South Korea after a very public falling-out with McCarthy, leaving the manager to hold together a crumbling situation without his talisman, amid intense negativity from both the press and fans.<\/p>\n

A new film starring Eanna Hardwicke as Keane and Steve Coogan as McCarthy explores the intense and complex rivalry between captain and manager.<\/p>\n

Directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D\u2019Sa, Saipan recounts one of the most fractious fallouts in the history of sport.<\/p>\n

Hardwicke, 29, a Cork native, says he feels a special connection to playing Keane, having grown up just \u201cdown the road\u201d from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just an Irish story,\u201d Hardwicke says. \u201cThere\u2019s something very emblematic about Cork city that I love and adore and, like most Cork people, I probably think it\u2019s the centre of the universe. Roy typifies so much of what I love about that city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are broad strokes, of course, those cliches about place and where you\u2019re from, but I feel very lucky to have grown up there. To get to play someone who lived just down the road, barely a mile from where I grew up in Glanmire, is bizarre. You don\u2019t get to do that very often, and it was really cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it was nice, too, because Steve played Mick, who\u2019s second-generation Irish from the north of England, that\u2019s a very specific regional identity as well. So we both got to bring something personal to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardwicke, who starred in Normal People and is currently appearing in The Playboy of the Western World at the National Theatre, says the thing he admires most about Keane is his relentless drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of self-discipline you need to be an athlete is something I admire and don\u2019t have,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the good thing about making films is that you get to try it on for a sustained period \u2013 five or six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cI did try to channel that, because I think one of his most admirable qualities is that absolute, relentless drive. So I tried to take it to maybe 80%.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film attempts to portray both men\u2019s perspectives, celebrating their distinct styles of leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned from watching it is that it\u2019s not just a debate \u2013 it\u2019s more than that,\u201d Hardwicke says. \u201cIt\u2019s about an approach to life. Some of my favourite moments in the film are very subtle: a shared joke, kicking a ball on the training pitch, or the way Steve has Mick relate to the players in quiet, understated ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really gets to the heart of what I loved about playing football as a kid. Yes, there\u2019s winning, but there\u2019s also the incredible experience of being part of a team and sharing something together.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s a subtle art for a manager, and I think Mick did it brilliantly. And when you put that alongside Roy\u2019s straight-line, relentless approach, it makes for quite a combination.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Belfast-based directing duo Leyburn and Barros D\u2019Sa, whose work includes Good Vibrations, a biopic about Belfast music figure Terri Hooley and Ordinary Love, starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville, say the script read like a classical tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t come from a football background, that\u2019s fair to say,\u201d says Barros D\u2019Sa, \u201cbut what really excited me when I read Paul Fraser\u2019s script was that I didn\u2019t know the story, and it immediately read almost like a classical tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have these two very strong characters, told in a comedically absurd and enjoyable way, both passionately wanting the same thing, yet aspects of their personalities make it impossible for them to ever fully agree. It\u2019s set up in a way that feels fated, driving them toward an inevitable collision, a dramatic climax.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you have this Greek chorus of the press and the Irish public, all contributing to the storytelling, amplifying the themes, and, at a crucial point, stepping into a protagonist-like role to influence events toward the end. All of that felt really compelling to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds: \u201cI think this story, as we learned more about it, made it clear that what happened on Saipan quickly became mythical in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became a dynamic narrative through which Ireland could explore its values and identity at a time when the country was transforming into a modern European nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Roy, as a character, in a way became the avatar for that. Mick represents a different kind of Irishness. As is clear from reactions then and even today, identity, especially having grown up in Ireland, is something that\u2019s always very much in question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coogan, who was nominated for a BAFTA for portraying Jimmy Savile in The Reckoning and reprised his role as Alan Partridge in How Are You? It\u2019s Alan (Partridge), was both directors\u2019 first choice to play McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve is an absolute legend and, honestly, a genius \u2013 and I don\u2019t use that word lightly,\u201d Leyburn says. \u201cWe\u2019ve grown up watching Steve in all his various incarnations and have been huge fans. When the script first came to us, the first person Lisa and I thought of for Mick was Steve.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9anna\u00c9anna with Steve Coogan as Mick McCarthy, in Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I know Paul Fraser, who wrote the script, actually had Steve in mind while writing Mick, which just shows how embedded he was in our thinking for that role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever played Roy had to embody that strength, but it\u2019s an interesting role because it\u2019s layered,\u201d Leyburn adds. \u201cThere\u2019s the strength of being the captain, but he also needed a twinkle in his eye. We all know Roy was serious about what he does, but he also has a sense of humour and real emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Eanna brought all of that wonderful layering to the performance. We were so excited to work with him, and the fact that he\u2019s a native of Cork was coincidental but brilliant because he grew up with Roy being almost omnipresent in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t be happier with what Eanna brought to the role.\u201d<\/p>\n