There was always a huge appetite for international football , the biggest crowds I ever stood in were all pre 88 - games v France , Scotland England , Northern Ireland and Switzerland.
The game v France in the early 80's was a case in point , the attendance was officialy 52,000 but there was thousands more in attendance - dangerously so.
All the above games accepted cash at the stiles and the FAI automatically downplayed attendances for monetary reasons , I remember that the Lansdowne Road terrace was a mass of swaying humanity.
If Lansdowne was dangerous then Dalyer was on a totally different level - games against Russia and Turkey saw masses of people standing on the School End shed.
The worst was a friendly against the then reigning World champions Italy , the FAI decided against making the game all ticket despite the drawing power of the opposition.
Crowds turned up in their multitudes to find that some of the turnstiles were closed causing a huge overcrowding situation , I was never so scared in my life and it was only due to the responsible behaviourof the crowd that people weren't killed , gates were broken down as a matter of neccessity to get out of the crush.
What 1988 , 1990 and 1994 did was spread the popularity of the game to the country as a whole.
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