Legend-rule has been written about Captain Roy Keane’s altercation with Ireland manager Mick McCarthy prior to the 2002 World Cup, so Éanna Hardwicke was aware of this.
Roy Keane, who plays the football player in a movie about the infamous Saipan incident, claims that playing the hot-headed hardman in the role of Normal People petrified him. Roy’s side of this story is well documented, according to Éanna, 29, adding that his preparation was essentially live-streamed as the row occurred. He conducted interviews before publishing two books about it all.
“My preparation was absorbing everything because I felt I had enough to go on.” In my bedroom, I locked myself. I ended up talking to myself for four weeks because it was my brother’s attic at the time. However, you may need to forget the public face and their persona at some point. The writing was excellent, and Roy never saw the private side of a sport in the play.
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What would you do if you were in that circumstance, I guess? You must also demonstrate it in your own unique way. The warts-and-all film, which premieres on January 23, has the name Saipan after the tiny island where the Irish team traveled to prepare for their World Cup campaign.
McCarthy and Keane reportedly had a very public, bitter disagreement over the training conditions, strategy, travel arrangements, diet, and McCarthy’s competence.
A subsequent interview with Keane in the Irish press caused a significant backlash at the camp, where McCarthy is alleged to have verbally abused McCarthy before storming to the airport and returning home after later claiming to have sent Keane home. McCarthy later claimed to have sent Keane home.
Keane wouldn’t play for his country again until 2004, when McCarthy resigned as manager, and the incident sparked a lot of controversy in Irish society regarding who was to blame. Even he still recalls the impact of the Saipan incident, which predominated the 2002 World Cup hosted by Japan and South Korea, at the age of six.
The Cork boy claims that he was aware of the events. This row has become so mythical. The memories I have of the World Cup are vivid. Every comedian and satirist of the time had some Saipan in their sets, in my opinion.
I knew of Roy Keane, he was a towering figure in Cork and it was a huge source of pride for Cork. People said he brought disgrace to his country but he did it because he was livid.” The movie, which also stars Steve Coogan, 60, as Mick McCarthy, documents the funny side to the infamous dispute too.
Keane brands Ireland’s base-camp hotel as being as bad as the one in BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. The 90-minute movie also shows how Keane stood up for his team over travel arrangements. He was furious to discover they had to make do with business class seats on flights while officials from the Football Association of Ireland flew first class. But although he got to play the story from Keane’s point of view, Éanna admits he comes down McCarthy’s side of the row.
Before the movie, he says, “I was a huge fan of Roy, and more so after the movie.” However, I believe that I am more of Mick’s persuasion because of the film’s soul. It is not a clash of ideologies. It addressed two fundamentally different approaches to life and the game. People who have that holistic perspective and see the picture a little wider, like Mick do, have always caused me to feel more sympathy.
Éanna accuses herself of being a little too famous for working with comedy great Steve Coogan, saying, “I did circle Steve for a few weeks and he did say, “I see you are finding your head space so do what you need to.” If you need anything, I’m here.
Éanna got the acting bug aged 11, when he started going to youth theatre at the Gaiety School of Acting in Cork. In 2009, he landed a part in Conor McPherson’s horror movie The Eclipse as a child star. He made his television debut in the US Superman spin-off series Krypton but his big break came in 2020 when he landed the role of Rob Hegarty in the BBC Three series Normal People alongside Paul Mescal. It was BBC iPlayer’s most streamed show of 2020 and Éanna says: “I expected it to work, but you can never account for how it catches on and captures people’s imagination.
“You can never foretell that,” and I never did foretell a pandemic. That would have made the audience very emotional. Only after the pandemic did Éanna realize how well-known he had become, but he claims to be more interested in the work than the fame.
Éanna adds: “If people see the work that you’re doing and want to talk about that, that’s really amazing. That’s what I’m doing.” My mind still boggles every time I see or feel a connection to the work.
*Saipan is available in theaters starting on Friday.
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Source: Mirror
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