DUBLIN, May 29: Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has called on Ireland to forget the row between soccer coach Mick McCarthy and former captain Roy Keane and get behind the team in their World Cup campaign.

But after Keane finally ruled himself out of a return to the Irish squad, newspapers turned their attention on Wednesday to McCarthy’s future in charge of the national side.

“It is getting very close to the most important match we have played in a long number of years and really from the Irish public’s point of view we need to move on,” Ahern said late on Tuesday.

“We have important matches ahead of us and everyone should rally behind the team,” Ahern, an enthusiastic soccer fan who had offered to mediate in the row, said.

The dispute has been the nation’s talking point since last Thursday, when the Manchester United captain was dramatically expelled from the World Cup squad by McCarthy after a bitter row during which Keane unleashed a torrent of abuse.

In the sports pages on Wednesday, fans were reminded that “the show must go on”.

But already, the focus had switched to McCarthy.

In an editiorial, the Irish Examiner said: “It is fair to suggest Mick McCarth’s managerial career may now be in question. Roy Keane’s dream has become a nightmare. The heart has been torn out of Ireland’s fans.”

The tabloid Star said: “McCarthy’s stock is now lower than a snake’s belly.

“McCarthy’s handling of the subsequent fall-out has been disastrous.”

The row split the nation into pro-Keane, pro-McCarthy camps.

At bus-stops and sandwich bars there was only one topic: “Whose side are you on in the civil war?”—Reuters