LAST UPDATE | 14 Feb

ACTOR AND COMEDIAN Steve Coogan said that he had spoken to former Ireland manager Mick McCarthy ahead of portraying him in upcoming film Saipan. 

Coogan appeared in a pre-recorded interview on the Late Late Show tonight, as he performs Dr Strangelove in the Bord Gais Theatre. He was forced to pull out of last night’s performance due to laryngitis but returned to the stage tonight. 

In July, it was announced that Coogan would be playing McCarthy in a film depicting the infamous Saipan incident – the row between Roy Keane and then-Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy that resulted in the team captain being sent home from the World Cup training camp.

Of his taking on the role of Mick McCarthy, Coogan said:

“I had a chat with him and I wanted to make sure that if I was going to take part in it, that it was a balanced depiction of that fall out”.

The training camp row was sparked by the team captain’s dissatisfaction with training standards and the quality of the facilities provided by the FAI. After suggesting that he would leave the camp, Keane was persuaded to stay.

But that same day, he gave an interview in which he spoke about why he was unhappy in the camp. When McCarthy called a team meeting the day the interview was published, Keane let fly – telling the manager: “I don’t rate you as a player, I don’t rate you as a manager, and I don’t rate you as a person.”

Adding, “you can stick your World Cup up your a**e”, Keane was promptly sent packing from the tournament. This prompted a major split in the Irish public between those who felt Keane was serving his country by seeking higher standards, and those who argued he was deserting it at a time when his midfield skills were most needed.

Keane did not play for Ireland again until 2004, after McCarthy had stepped down as manager.

When asked whose side he was on the debate, Coogan said, “It’s very hard to say, probably because I’m playing Mick I’m 51% on Team Mick and 49% on Team Roy. My mother would never hear a word said against Roy Keane.

“There is something visceral about him, again to do with national identity, something very authentic about him [Roy]. Mick wanted everyone to have a good experience, Roy wanted to win”.

He said the film is “partly about Irish identity and how Ireland sees itself on the international map”, adding, “but really it’s about a football manager having an argument with a player”.

Bafta-nominated Cork native Éanna Hardwicke will play Keane in the movie.