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Stevie Ireland has been a great influence at City, since Eriksson started using him, spotting a natural talent, and he has developed into one of our best players. International weekend and no S Ireland on the republic's teamsheet. This is from timesonline in 2007

"Ireland’s difficulties began after the 2-2 draw away to Slovakia two months ago, when he excused himself from the next match, against the Czech Republic in Prague, by saying that a grandmother had died. This was false and another grandmother’s apparent demise also proved untrue when he admitted that he had returned home because his girlfriend had suffered a miscarriage.

Stories later emerged – vehemently denied by the FAI – that Ireland had been upset in Bratislava, where teammates allegedly held him on the floor while attempting to determine whether he was wearing a hairpiece. The player has since received counselling, endorsed by Sven-Göran Eriksson, the City manager, and he withdrew from Staunton’s squad last month for the matches against Germany and Cyprus. “I do not believe I can make a positive contribution,” Ireland said at the time."

It is important for any player to get experience of international matches yet he doesn't seem to want it, and as one ROI fan puts it, those players are still there, why should he want to come back?

Trappatoni obviously holds the door open, I think SI should put the past behind him and showcase himself on the world stage.
CLEVBLUE

I think Stevie will decide in his own time, but from my understanding of it a lot has to do with Liam Brady, I think if he wasnt there Stevie would go back
BLUENOSE

It's going to be very difficult for Stephen to step back into the international scene not least because of the embarassment factor.
Those players that supposedly pinned him to the floor and ridiculed him are still there and deny all the allegations made so, either way, that's not going to be resolved any time soon.
The Irish crowd can be very unforgiving as well. He wil have to endure a lot of "Granny" based songs and taunts and his hairline will again come under close scrutiny before he can settle down and show Ireland what they've been missing.
Liam Brady hasn't been making it any easier either but he's a bit of a k**b anyway. In a recent press conference he made it clear that the ball is firmly in Stephen's court and the FAI wouldn't be bending over backwards to get him to come back.
All in all I don't expect see Stephen in an Ireland shirt for quite a while yet.
PILGRIM

I can see two sides to this. It could be argued that Steven is allowing a few daft lads to come between him and the honour of representing his country. I can see that from the Irish public's point of view that could be seen as a lack of patriotism.
However, it could also be argued that Steven has his pride and the perpetrators of his humiliation are preventing a fine player from representing their country by not coming forward and apologising and saying they'd like him back in the squad and effectively putting an end to the matter.
It's a real shame.
SPIKE