Ken O'Flynn

Well, look, my always thought is when let sports be sports and let politics be politics.

Look, I understand where people are coming from.

Absolutely.

And of course, people have the right to protest.

In fairness to the FAI, they came out and they flagged this with UEFA a number of months ago.

I don't think we can blame the FAI at all for this.

But we have to think about the players.

We have to think about these young men have a very limited time span in their career.

We have to think about Ireland standing in the world of sports.

And I think we have to be calm about things.

And we have to allow sports be sports.

And I think there's an awful lot more to be achieved from sports via peace and sending messages of people playing together, working together, opposing one another, than there is about protest.

I would say one thing to you, that I would appeal to people that are at the protest.

You know, you have the right to protest.

Be peaceful about the protest.

Be respectful to others.

I've always believed that we need to be separating sports from politics.

So yes, I believe it should go ahead.

I believe the Football Association have been honourable, have been decent, they've flagged it, they've voiced their concerns, and they've been left down badly by UEFA.

But I would say one thing to you, you know, Ireland didn't compete in the Eurovision Songham Test, OK?