I think you're being a bit harsh here. Ireland have consistently had some of the highest crowds in Europe for even the most meaningless friendly games. The numbers attending Lansdowne Road for the Andorra game and for the Russia game this week will be very comparable with the crowds during the peak of the Charlton era. The Croke Park years were exceptional but it was clear from the atmosphere there that many of the people attending were not regular football fans.
Take the example of Slovakia who we play next week. When we played them in Bratislava in 2007 there were almost as many Irish fans in the stadium as there were Slovakians. However, now they have qualified for a World Cup and done well their team is attracting much more attention.
Every country will be able to attract crowds when they are doing well. There are very few teams who will maintain that level of support through the bad times. Ireland have managed to achieve that and our average attendance for competitive games since 1982 is around 38,000 (despite the 14 restricted capacity years in Lansdowne Road). Apart from the major football countries (England, Germany, Italy and Spain) I don't think you will find another European team that can match those kind of numbers over such a long period.
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