I don't think we can ever really know with absolute certainty, though I believe it's fairly safe to assume that the likes of McGrath and O'Leary identify most strongly, or even exclusively, as Irish and would only have ever have played for Ireland.
And Breen and McLoughlin, for example, actually did turn down England call-ups in order to play for Ireland. There can't be a great deal of doubt in their cases.
https://www.irishpost.com/sport/form...cup-title-8780
https://www.balls.ie/football/alan-m...ational-468793
McGeady and McCarthy are granny-rulers who, in rare and fleeting instances of FAI competence, were identified and brought into the Irish set-up in early on whilst still in their early teens.
McGeady clearly states in the video posted, and other interviews, that Ireland chose him rather than the other way way round, offering him a chance to play international football when Scotland couldn't, and by the time the SFA did eventually contact him he was already comfortable within the Irish set-up. And, let's face it; unlike the Grealish/Rice situations, it wasn't as if the Scots could offer him vastly greater riches or a far better opportunity of playing in/winning tournaments than Ireland. Perhaps revealingly he also seems to identify as Scottish when talking about 'other Scottish players' like Scott Arter and Brian McLean playing for nations other than Scotland.
The fact that McGeady's half-Irish, Celtic-supporting dad bought him an Ireland jersey as a kid doesn't necessarily count for an awful lot - I believe there's a picture of a young Jude Bellingham wearing an Ireland shirt that's been doing the rounds on social media recently. Ex-Celtic Scottish internationals Tony Watt and Mikey Johnston have also been seen in Irish jerseys before.
James McCarthy is a quarter Irish through his Irish grandfather, but has explicitly stated that he would definitely have played for Scotland had they asked him first:
"If they had come in for me first I would definitely have played for Scotland,” McCarthy says. “But the way they [the SFA] put it to me [in 2006] was, well, we're not going to take you on just now, because you are not good enough.' Then Ireland came over and watched me in a game and immediately said to me, would you like to play in a game against Italy?' I said, yeh' cos I was just happy to get an international call-up. That was for their under-17s."
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/j...se-tlllf26p0vl
In any event, whether we were always first choice for a dual-eligibility player or not is it something I've ever been able to get really hung up over.
Tony Cascarino and
Chiedozie Ogbene have no familial ties to Ireland whatever and have only been able to play for us due to the laxness and exploitability of FIFA's eligibility rules. But they've proved great additions, and can never have been said to have been anything less than 100 per cent commited any time they pulled on the green shirt.
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