It's time for Ireland to go green by eliminating the use of plastics. Plastic Paddies that is. The beginning of the Stephen Kenny era is the ideal time to end the shameful practice of providing an Irish jersey as a consolation prize for underachieving Englishmen.

Kenny seems to be thinking along those lines to a certain extent. Asked his views on the Granny Rule last week, he commented: "I'm not in the business of persuading people to be Irish."

That's great news because few things were more damaging to Irish fans' morale in recent times than the defections of Jack Grealish and Declan Rice.

There was something thoroughly demeaning about the way we ended up practically begging both players to stay with us. We were never going to persuade a couple of Englishmen to opt for Ireland once they felt good enough for their own country.

Mick McCarthy displayed his inimitable gift for making a bad situation worse by vowing to bring the hunt for Irish-qualified Englishmen to another level. So began the pursuit of Patrick Bamford and Nathan Redmond who let us know they might consider Ireland if they didn't get a better offer and eventually decided they were too good for us.

It was humiliation once again and it cheapened the green jersey. You can make a case that some English-born players feel culturally Irish. Someone like Tony Grealish comes to mind and Kenny has acknowledged that: "We find players who grew up in Irish communities in Britain, who came back here for school holidays etc, who realise that Irishness is a part of their lives. We'll always welcome them to our teams."

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Yet even in this respect Martin Keown, an example of an English-born player proud of his Irish roots, says he always wanted to play for England and mocks those who made much of tenuous connections when they saw it as a passport to an international cap. When Andy Townsend or Mark Lawrenson analyse England matches, there's little doubt about their national affiliation.

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One reason the Rice saga was so important to many people was that it presented the possibility of a player who had an immediate chance of playing for England opting for Ireland instead.

But that didn't happen and probably never will. Rice's defection showed that if an English-born Irish underage star turns out to be really good we won't be able to hold on to them. So Ireland want them to be good but not too good. There's something dispiriting about that.

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It may sound a tad old-fashioned in this globalised age to suggest that national pride can be a vital quality in international football. Yet cohesion and spirit can bridge gaps in a way that would be impossible at club level. Look at Sweden, Iceland or even Northern Ireland who have been far less dependent on The Granny Rule.

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A look at the superb performances of journeyman striker Kyle Lafferty in the other green jersey makes you wonder if the likes of Eoin Doyle and Paddy Madden, who have over 250 goals in Scottish and English football between them, might have risen similarly for the Republic.

There's been a tendency to over-promote English players who might not have been capped at all had they been born here. Witness the brief international careers of Paddy Kenny, Caleb Folan, Mickey Evans and Jon Goodman. If they weren't exactly single-use plastics, they came close enough. McCarthy's disastrous selection of James Collins ahead of Aaron Connolly in Georgia may also fall into this bracket.

Ireland's recent form at underage level has been encouraging for the future. But it's possible some of the players involved may end up being excluded in favour of guys now playing for England underage teams. Callum Robinson is just one example of a former English youth player who jumped ship when it became obvious he'd get no further with his own country.

Kenny should pursue a policy of not using players who declared for England as youngsters. Unless, he believes their awareness of an Irish identity miraculously dawned at the same time as their dreams of English honours died.

The policy of energetically courting English-born players at underage level has John Delaney's fingerprints all over it. It was opportunistic and provided a get-out clause for an organisation largely uninterested in providing a proper domestic infrastructure.

Why waste time, money and energy developing the League of Ireland when there was always the chance of picking up lads from the English system? The lack of that particular escape hatch would surely make the FAI concentrate a bit harder on the maximisation of resources within this country.

When James McClean hit out at Kenny's critics this week, it seemed telling that he suggested Gary Breen - who always expressed himself as Irish and talked up his Kerry roots - "had spent too much time in England".

You'd wonder how someone like McClean, who's asserted his Irish identity at the cost of much aggravation, feels about other players for whom our jersey is merely a flag of convenience.

God knows what he makes of the national rugby team who bestow caps on players whose only connection with Ireland is being paid to come here. The IRFU went the mercenary route long ago. While the FAI have not been perfect, they've been better than that.

One of the problems bedevilling relations between Ireland and England has been that the more ignorant of our neighbours seem to regard an Irishman as merely a second-class Englishman. It's a pity that our national team may have contributed to that impression.

Next time a down-on-his-luck Brit hints that he wouldn't mind a call up for the Paddies, FAI shouldn't stand for Find Another Irishman.

It should stand for F**k All Interest.