Following the partition of Ireland in 1920, both the Belfast based IFA and the Dublin based FAI chose players born in the whole of Ireland to represent their respective teams until 1950.
The Football Association of Wales were incredibly loyal to the IFA and repeatedly opposed the FAI's requests to join the British Championships and despite being recognised by FIFA since 1924 it took a further 36 years before the FAW agreed to a friendly international against the Repubic of Ireland.
It was another 19 years before the two teams met again, this time at Swansea's Vetch Field. Ian Walsh scored on his debut as Wales won 2-1 and Wales continued their 100% record against the Irish two years later in Dublin as another debutant, Terry Boyle, scored in Wales' 3-1 win.
A debutant's goal, this time an Irish debutant, was responsible for the Republic of Ireland's first victory of Wales as Bernie Slaven scored the only goal of the game at Lansdowne Road, Dublin in 1990.
The first competitive match between both countries came in 2007 during the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. The match at Croke Park was an historic match as it was the first ever football match to be played at the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).
Welsh players to have made their debut against the Republic of Ireland:
- Ian Walsh (1979)
- Terry Boyle (1981)
- Tony Norman (1986)
- Dean Saunders (1986)
- Kit Symons (1992)
- Alan Neilson (1992)
- Tony Roberts (1993)
- Mark Crossley (1997)
- Karl Ready (1997)
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David Edwards (2007)
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Tyler Roberts (2018)
