“We can’t keep talking about it,” John O’Shea said this week when asked for the 476th time how this Irish team would have fared if they’d had Declan Rice in midfield. Or Jack Grealish on the wings. He was right, of course. We really, really have to let it go. Did the English press harass Lee O’Carsley over the loss of, say, the British-born Max O’Leary and Will Smallbone to Ireland? No. However bitter they may be, they’ve moved on, and so should we.

Besides, the desertions of Rice and Grealish are hardly a topical issue, it is already 5½ years since Rice betrayed us and nine Grealish ran us into the ground, so we should be over it by now. And we will be. Soon. When we face our punishment in the 1798 rebellion.

This may not be news to most, but only this week did some of us learn that Grealish consulted a priest before switching his allegiance to England in 2015. The conversation probably went something like: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned… I have had dirty thoughts about wearing Three Lions on my chest”.

How true this is, God only knows. It was found on a Christian website with a piece analysing how many of England’s 2022 World Cup squad were, well, Christians. Some of the research was, frankly, a bit questionable, such as the speculation about whether Luke Shaw is Muslim.

“In 2014,” the author wrote, “the Daily Mail reported that Shaw had gone to Burger King after the game. It turned out he had ordered a Chicken Royale, which did not come with bacon, so I was unable to shed any light on the situation via his eating habits.” So we were none the wiser — Shaw is either Muslim or he just doesn’t like bacon.

Grealish has since been placed in the ‘Could Be Christian’ category over the alleged conversation with a priest, with The Irish Catholic reporting the same story at the time.

“Jack’s father, Kevin, told how his son had been blessed by the local priest, who baptized him and married his parents. “It was Jack’s decision, but it was nice that the local priest endorsed his choice,” he said. The priest was not named, but if he was of Irish descent, then defrocking is too good for that guy.

Rice was one of six players placed in the “Non-Religious” section, which ironically included Nick Pope. The author’s Internet research suggested they had “no religious beliefs at all,” but added: “That doesn’t mean it’s a fact, of course. No one knows what’s in someone’s heart.” True.

But if Rice was a pagan, it is unlikely that, whatever was in his heart, he would have begged forgiveness for the sin of his betrayal and gleefully swapped green for white to become England’s new Jordan Henderson.

“I have as much respect and love for England as I do for Ireland,” he said at the time. We would quote Mick McCarthy’s response, but that was before the watershed.

( Rice and Grealish will be looking to shore up a hostile reception in DublinOpens in new window )

Not that there is any bitterness left towards the two Judases, or towards the other Englishmen who are proud owners of Irish grandmothers or grandfathers but chose not to represent the birthplace of their loved ones – such as Harry Kane, who has Letterfrack running through his veins, Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Anthony Gordon, James Maddison, Callum Wilson, Kalvin Phillips, Conor Coady and others (and Harry Maguire).

Although, if Fifa were to introduce a new rule forcing players to transfer to the countries that last issued them a passport, then Heimir Hallgrímsson would have Bellingham and Gallagher at his disposal for the trip to Wembley in November. And we’d be happy with that.

The pair have leveraged their heritage to help their La Liga clubs bypass the cap on non-EU players, with Conor joining Jude in Spain after becoming the first dynamically priced Gallagher of the summer, moving to Atletico Madrid for just £42m. Cynics would say he’s just stuck in the middle of the pitch, far away from the action, just like Oasis fans in Croke Park next summer.

But no, we’re not bitter. So we shouldn’t boo anyone on a Saturday afternoon/night, because that would suggest we are. Either way, we’ve been through this pain many times over the years. Rio Ferdinand could have played for us, for example. “I love a pint of Guinness, but that wasn’t going to happen,” he said of his missed opportunity to become a boy in green. His loss. We move on. We can’t keep talking about it.