More recently, the decision by true blue Dubliner Roberto Lopes – who once played underage international football for Ireland alongside John Egan and Matt Doherty – to declare for his father’s native Cape Verde Islands has been seen as a good news story for the Irish game. And with that small country's qualification for next year's African Nations Cup finals, it means that Shamrock Rovers will have a player at the tournament.

But leaving aside the Declan Rice and Jack Grealish sagas, the next time someone from the Republic of Ireland changes allegiance, there could be a lot more noise. Ever since Shay Brennan made his Ireland debut in 1965, the first non-native to play for the team, Irish football has reaped the rewards of the 'granny rule'. Three of the Republic's ten most-capped players were not born here, and four of the first five goals scored by the Republic at the World Cup finals were scored by 'Anglos'. Accents didn't matter.

Yet Ireland could potentially suffer the reverse effects of that granny rule. Players who were born or raised in Ireland, but have a family background from another nation, may spurn the green and adopt the jersey of the land of their fathers.

The reasons behind the absence of West Ham's Dublin-born striker Mipo Odubeko from the Ireland U-21 squad, for the second camp in a row, are complex and not easily fixed, with senior team boss Stephen Kenny and the player's agent involved in talks over his international future. But there is no doubt that Nigeria are very keen on the striker who could also declare for England under the residency rule.

The spectre of losing a player, who played twice for West Ham's first team last season at 18, to another country is real, with Nigeria very keen and England also tracking the boy from Jobstown. This week one Nigerian media outlet claimed that "Mipo's family wants him to represent the Nigeria national teams and the talented center forward is open to picking the Super Eagles over the Three Lions and The Boys in Green".

Voices in the Nigerian media also defiantly claimed that Michael Obafemi (born in Dublin but raised in England) would declare for Nigeria, only for him to commit to Ireland. And despite promises to up their game when it comes to scouting here, they have a long way to go: one Dublin-born Nigerian teen who attended a training camp in London, arranged by Nigerian FA scouts, found that it was a farce. With 60 players on trial, there was no real way of impressing in a hoovering-up exercise which benefited no one.

But losing eligible players to other nations is a fact of life and Irish football needs to be prepared. Indeed, a nation which welcomed James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady to the Irish fold – both had a grandfather from this country – and thus spurned their native Scotland, can then have no complaints when a player born in Ireland, with a strong Nigerian family, chooses that nation.

Supporters of Northern Ireland, frustrated to see the likes of James McClean, Darron Gibson and many others leave their set-up after winning underage caps, will surely see the irony in moans from the 26 counties over dual-eligibility players defecting to a rival nation.

Indeed, it's inevitable that a country such as Poland will eventually recruit a player born and raised in Ireland whose family ties to Poland are stronger. The Polish FA's scouts only casually scan the Irish scene as they have enough players to pick from already. But if the next Robert Lewandowski happens to emerge from a Polish family in Carlow, expect a tug of war.

Stephen Kenny last week raised an uncomfortable truth about an attitude towards the 'new Irish' and the difficulties the FAI had in processing the paperwork of Chiedozie Ogbene. The striker – likely to make his senior Ireland debut in Andorra on Thursday – was born in Nigeria but raised in Cork, and the FAI had to provide FIFA with the player's attendance records from primary school to satisfy eligibility requirements.

“Chiedozie is someone who should have every right to play for Ireland, having grown up in Cork and played for Cork City and Limerick," Kenny said.

Many of those young footballers now making their way in the game, from the 'new Irish' community, were severely impacted by a dreadful change to our law on the back of a 2004 referendum on citizenship which effectively restricted the right to Irishness for the 'new Irish'. Will those who voted to add that restriction to our constitution now go on to abuse Odubeko as a traitor for deciding that he felt more at home playing for Nigeria?

Last week a French media outlet carried a fascinating interview with a player called Aymen Ben Mohamed that expressed so much: born in London to a Tunisian father and Irish mother and raised in Dublin, where he tried his hand at Gaelic football, Ben Mohamed now plays for a club in France and is a senior international with Tunisia.

He feels Irish and Tunisian. A Muslim, he thanked Bohemians for how the club helped him observe Ramadan during his spell there and he spoke with a maturity that's often absent in debates about nationality.

Callum Robinson (played underage for England), Sam Szmodics (eligible for Hungary), Chiedozie Ogbene (born in Nigeria), James McClean (born in Northern Ireland), Ryan Johansson (a Spanish-based Luxembourg native) and Oisín McEntee (a Cavan lad born in the USA) will all line out at senior and U-21 levels this week, all of them entitled to play for Ireland. But also entitled to make a choice.

And if the granny rule is turned around and means that Irish players like Odubeko play for other nations, that's life.