The Republic of Ireland may not be heading to the World Cup this Summer, but the highs of Budapest and the lows of Prague were moments meant to galvanise us as humans in a way nothing else could, especially artificial intelligence, writes Mark Nutley.
Kipling wrote, “If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same”. They are not the same but they are two sides of the same coin. The feelings are still fresh. The exhilaration still reverberates. The bone crushing disappointment still aches. Caoimhin floats one last desperate high ball into the box. Scales gets a flick. Jan Kliment puts the ball on the spot. Parrott, anticipating as all great strikers should, is there a fraction before the defender. Kliment looks at the referee and waits. Parrott, by sheer strength of will gets the faintest of touches, a flick of a stud to send the ball into the net. The referee blows the whistle and Kliment trots up to the ball and plants it high to Kelleher’s right into the top of the net and it’s over. Both memories are equally vivid. The emotions equally strong. The heartbreak every bit as real as the elation.
There is no script for these moments. The moments that bring us, almost to a man, woman and child, around our televisions and screens. Which is why AI could never come up with them. This is raw emotion. Hopes and dreams at play. Unfolding before our wide eyes and touching the heart and soul of the nation. The stuff that separates us from the machines. From the data.
On both nights, I slumped back on the couch and thought about what I just witnessed. In the hours that followed, as social media reacted to the hysteria and the despair, I could not help but think about how both these moments will live with us forever. The joy of Budapest and the despair of Prague both move us and galvanise us and make us believe in humanity, in life, in this mad circus. These are moments that are created by and for humans.
AI is a powerful and wonderful collaborator. By working with it, we can create in ways we never imagined. It puts power that once required massive investment in the hands of us all. It is a facilitator, an agitator and a change-maker. But it is not human. It still needs us more than we need it. We are the ones capable of creating the stories that shake us, move us and define who we are. Every now and again we need a reminder of that.
At the heart of the story on both occasions was a boy from Dublin’s North Inner City. A boy who responded in his post-match interviews almost exactly the same on the nights of November 16th 2025 and on the 26th of March 2026. He talked of pride with tears in his eyes. His love for family and for his home place. The imposters of triumph and disaster treated just the same. In this world, there is what already exists and there is what we can create. There is Greek mythology and there is Troy. No longer a boy.
Mark Nutley is a Creative Partner at Pluto.
