After a year which still holds the distinction of the most bizarre and unprecedented since the FAI's foundation (quite a boast), Kerr arrived looking like the calming influence, the baggageless, friendly-faced king who would rule without rancour.

As Paul Howard put it in these pages, Kerr would represent 'the enema that Irish football has needed since Saipan'. Previous encumbent Mick McCarthy had departed the scene with the name of Roy Keane ringing in his ears - a 2-1 defeat to Switzerland in Lansdowne Road the previous October helping the boo-boys to create one of the most unseemly and uncomfortable nights in Irish soccer history.

By January, the FAI had whittled their list of candidates down to three: Philippe Troussier, the Frenchman who had led Japan to the second round of the World Cup on home soil, the double act of Bryan Robson and Don Howe (who brandished the seemingly fanciful claim that they could bring Keane back from the wilderness) and Kerr.

President Milo Corcoran, acting general secretary Kevin Fahy and treasurer John Delaney made up the interview panel, with Corcoran and Fahy known admirers of Kerr. Delaney was more keen on Philippe Troussier taking the job for 18 months with Kerr acting as his apprentice.

Obviously he didn't like the idea of an unproven manager learning his trade in a top job at the highest level. At the time.

Despite a tide of favourable public opinion, the FAI still did their damndest to make the week a PR disaster, with Delaney facing allegations of encouraging the previous manager to look for a ¤100,000 bonus for himself after the 1-1 draw with Germany in Japan. Fahy and Corcoran had known about the allegation for months, yet gave Delaney only a week to respond - the week in which they were supposed to be finding McCarthy's replacement.

But this day was Kerr's day, as he bantered merrily with gathered reporters, firing off droll one-liners and prefacing all answers with the name of the journalist who asked the question. Tom Humphries in The Irish Times likened it to 'a family occasion'. Kerr promised that he had a plan to bring Keane back to the side and promised a regime of straight talking, good player relationships and passion, lots of passion. "There'll be no angles. It will be straight. I think players will be inspired by our passion, I think we have the job because they recognise our passion."

Kerr was shown the door after failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, after his players provided what are generally accepted to be some of the most passionless ever displayed by an Irish side. Still, at least he could console himself with the thought that he was being moved along to make room for an established world-class manager. Oh.