In 1933, a South American football team visited Dublin on the first stop of their European tour. That a touring side from South America was visiting these shores was something of a novelty in itself, but to make matters more unusual was the fact that the so-called Combinado del Pacífico (Selection of the Pacific) was jointly representing Peru and Chile, neighbouring nations whose longstanding enmity had given rise, some 50 years previously, to the War of the Pacific.
Welcoming the joint Peru-Chile selection to Leinster House on September 29th, 1933, the president of the Executive Council,…
