"Put 'Em Under Pressure" was the official song to the

Republic of Ireland national football team , FIFA Trigramme = IRL , Name = Republic of Ireland , Association = Football Association of Ireland (FAI) , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , website fai.ie, Coach = Stephen Kenny (foot ...

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

campaign in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Background

Produced by U2's

Larry Mullen Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr. (; born 31 October 1961) is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band U2. Mullen was born in Dublin, where he attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School. In 1976, he co-founded U2 ...

, it featured an intro by

Moya Brennan Moya Brennan (born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on 4 August 1952), also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing pr ...

. The song was created by Mullen, Denis Woods, John Donnelly and engineered by John Grimes. The song features 'spoken-word' mash-up taken from the film ''Que Sera Sera''. The guitar riff takes inspiration from the song "Dearg Doom" by

Horslips Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and Reel (dance), reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of tradit ...

, which features on the album ''

The Táin ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

''.

Release

The title became a

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

of then manager

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

, whose soundbites were sampled for the verse; the chorus was a combination of the familiar football chant " Olé Olé Olé" and a reworking of "

Ally's Tartan Army Ally's Tartan Army was a novelty record released by Scottish comedian Andy Cameron on the Klub Records (KRL) label to mark the Scottish football team's qualification for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. The "Tartan Army" are Scotland's fans; "A ...

" (which was itself set to the tune of "

God Save Ireland "God Save Ireland" is an Irish rebel song celebrating the Manchester Martyrs, three Fenians executed in 1867. It served as an unofficial Irish national anthem for Irish nationalism, Irish nationalists from the 1870s to the 1920s. Composition On 18 ...

"), the unofficial theme tune for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

, and for 13 weeks the song was at number one in the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

helped by a pulsating video again directed by Billy McGrath featuring footage from Que Sera Sera and the team recording the song in Windmill Lane. The song is regularly played in celebration at Irish homes matches. It was used as the opening theme for the compilation episode of

BBC Switch BBC Switch was the brand for BBC content aimed at UK teenagers. The brand was launched on Saturday 20 October 2007 on BBC Two and ceased broadcasting on 18 December 2010. It included a block of television programmes on BBC Two, an online portal ...

series ''

Chartjackers ''Chartjackers'' is a British documentary series, produced by Hat Trick Productions and commissioned by BBC Switch. It documents the lives of four teenage video bloggers over the course of ten weeks, as they attempt to write, record and release ...

''. In 2011,

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís � ...

aired a quiz show titled ''

Put 'Em Under Pressure "Put 'Em Under Pressure" was the official song to the Republic of Ireland national football team's 1990 FIFA World Cup campaign in Italy. Background Produced by U2's Larry Mullen, it featured an intro by Moya Brennan. The song was created by Mu ...

'', presented by

Gráinne Seoige Gráinne Seoige (; born 5 November 1973) is an Irish journalist, news anchor and documentary and entertainment television presenter. A noted Irish language supporter, Seoige is the only television personality to have worked with all four Irish ...

. The phrase ''Put 'Em Under Pressure'' is to this day used in relation to the Ireland national football team.

References

{{FIFA World Cup music Irish rock songs Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Republic of Ireland national football team songs Chartjackers Republic of Ireland at the 1990 FIFA World Cup Football songs and chants London Records singles