Paul McGrath is alive and well and living in Wexford and as fit as a fiddle. That’s an important piece of news for anyone who holds the fortunes of Ireland’s greatest footballer close to his or her heart.

It’s good news, great news indeed for a man who has spent too many mornings on the front page of our finest newspapers and our English imports.

It’s good news that I can confirm having spent Sunday night in the Irish sporting legend’s company at a charity dinner organized by that other great hero of ours, Bernard Dunne.

Big Paul played in a fundraising game for Bernard at his old Richmond Park stomping ground on Sunday afternoon when he was joined on the famous pitch by the likes of Kenny Egan, Katie Taylor, Pat Fenlon, Collie Moran, Ken Doherty, Graham Taylor and young Dunne himself.

Bernard’s team won the tie with a Gaiety Theatre all-stars selection on penalties, and our latest world champion even won a penalty himself in normal time after apparently going down rather too easily in the box.

A keen Liverpool fan, we can only assume that Dunne has been known to watch a certain Ronaldo from deadly rivals Manchester United in his time. He certainly has never gone down as easily in the ring, as one Inchicore pundit put it on Sunday evening.

Like everyone else in the room at the Louis Fitzgerald hotel out on the Naas Road later that night, Dunne was in awe of McGrath.

“To say I played on the same team as Paul McGrath is something I can tell the grandchildren in years to come,” said the super-bantamweight champion of the world.

As ever, Big Paul was embarrassed by the platitudes that came his way as easily as the roast beef and the salmon on Sunday night.

He is so modest he almost reclines into his seat when people are talking about him, but he was also willing to talk to the audience present about his life as a World Cup footballer and his thoughts on the current predicament of the team now led by Giovanni Trapattoni.

McGrath is a Trap fan. He likes the way the Italian is going about his business, and you’ll be glad to know he feels we have a fighting chance of making it to South Africa next summer now that the new soccer season is almost upon us.

The two World Cups he starred in were, he admitted, the highlight of a career that still seems so fresh in the memory, even though it is now some 10 years plus past its sell-by date.

And it was when he spoke about the World Cup and the affect it has on players that McGrath became a little agitated in his opinions on Sunday night.

Earlier that day word had leaked through from the FAI that Stephen Ireland of Manchester City fame is unlikely to feature in the squad to play Australia in a Limerick friendly next month.

By the time you read this Trapattoni will have been in Thomond Park on Wednesday to announce his squad for that game, the warm-up for the crunch Group Eight qualifier in Cyprus just three weeks later.

You’ll know by now whether Ireland’s much talked about comeback is a runner for the Australia game or for the Cyprus fixture, but Big Paul is in no doubt as to where he stands on the issue.

Stephen Ireland either wants to play for his country or he doesn’t and if he doesn’t then we should just move on and forget about him was the gist of what Paul said, adding that no player can be bigger than the national team or the World Cup dreams of the nation.

It was interesting to hear such a defined opinion from the man who rocked the Italians almost on his own in Giants Stadium all those years ago.

McGrath knows what it takes to play in a World Cup finals. He recognizes that Stephen Ireland has some wonderful talent to add to the mix if we do get to South Africa but he realizes -- and yes, he made his own mistakes -- that no player can be put before the team.

His public thoughts kicked off a most interesting week for Irish soccer. I don’t know if Stephen Ireland will play against Australia or Cyprus, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t appear in either fixture.

But I do know that Paul McGrath still cares passionately about his country, still lives that World Cup dream in his own head.

If the players who are picked by Trapattoni for Australia and Cyprus are half as committed as he was and is then we do have a real World Cup chance in the autumn.

And if the manager is as good as Paul McGrath believes he is then we will be in South Africa next summer.

Not a bad start to the new week, not a bad start at all. Roll on Thomond -- with or without Stephen Ireland.