Any sports fan finds defeat easier to accept when they see their team beaten by a better opponent within the rules of the game and yet the manner of Ireland's World Cup exit at the hands of Thierry Henry and France on Wednesday night has left Ireland with the sort of headache a Guinness overdose rarely leaves behind.

• Maher: Ireland hard done by
• France 1-1 (2-1 agg) Ireland
• Ireland fuming over handball
• Henry admits handball

While glorious failure is something Irish sporting heroes have specialised in down the years, the spectacular performance produced by Giovanni Trapattoni's team in Paris meant their eventual demise left an already depressed nation wondering where its next cheer will come from.

With the Irish economy in meltdown and everyone throughout the country feeling the financial pinch, the prospect of a World Cup summer in 2010 would have been the ideal tonic and yet it is lucky France who ended that dream as the bundled their way to South Africa by foul means.

Henry's contrition for his crime of handling the ball that led to the crucial French extra-time goal kept his reputation from being too sullied, with his apology to several Ireland players after the game confirming he merely did what he needed to do to get his country to the World Cup.

The reality is it was the match officials who let Ireland down in Paris and the reaction in the country sinned upon has been predictably bitter, with the always-excellent Vincent Hogan summing up the mood succinctly as he penned his words from the Stade de France.

"It felt shocking that a country's dream could perish so fraudulently," he wrote in the Irish Independent. "Short of tucking the ball up his jersey, Thierry Henry couldn't have been more openly tactile in possession before flicking to William Gallas for the kill shot. In rugby, a TV umpire would have saved us. But FIFA doesn't go that road and, for that, they will be truly thankful. On Thursday in Paris, the French Federation unveiled their World Cup jersey. Big business works on smart gambling."

The persistently hypercritical Eamon Dunphy put down his venomous words for one night as he lavished praise on players he has belittled for the last year or so and offered gushing praise to Trapattoni and his team.

"I don't think I've seen an Ireland team play better than that," he commented. "This team were heroic and they should be proud of themselves. They were robbed and anyone who says these Ireland players are not good enough to compete at this level has been silenced. When Trapattoni let them off the leash, the players responded magnificently and this shows what is possible when the fear factor is taken away.

"Damien Duff turned in his best performance yet in an Ireland shirt and I have to say Keith Andrews was magnificent. I have criticised him throughout the campaign, but he was fantastic in Paris."

Ireland captain Keane has come under fire from many sections of the media in his homeland for the best part of a decade, but his display in Paris has to go down as his finest yet in national team colours. Leading by example and scoring the goal that revived Ireland's hopes in the tie, any suggestion that he does not perform on the big occasion is banished once and for all.

"This was a seminal moment for Keane," wrote Andrew Fifield in the Irish Examiner. "The Dubliner's inability to convince Rafael Benitez of his merit at Liverpool still smarts but even the Spaniard, whose managerial style is always served icy cold, must have warmed to Keane's performance on the grand stage of Stade de France.

"It was not simply Keane's goal, as good as that was, which stirred the blood. This was a performance which bristled with defiance, combining inexhaustible energy with the sort of tactical nous which ensured that not one drop of sweat was expended unnecessarily."

Amid the praise for Ireland and the somewhat embarrassed contrition from the beneficiaries of this unseemly mess, you can always rely on the increasingly pathetic France coach Raymond Domenech to steal the moment with a confused contribution and his press conference in Paris on Wednesday night bordered on the farcical.

"I did not see a handball and it's only you people who are speaking about this," mumbled the only fool in France who had missed the incident, other than referee Martin Hansson and his blinked assistant of course. "Sometimes we have felt unlucky in previous games, sometimes we feel lucky. I just want to congratulate the Irish team and in a way, I regret that they did not qualify. As for us, the only word we need to say tonight is that we are very happy at the qualification."

The tactical stupidity of Domenech will ensure France have no chance of success in South Africa next summer and Ireland assistant coach Liam Brady believes he should be handed one final test before heading to the World Cup as he has called for the play-off in Paris to be replayed after Henry's indiscretion.

"This game should be replayed and we'll go to Paris to play it," said a furious Brady, who must know his calls will fall on deaf FIFA ears. "If the sport is going to survive, it's got to be an equal playing field. If we're going to have integrity and dignity in the world game, this kind of thing cannot be allowed to pass."

The curious irony in all of this is that many Irishmen chuckled at the misfortune of their old English foes after Diego Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" goal ended their World Cup dreams some 23 years ago.

Well, now they have their own injustice to throw into the hall of sporting infamy and, as the English will readily confirm, the pain they are feeling now is unlikely to disperse any time soon.