The Irish were in a 1982 world cup qualification section that consisted of Holland, Belgium, France and Cyprus. They started off the campaign winning their first two matches, a comfortable away win against Cyprus and a surprising victory at home against Holland. The Irish had a chance of qualification as they thrashed Cyprus 6-0 and defeated France 3-2 at Dublin. Qualification rested on their matches away to France and Belgium and they narrowly lost both games, in turn resulting in the failure to qualify despite a decent campaign.
The Irish placed in a tough section for the qualifiers of Euro 84, consisting of Spain, Malta, Iceland and once again the Dutch. It all started with a narrow 2-1 defeat in Rotterdam against Holland. They lost any hope of qualifying after a disappointing 2-0 defeat against Spain in a match held at Zaragoza in April 1983. The Irish enjoyed their finest ever victory in a competitive match as they defeated Malta 8-0 in Dublin in their final match in the group, played in November 1983.
They started off their 1986 world cup qualification campaign with victory over the Soviet Union in September 1984; however they ended any hopes of qualifying as they suffered back to back defeats against Denmark and Norway in matches played at Copenhagen and Oslo respectively.