SOCIAL CHATTER: From Bale to McIlroy, famous fans celebrate football’s history makers Wales and Northern Ireland

We take a look at the reaction to Wales and Northern Ireland booking places at Euro 2016 and discover one of the best interviews you will ever see.

Wales and Northern Ireland ended years of hurt by finally qualifying for a major finals as they successfully booked their places at Euro 2016 - and social media was awash with celebrations, from Gareth Bale to Rory McIlroy.

Scotland sadly failed to qualify, but the spotlight will instead fall on Wales in their first finals for 58 years and on Northern Ireland, who haven’t qualified for a major tournament since 1986.

Wales’ qualification was confirmed despite defeat to Bosnia but there were plenty of happy people…

Robbie Savage, one of the many former Welsh internationals never to have played at a major tournament finals, was one of the first to congratulate his countrymen on reaching a first finals since 1958.

The job completed by Wales coach Chris Coleman had, of course, been started by his predecessor Gary Speed, who put the wheels in motion several years earlier with the squad before sadly passing away.

And that was not lost on Speed’s close friend Savage.

For Northern Ireland, the wait to return to finals football was not quite as long. But celebrity fans felt the need to be there at Windsor Park on the night they achieved it with victory over Greece.

Golf great McIlroy and boxer Carl Frampton were among them.

Radio presenter Colin Murray, meanwhile, wondered if he was dreaming about it all.

One of the heroes of the qualifying campaign was striker Kyle Lafferty, who was once again on the scoresheet. But it was a couple of days later during a television interview that his finest moment came.

When asked who he would love to be drawn against for Euro 2016, he replied Argentina and Brazil with a slight smile across his face.

Lafferty took to Twitter too afterwards to continue the joke, which left some fans wondering whether he was being serious or not.