Martin O'Neill is a good manager imo, it's just too bad that Ireland hasn't produced any good players for the last maybe 10 years. Except Seamus Coleman maybe.
That's the crux of it really.
We aren't producing players anymore and there's a wide range of factors for that. GAA has always been more popular at youth level, but i suspect rugby is there now too. So a lot of players are being taken away from soccer at an early age.
The FAI don't fund the youth game to any degree in the country either - you only have to compare the facilities that any local soccer club has to those of the local GAA or rugby team. Even the top level Irish soccer clubs don't have the facilities or infrastructure that compares with those available to a 3rd division rugby team. It's just night and day and the problem starts at the top of the FAI.
Our main hope in soccer now probably rests with the Nigerian influx we had in the late 90's early 00's. Those kids, like Obafemi at Southampton, seem likely to make an impact on Irish sport soon. Unfortunately since they were all born in Ireland their birth certs are legit so we haven't won any youth tournaments