Irish fan’s experience at the Euros - the highs and lows of the trip, and the amazing Irish spirit

Tralee woman talks about supporting Ireland at the UEFA Euro 2012 competition

Then Spain bring Fabregas off their bench and bang he scores from a corner. This was the final nail in Ireland’s Euro 2012 coffin. We were truly miserable and deflated.

Then something really special happened a rendition of ‘The Fields of Athenry’ made its way around the stadium. A bit down beat at the beginning and then it gathered voices and heart. Every single verse got louder and louder, the Irish fans were truly amazing. I think there was only five minutes to go in the game and all you could hear was thousands of fans singing as one. This spontaneous burst of song gave you that feeling that something special was happening, the hair on the back of my neck was up and I had goose bumps all over. It was just brill. “The Fields of Athenry” was as loud as ever and the Irish fans were singing as if they had just won the final. I was delighted to be part of this special moment.

When woke up the following morning we were still talking about the end of the Spain game and how great we really are as a nation. Our team lost 4-0 and we are singing our hearts out.

At breakfast we sat with a daily Irish newspaper (they were handed out free every morning at the campsites to Irish fans) and read about Roy Keane and his comments. I believe he really likes to go against the grain and likes to have the headlines for the very wrong reasons. Don’t get me wrong I have great respect for him as a player but only when he has been successful as a manager then I will take him seriously. Get a life Roy- all this bitterness will make you ill. I think this was an outlet for the Irish fans not to be thinking of recession, job losses, rising bill prices etc. It was a holiday for most of us and we were going to make the most of it win, lose or draw.

We moved onto a lovely place called Sopot just outside Gdansk for the following two days just until we were to make our way to Poznan for the Italy game. There we met a group of young lads from South Kerry who converted an old school bus to facilitate four bunks and four seats while driving. It was gas. They had a block of wood holding the handbrake up in place. Not for the faint hearted driving through Europe but they had great stories of their adventure.

The following day we made our journey to Poznan. We checked into our fan campsite and unloaded the outdoor chairs and tables and relaxed for a few hours. There was close to 200 campervans in this site and 198 of them were Irish. I only made out two Italian vans.

It was great to see all the flags draped across the bonnets of all the vans some with their local towns and local pubs written on them. Then others with “go home to your granny” with a picture of Stephen Ireland on it. We got ourselves in order by having showers, not a nice experience at all being a woman in a camp site mostly full of fellas with just shower curtains between everyone. Then a trip to the loo was even worse. There was about 20 port a loos in the site and they had to be the worst thing about the whole trip. Just imagine having to gag every time you enter one- it was just terrible and when the heat hit 30degrees worse they got. Eventually we made the decision to use the toilet facilities in the bars we were drinking in rather than having to use them again.

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