NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Irish worldwide flock to see the Boys in Green soccer team - Team draws massive support across the Irish Diaspora

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Irish worldwide flock to see the Boys in Green soccer team - Team draws massive support across the Irish Diaspora

Posted on Sunday, June 10, 2012 at 08:26 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

22 Comments

RSS

Archives

20,000 Irish fans have swept overseas to Poland and the Ukraine to support their team in the European soccer championships.

By train, plane and car they flooded across Europe all week like the swallows of Capistrano returning to their natural habitat.

They have been joined by Irish from all over the Diaspora returning to cheer on their Boys in Green in Europe’s most important soccer tournament.

It is deja vu all over again for a new generation of Irish soccer fans in Ireland and abroad. Back in the 1980s, a previous Irish economic depression was lifted in part by a national outpouring of pride and joy in the success of the Irish soccer team, especially in a famous victory over England in those same European championships.

When Ireland defeated England 1-0 in 1988 in Germany, Ireland danced and so did their emigrant children all over the world. In that pre-Internet time I remember watching the game in an Irish pub in Astoria. After Ireland won, we poured out onto the streets on a Sunday morning, confusing the hell out of local residents who had no idea what was going on.

Ironically, the team was managed by an Englishman, Jack Charlton, who remains one of the most popular figures in Irish sporting history.

In 1994, the Irish overseas army marched on America and New York in particular, or should I say New Jersey.

That was when, on a white hot June day the Irish soccer team defeated the mighty Italians 1-0 at Giants Stadium in what may well be the most famous victory in Irish sport.

While Americans can tell you where they were when the ice hockey team defeated the Russians in 1980, the Irish sports fan can do the same for Giants Stadium.

Luckily, I was only a few hundred feet away in the stands, as Ray Houghton --again an Englishman of Irish origin---turned and scooped a long range lob over the Italian goalkeeper’s head to give Ireland a famous victory.

There has been a lull and a drought for many years but now the Boys in Green are back in this major tournament in Europe.

Once again the emigrant clan from all over Europe have gathered while millions back home and around the world will be glued to TV screens when Ireland kicks off against Croatia today.

This time around there is an Italian manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, who is quickly achieving Charlton-like status all across Ireland.

Win or lose, the Irish team will do the country proud and lift spirits at a time when it has never been so badly needed.

So go on you Boys in Green and give us something to cheer for!

E-mail

22 comments

Previous Page 2 of 2 pages

BrianO | Jun 10, 2012, 12:51 PM EDT

They play for the jersey, you root for the jersey, not complicated.

Report abuse

EamonnDublin | Jun 10, 2012, 12:49 PM EDT

"GeorgeDillon" - Quite sad stuff from you there, George. Not worth a response. I'd hate to be a lady waiting for you to come home on an evening. The mind boggles. All I want to say is about tonight's game: COME ON IRELAND! Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland. Oh, by the way - I don't drink alcohol. Many of us don't. I've nothing against it, taken "sensibly", it's just that, as Billy Connolly says, "I've had enough".

Report abuse

PhlutiePhan | Jun 10, 2012, 11:53 AM EDT

With cheers and a few pints for the lads in green. A Nation Once Again!

Report abuse

Tooreenagrena | Jun 10, 2012, 11:28 AM EDT

Well Niall Ray Houghton is not an Englishman and in case you didnt know the ball is round. BTW I was born in London but please dont call me an Englisnman of Irish origin.

Report abuse

carrickcourt | Jun 10, 2012, 10:16 AM EDT

All my best to the lads of Ireland's soccer football squad. I have become a big soccer football fan in the last two years, partly because I hate the commercials in USA sports. My third cousin once removed Matt Holland one was a member of Ireland's soccer football squad.

Report abuse

GeorgeDillon | Jun 10, 2012, 09:56 AM EDT

I have an links with Irish soccer since the days when I often went to see St Patrick's Athletic when I was living in Dublin in the 1990s. But if anything symbolizes the infantilization of Irish culture, it's the sight of thousands of pot-bellied Irish stuffed into green shirts and wearing leprechaun hats while they swill beer and grunt "You'll never beat the Irish". Of course anyone will beat the Irish, you fools, just look at the way the EU has beaten you and how your leaders have shown the backbone of amoebas. And please, don't talk to me about the Irish being beloved by everyone else in Europe. People don't love drunken fools. Irish drunks are amusing for about five minutes, that is, until they start talking garbage or vomiting over you.

Report abuse

roryobrien | Jun 10, 2012, 09:20 AM EDT

What a vacuous article, any eejit could have written that. And Ray Houghton is Scottish, not English.

Report abuse

Previous Page 2 of 2 pages