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From the Bleachers by Cormac Eklof

Irish fans sing The Fields of Athenry, Spain v Ireland Euro 2012: VIDEO

Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 05:39 PM

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So tonight Ireland's Euro 2012 effectively came to an end. Sure we still have to play Italy, and who would bet against the Irish playing out of their skins and causing a huge upset, this team has a lot of pride and will want to go out on a high, not just for themselves but for their loyal fans too. Tonight however they ran up against possibly the greatest team in the world in the Spanish, and the result was a predictable 0-4 trashing.

Bizarrely, what most will remember from the match will be the absolutely incredible display of support the magnificent travelling Irish fans showed, as the clock ticked down first to 90 minutes and then through the last three minutes of added time. With the match dying out, the masses of Irish fans ripped out a six minute long, stirring rendition of 'The fields of Athenry'. Several TV shows (I hear German, Dutch and even Spanish) deliberately didn't speak over the singing to allow their viewers experience it properly.

There are going to be plenty of cynics who try and bring this wonderful little moment down, but just ignore them. Crank up the volume, sit back and enjoy the 6 minutes video from German TV below. This is just a wonderfully unusual moment in sports, a moment of goodwill, kindness, passion and loyalty.

Enjoy it for what it is. Support, in the truest sense of the word. No Nazi banners, no bananas thrown on the pitch, no angry, hateful chants. Just pride and passion, displayed in a dignified, moving way by literally thousands of Irish who refused to let the score get in the way of their support for their boys.

We live in what can be a nasty, brutish world, it is heart warming every now and then to find an oasis of goodwill and humanity. Low lie, the fields of Athenry..

Update - Friday15th June
The morning after

So UEFA have forced YouTube to take the original video in all its brilliance down. Congratulations to UEFA for trying to stop people enjoying a wonderful sporting moment. Brilliant minds at work in there obviously. Fear not. We have trawled the web and come up with the below alternatives.

This is a simple, short one with excellent audio.

Another short, grainy one that nonetheless has superb audio. Notice this is well after the match has finished and the Irish are still singing!

Finally, a top notch video and audio rendition, however I am not confident UEFA won't swoop on this one also.

There we go. Big Brother can go take a hike. We will make sure a working video of the amazing Irish supporters stays up on this come hell or high water! Enjoy.

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33 comments

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SeanODonovan | Jun 25, 2012, 10:59 AM EDT

Excellent article, I was in Poland and had a great time. The Polish people are brilliant hosts and we are excellent guests! The grainy video above is mine and thanks for putting it on your website. It is actually from a World Cup qualifying game in Bari, Italy in 2009, and it shows that we don't just sing and support our team at big tournaments ! You must come to an Irish game again very soon Cormac. Seán

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DaddyMac22 | Jun 22, 2012, 11:56 AM EDT

Once again, to stress to readers from around the world, WoundedKnee does not represent the feelings of most common decent Irish people. The Irish are very accepting, fun and good natured people, as represented by those folk in Poland last week. Just ignore the angry, depressing rantings of WoundedKnee. Sadly, every country has a few clowns!

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WoundedKnee | Jun 22, 2012, 04:04 AM EDT

Mojo aka DaddyMac: You are a liar. Why do you put forward the falsehood that the Irish people have voted to permit the colonization of their country? They haven't. Indeed on the only occasion when the Irish govt permitted a vote on an issue of this sort, the Irish voted FOUR TO ONE to deny citizenship tourism to pregnant foreign women who arrived in Ireland with the express intention of giving birth and thereby claiming Irish citizenship for their baby. Further, ALL public opinion polls show some 70% and more of the Irish opposing the settlement of their country by foreign migrants. As to the "Irish diaspora", the fact that Irish people went to the US, Canada, Argentina etc. in the past provides no logical reason as to why Ireland should offer an open door to people from Angola, Burundi, China etc. Indeed, Mojo aka DaddyMac is a hypocrite as well as a liar, since Argentines of Irish heritage--the descendents of the very Irish that this guy offers as a pretext for Mass Immigration--have on many occasions been denied the right to come and spend a while in the land of their ancestors. Latvians, Lithuanians, Laotians stroll thru Immigration at Dublin Airport, while Irish-Argentines, many of whom have kept alive their heritage and culture in difficult circumstances are turned away! Fianna Fail slum landlords like Mojo aka have done well out of Mass Immigration, the Irish people have gained nothing from it.

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Mojo | Jun 21, 2012, 10:06 PM EDT

That's fine, Mr. WoundedKnee, hope you recover from your knee-capping soon. Thing is, I did say "the best of the Irish", so I clearly was not referring to you in my previous post. I was talking about the many open-minded people who still inhabit our island. There was a time in the recent past, when we had so many jobs available in the construction sector that we could not fill them with indigenous workers. To say that they must all leave when this situation changes would have very big implications on the question of the Irish diaspora abroad over the past 50 years, to say the least. And jacersagain, there are many followers of Islam who do not believe they should be forced into arranged marriages, who do not believe that anyone should be subject to shariah law, who feel that being a woman should not mean they are forbidden to drive a car. Should we refuse access to our state from these people, and why should we, if so. I am a confirmed atheist, but respect the right of any individual to believe what feels right to them. Why do you grant me more rights than a person who worships the same god as you, but in a different way?

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Mojo | Jun 20, 2012, 07:48 AM EDT

WoundedKnee: I feel sorry for you, your anger, lack of humanity and lack of tolerance must really weigh you down. For other readers, just please understand this person does not represent the feelings of normal Irish people. Despite his right wing rantings, Ireland is very welcoming to all. Sure, we have to be, we have sent many of our sons and daughters all over the world! Just ask NY, London etc etc. Ireland is a welcoming, glowing, emerald isle of humanity. Hopefully the brilliant ambassadors we sent to Poland echo that.

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WoundedKnee | Jun 20, 2012, 07:42 AM EDT

DaddyMac: People like me, despite your stupid and insulting language, make up the majority in Ireland. People like you, in contrast, are in a minority, except when it comes to Fianna Fail slum landlords. (Are you in that category?) As for me, I'm with the 70% of Irish people who when polled consistently express opposition to the settlement of their homeland by foreigners. I assume you were cheering for Ukraine or Poland in the soccer--after all, people are all the same, aren't they. Come to think of it, why aren't you posting on a Czech or Russian web site--what's so special about an Irish one?

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DaddyMac22 | Jun 19, 2012, 06:42 PM EDT

WoundedKnee: sadly, you just don't get it. We are all people. We are all humans. The better parts of Euro 2012 are showing exactly that. People like you are thankfully becomming a thing of the past, as the world becomes a smaller place and people realise we are all the same breed. We all bleed. We are all made of stars.

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misneac | Jun 19, 2012, 06:34 PM EDT

What a load of horse manure !The stupid Irish drinking their heads off all across Europe and moronically continuously bawling out the " Fields of Athenry " .For once I agree with Roy Keane .The social welfare crowd will soon be back to have a few more sessions on the "dole" collected by their partners . The awarding of 100 caps to Duff and the nonsense comments of congratulation makes the mind boggle .Image spending 150 hours running around within forty yards of the opponents goal and no one can ever remember Duff scoring a goal ,also he is paid enormous sums of money for that .What a crazy world we live in ,and what stupid people soccer supporters are !

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WoundedKnee | Jun 19, 2012, 12:29 PM EDT

DaddyMac: "We welcome all peoples from all over the world." As visitors, yes, as settlers no. No Irish person I know, myself included, welcomes the settlement of our country by foreign migrants. We never voted for it, we never asked for it. Did the corrupt gangsters of Fianna Fail go to the people ten years ago with the platform "We are going to import vast numbers of foreigners while encouraging Irish people to emigrate"? "We propose to promote so much immigration that the Irish will be an ethnic minority in Ireland by mid-century"? The very opposite, they lied (I knew they were lying but many believed them) and screamed "wacists" at anyone who questioned their crazy Mass Immigration project.

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WoundedKnee | Jun 19, 2012, 12:10 PM EDT

Mojo: Are you crazy? "blaming the co-workers WE invited to come in the good times". Who the hell is WE? No Irish person I know ever invited any foreign migrants, they were invited by your corrupt politicians and worthless capitalists. When did the Irish people issue the invitation? When did they have a vote on this? You're nuts. I hope we won't hear any whines from you about Irish people emigrating.

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Bythebay | Jun 19, 2012, 10:10 AM EDT

Well said Cormac. Ireland has the best supporters in the world. The team made the Euro 2012 and played against some of the best teams. Irish supporters are welcome everywhere. Pride and passion displayed in a dignified way. Well done.

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DaddyMac22 | Jun 19, 2012, 06:08 AM EDT

jacersagain does not represent common, decent thought in Ireland. We welcome all peoples from all over the world. I think we have re-taken the 'friendliest people in the world' title since Euro2012 started. Ireland is a good place to come, for all humanity.

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jacersagain | Jun 19, 2012, 03:16 AM EDT

Er Mojo I agree fully with your comment & thanks to sekator but leave out the muslims; we Irish really don’t want them here from any country.

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Mojo | Jun 18, 2012, 09:46 PM EDT

Sekator, you are very kind, and contrary to the opinions of certain patella-compromised individuals, there are plenty of us here in Ireland who have embraced the Polish diaspora here in Ireland. One of my best friends has married a Polish immigrant, who has become another of my best friends, and they have a great kid together, for example. My family's not faring too great in the recession, but the worst thing to do is become bitter, and start blaming the co-workers WE invited to come in the good times. It's not as though the Irish are happy to up sticks and abandon the new new lives they've made in another country as soon as circumstances disimprove there either. The best of the Irish do NOT care either what somebody's religion OR country of birth are. We are happy to befriend Polish Catholics, UK Anglicans, Nigerian Baptists, Palestinian Muslims, Chinese Buddhists, whatever. And the rest need to take a good, long look at themselves, and ask why they have to be so bitter and blame their woes on such innocent parties.

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DaddyMac22 | Jun 18, 2012, 06:22 PM EDT

sekator; thank you for the kind comments, one of the abiding memories of the Euros will be the new friendship nurtured by many Irish and Poles. Long may it continue.

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