ot - Happy St. Patricks day

[pass_and_move]

He' give thi a reyt craic.

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[animallittle3]

We travelled across the Irish Sea on a ferry from Holyhead for England's friendly game against the Republic Of Ireland in February 1995 .

We arrived on the Tuesday morning with the game set to KO the following evening .

I've never seen a collection of the worst in society as I saw on that crossing across the water , we knew trouble lay ahead the following night .

Luckily for us we weren't staying in central Dublin , My mate had arranged for us to stay 10 miles outside the capital in a b&b and a pretty run of the mill village called Ballantyre which overlooks the black mountains .

We ventured in to the main pub in the village called The Beaver , a huge pub with snooker tables upstairs .

We went upstairs and were invited to a game of killer on the snooker table by the local lads .

For the next few hours the craic never stopped .

Christ knows how much of the black stuff we put away but we ended the Tuesday night in a night club in the basement of the pub till 3am .

Some of the lads we'd met were going to Lansdowne Road for the game and we arranged to meet in the pub around 1pm for a few drinks and then go in to Dublin a little later .

Part Two to follow .

[animallittle3]

We walked in to the pub at 1pm as arranged a little worse for wear to say the least but tha representing thi country so tha can't weaken , what the Irish lads were putting away we had to at least match .

It dawned on me that this game was a huge game for the Irish lads , a massive deal friendly or not .

For sure we wanted Terry Venables lads to win but it wasn't the World Cup final either .

The craic continued all afternoon but I was edgy as hell because of the number of boys I'd seen on the boat coming over , there's England fans and there's groups from West Ham , Chelsea , Millwall , Pompey etc etc all having a beer together and chewing the fat , if your around the England scene as I was back then you know the difference , they only joined up for major competitions abroad not a friendly just across the water , something wasn't right .

As it happened we weren't in the England section anyway , we'd tickets at the other side of Lansdowne Road which turned out to be a blessing .

Our newly found Irish mates were behind the goal so we were completely on our own amongst the other Irish fans .

It didn't matter anyway as it turned out as the Irish lads around us soon worked out we were English , I guess four of us stood there with not a bit of green between us gave it away .

The trump card was Mick McCarthy when we said we were from Barnsley .

Mention big Macca and you may as well be from County Cork as far as the Irish are concerned , total legend .

Part 3 to follow .

[Acido]

Ive bin to Paddy O' Norn Iron a couple of times, and believe me I really do like the accent lol. Think of Gerry Taggart and Gary Fleming at the time when Mel Machin signed them in 1990, none of us could understand a damn word of it.

But the female Norn Iron accent is summat else lol, especially when they were talking to me very quickly. And I desperately needed a translator because I din't know if they were slagging me off or chatting me up.

[animallittle3]

When David Kelly put Ireland ahead after 20 minutes it really kicked off in the England section .

The Irish lads around us were proper angry understandably but not once did they turn their anger on us .

Sometimes in life it's best to say nowt and that's what we did as the events began to escalate and the game was abandoned .

One lad just said " keep your heads down lads outside " .

We dispersed on to the streets around Lansdowne Road with not one clue on how to get back to where we were staying and plotting a route amongst thousands of pretty angry Irish fans wasn't going to be easy , we worked that out pretty quickly .

We walked for about twenty minutes with not one clue where we were or where we were heading and kept our English mouths shut .

Asking for directions didn't feel like a good idea given the nights events .

We saw a pub and thought what the hell , took a deep breath and walked in .

The plan was to let things calm down a little and get the pub staff to get us a taxi back to where we were staying after a few pints .

Part 4 to follow .

[animallittle3]

The problem with pubs is that you have to open your trap and actually order a drink .

My English voice positively echoed across that pub .

I ordered , we got our drinks , sat down and kept ourselves to ourselves .

A few minutes passed and the barman comes over " the lads over in the corner have bought you lads a drink and want you to join them "

We looked over and they just give us the thumbs up , we'd never met these lads in our life .

We apologised for the nights events but they'd pretty much worked out it wasn't down to us so we were cool .

They got us a taxi back to where we were staying and we walked in to the pub .

The locals were frantic about our welfare , when we walked in they were ecstatic with relief we'd got back to base so to speak .

We had one hell of a night and made a mockery of the nights events .

We all went out the next afternoon before we caught the evening ferry back to Holyhead .

Feckin hell .

That was some trip but the Irish were unbelievable to us and I've never forgotten that .

Friendships were made that week that still continued , invites to weddings , christening , stag nights you name it and it went on for the next few years

We've all lost contact now of course as inevitably happens .

A dark day for the England national team probably .

Actually there was good in that week too but you'd never hear that of course .

[Romared]

Good read that Animal , i didnt realise it was a friendly match , im same as yourself in that ive never known anything but friendliness and hospitality on my visits there , i suppose like anywhere you come across some types not worth bothering about! ! In my general view i found they couldnt do enough to make you welcome , its not all about politics and religion , what flags are flying or not !! I also have a funny/only in Ireland story to tell TBC , Love the Place and its people ☘🇨🇮❤

[pass_and_move]

Nice story that Animal. Fair play to the Irish. The ability to recognise that there's different breeds in every walk of life rather than tarring folk with the same brush. That night could've gone disastrously for you and your mates considering what went off at Landsdown Rd. The fact it didn't sez a lot abart the people you met.

[animallittle3]

Pass & Roma

When those lads bought us a pint after the carnage that had occured was truly humbling .

They really looked after us and I've never forgotten that night .

I'd like to think it rubbed off on us because we dropped on a young Liverpool fan following THAT GAME in 98 who'd got separated from his mates after they were attacked in the Pipers Cottage car park .

We took him in a pub and looked after him till it calmed down , he was proper frightened and it was hardly his fault the game ended the way it did .

We ended up chipping in to get him home on a train as he didn't have enough money .

Mind you the talk afterwards was " I bet that little Scouse git skanked us "

😃😃😃😃