Celebrity LOI fans

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Originally Posted by born2bwild

Fingal don't have any fans.

Go on, I dare you: fix my post.

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Heh heh.

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Originally Posted by BonnieShels

Heh heh.

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You ********!

I've fixed my fix.

Distressingly, I've learned from the Johnny Logan Website that:

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The Dubliners came often in Johnny Logan's childhood home

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On that, wasn't Luke Kelly supposed to be a Bohs fan?

That is an awfully distressing statement indeed and made me cringe ever so slightly.

Doesn't Johnny Logan live around the Ashbourne/Ratoath area so Bohs would probably be his local side.

He definitely did live in Ashbourne, Mark, and he also went to Scoil Mhuire in Howth as a chisler so hes a devout northsider - therefore Bohs being the only true option.

I happen to know that Johnny Logan is a boyhood Sporting Fingal fan, as were his pappy and grandpappy before him.

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Originally Posted by born2bwild

Distressingly, I've learned from the Johnny Logan Website that:

On that, wasn't Luke Kelly supposed to be a Bohs fan?

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Poor Mammy Logan

We just didnt need a second Jonny Logan at the club...though one could have sang in the lounge while the other served the pints

I was lighting a fire this morning and I noticed this on a sheet of newspaper I was about to crumple up and burn. Thought I'd lash it up here first:

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Love/Hate Kicks off at Tolka Park

The gritty RTE drama Love/Hate has returned to the streets of Dublin as the fourth season continues to be filmed around the capital. The locations being used to shoot the latest instalments of the multi-IFTA award winning show are closely guarded secrets but it is suspected that the producers, Suzanne McAuley and Steve Matthews, will retain the original cast including the power-hungry Nidge, (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), gangster Tommy (Killian Scott), Nidge’s wife Trish (Aoibhinn McGinnity), Fran (Peter Coonan), Elmo (Laurence Kinlan) and Tommy’s missus Siobhan (Charlie Murphy).

This week however, we were granted limited preview access to the production and we can now reveal that series director James Flynn has taken the radical step of enlisting the acting talents and stadium of League of Ireland Premier Division football club, Shelbourne FC in the ongoing filming.
Of course, the Drumcondra outfit are no strangers to the world of showbiz; a decade ago the club ground and personnel starred in an episode of the British football-drama, Dream Team. This time around, Shels’ commitment to the project goes much further. It seems that a number of leading figures from the famous Northside club are set to follow in the footsteps of Vinnie Jones, Eric Cantona and OJ Simpson and really make their mark as screen idols.

The cameras were rolling over the Easter weekend on location at Tolka Park, the home of the ‘Real Reds’, and despite extremely tight levels of security on the set we were able to catch up with some of the club’s budding thespians, including manager Alan Mathews, League veteran Robert Bayly, ex – Drogheda and Shamrock Rovers centre-half, Graham Gartland and new signing, Pat Flynn. They gave us a tantalising glimpse of what to expect in the new season of the award winning crime drama.

Manager Alan Mathews, although absolutely refusing to give away any plot secrets did tell us that “I can’t really reveal much but I can tell you that I’m playing the role of an IRA man turned gangland boss in the new series”. The reds coach, never one to suffer fools gladly in the world of football management, said that he was well suited to playing a no-nonsense, authoritarian mastermind: “All I have to do is act naturally, really. Before I was involved in football I worked in Ulster Bank and that really helped me with the Northern accent I needed. I was able to try it out at half time in the Directors’ box in Derry last Friday night; they all said it was very convincing”. Not so convincing however, was the performance of his team, who were hammered 4-0 in a disappointing third defeat of the new season. When asked about this Alan would only comment: “Well, for five days running before the Derry match meself and the lads were on set for 15 hours each day. It was pretty gruelling. The makeup and costumes take ages, too, and of course, there’s the open bar and the ‘dolly girls’ and groupies to help us wind down, for Jaysus’s sake, but I don’t really think it affected our performance on the pitch.”

Ex-Leeds United star Robert Bayly also spoke to us about the challenges of balancing life in front of the camera and his on-field commitments to Shelbourne. “Well, me and Garto [Graham Gartland] were having a sleepover in his gaff there a few weeks ago and we were watching a video on youtube about method acting. Method acting is where you have to live the role – you have to become the character that you’re playing, for real!” This had bizarre ‘art-imitates-life’ consequences in subsequent matches for the player: “Of course, I can’t give any plot secrets away but in the new season I’m playing a hit-man – all I do is kill and maim. Unfortunately, I was taking my role so seriously that I was still in character out on the pitch!” Chuckling, the midfielder cum movie star went on: “It was mad! I got sent off against Mervue and booked against Bray and I got really angry at some fans at the end of that match, too! It was like I was still in Love/Hate! It’s a good job I didn’t have a baseball bat in me hand like I had in the show!”

Sitting next to Bayly, Graham Gartland agreed: “The role just kinda takes over. One minute I was in front of the camera breaking legs and wasting scumbags with me Glock. The next minute I’m supposed to shut up and take it when the ref gives out to me. You can’t just switch off like that!” he giggled, recalling his own red card in the match against Dundalk.

Pat Flynn also revealed that he, too was finding it hard to adjust when the camera stops. “I’m playing this total f***king lunatic in the series, you know, like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas? I mean, I’m supposed to be a total psychopath…how am I supposed to just ‘play football’? Do you think Robert De Niro just ‘plays football’ when he’s between shots, I mean, seriously, darling?” Indeed, so demanding has his on-screen role been that in just two pre-season starts Flynn has received two straight reds!

Another player who did not want to be named told us that training sessions in Tolka Park have taken a new direction since the cameras started rolling. “Alan [Mathews] begins each session by putting us in a circle, getting us to close our eyes, while we keep humming and visualising a piece of fruit until we become that piece of fruit. It really helped when we went 4 down in the Brandywell last week. I just retreated into my ‘Inner Banana’ and the horror of how Derry were ripping us a new as$h0le just faded away!”

So there you have it, folks: if you thought Nidge and Darren were terrifying, wait until the Shels hit our screens in Season 5! As Shelbourne fans are quickly discovering this year: in Tolka no-one can hear you scream.

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lol for the day that is in it :)

Independent TD and recently appointed super junior minister Finian McGrath is a Shels fan: https://twitter.com/shelsfc/status/728649309906972672

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Independent TD and recently appointed super junior minister Finian McGrath is a Shels fan: https://twitter.com/shelsfc/status/728649309906972672

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was wonderin why he was wearin a scarf!

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Independent TD and recently appointed super junior minister Finian McGrath is a Shels fan: https://twitter.com/shelsfc/status/728649309906972672

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There must be a nice sports grant coming.

Well there would if it was GAH or egg chasing.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Independent TD and recently appointed super junior minister Finian McGrath is a Shels fan: https://twitter.com/shelsfc/status/728649309906972672

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Pfft, Wexford Youths have had a celebrity TD as a fan for years

Sure don't Shelbourne have a Finian McGrath sponsor board at Tolka Park? I remember seeing his face there before.

Only time I've seen politicians around Limerick FC was when they won the First Division.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Only time I've seen politicians around Limerick FC was when they won the First Division.

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Same here

To be fair a few politicians have taken out programme space with us over the years. Maurice Quinlivan and Jan O'Sullivan definitely and I'm probably missing others.

The following are regular celebrity spectators at Turner Cross for home games
The Frank and Walters Rock Band,
John Creedon RTE Radio 1 DJ,
Trevor Welch TV3 sports commentator,
Tony O'Donoghue, RTE sports commentator,
Roy Keane

The word "Celebrity" being spread a bit thin on the thread....:p

I think there might be another equally valid reason why celebrity Tony O'Donoghue is often seen in Turner's Cross.

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Originally Posted by nr637

The following are regular celebrity spectators at Turner Cross for home games
The Frank and Walters Rock Band,
John Creedon RTE Radio 1 DJ,
Trevor Welch TV3 sports commentator,
Tony O'Donoghue, RTE sports commentator,
Roy Keane

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has Trevor Welch left TV3 as I never hear of him anymore? I seen him on setanta last year and I know he does his gig with 98 fm.

He still does bits for TV3 but I think he's full time in radio now.

A piece in the UK's Times newspaper on Arthur Mathews' support for Drogheda United and the League of Ireland: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ir...72d3fcd920a641

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Originally Posted by Garry Doyle

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“When I think about it, following Drogheda down through the years is probably one of the most worthwhile things I have ever done in my life,” [Mathews] said. “I don’t want to over stress the idea that I am one of their most dedicated fans – because I’m not. But I can’t understand how any football supporter wouldn’t want to see something on their doorstep. Why be an armchair fan rather than an actual one?”

The usual answer is because the standard of Irish football is poor, no matter how much we’d like to pretend otherwise. Say this to Mathews, though, and he shoots you the kind of look that Father Jack gave to Ted when he discovered his bottle of whiskey contained …. ‘feckin’ water’.

“If English people had that attitude when the football league started up, then no one would have gone near it,” Mathews said. “The truth is that so many Irish sports fans are fair-weather supporters, event junkies who’ll go and see a team if they are doing well but who’ll hop off and do something else with their lives if they’re struggling. Even GAA fans are fairly fair weather in their mentality.

“In this country, it’s seemingly too hard for Irish people to do anything that requires any kind of vision. I mean if more people supported their local team, then more money would go into it, which in turn, would lead to better players and better facilities. Even something as basic as that seems to float over people’s heads. There has to be a leap of imagination. Real Madrid or Barcelona wouldn’t be winning the Champions League if they were playing in front of 1500 people. It’s crazy that a city the size of Dublin does not have a team with an average support of 20,000 people. Burnley have that and there are only 75,000 people living in that town. There’s just a lack of imagination prevalent everywhere in Irish society. It’s the same reason RTE wouldn’t have made Father Ted.”

Instead Mathews, Linehan, Dermot Morgan and Ardal O’Hanlon pitched their idea to Channel 4 and almost overnight their lives changed.

Theirs was the sort of success story he couldn’t ever have seen happening in League of Ireland football – until last year came around and Dundalk went on this crazy adventure through Europe that had the dual effect of uniting rival League of Ireland clubs behind them while converting new followers to the church.

“I’m a Drogheda fan so supposedly, I’m meant to hate Dundalk,” Mathews said. “But it’s not like that in the League of Ireland. Instead, whenever I meet someone wearing a St Pat’s, Shamrock Rovers or Limerick jersey, it’s like coming across a fellow survivor from a Japanese prisoner of war camp. You know what I mean? Watching our teams over the years is like those who built the bridge across the River Kwai – the ultimate test of our spirit and endurance.

“We’re regularly told our football is rubbish but Stephen Kenny’s Dundalk side – as well as Cork last year – proved that it isn’t. They didn’t just boot it up to the striker and hoped for the best. They played brilliant stuff and put the Ireland team to shame in the process because even though I like Martin O’Neill, he doesn’t seem to trust his players to play.

“But Stephen Kenny does. And I loved that about their games last year. I loved going to Tallaght for the matches against Zenit St Petersburg and Maccabi Tel Aviv and then going home and watching the highlights on TV, and listening to Steve Bruce and Tim Sherwood discussing Dundalk in the same breath as Roma or Inter Milan. It was great we were part of something big because when you’re in the League of Ireland, you feel like you part of a minority cult.”

...

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Originally Posted by nr637

The following are regular celebrity spectators at Turner Cross for home games
The Frank and Walters Rock Band,
John Creedon RTE Radio 1 DJ,
Trevor Welch TV3 sports commentator,
Tony O'Donoghue, RTE sports commentator,
Roy Keane

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You could add in Morty McCarthy from the 'Sultans of Ping'. He's never without his City jersey when doing a gig.

Is Morty still living in Sweden?

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Originally Posted by El-Pietro

Is Morty still living in Sweden?

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AFAIK, yes. But they still do a few gigs. There's was one in Whelan's in Dublin before Christmas and Morty was, of course, sporting a City jersey.

Ashley from the Frank and Walters was a neighbor of mine for a while, and is an absolutely sound guy. He still goes to games frequently. It must be a drummer thing.

Ash is lovely. Loves Cork City and has no problem stopping for a chat about football. I used to run in to him a lot of those free Murphys gigs and we'd moan about whatever poor result we'd had recently.

Noonan was at the EA cup final last year but doubt he'll be back after some of the comments thrown his way. Saying that he does have a brass neck, p###k.

Always surprised we don't see more politicians at the Market's Field, even Councilors and the like. A thousand or so voters to possibly make an impression on. I mean, if you're turning up to every funeral going, why not the League of Ireland?

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Originally Posted by topfan

Noonan was at the EA cup final last year but doubt he'll be back after some of the comments thrown his way. Saying that he does have a brass neck, p###k.

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Didn't know he was there, but anyway, disappointing to hear that people were abusing him. What does that achieve? Apart from possibly make him say 'fu*k that, no more dealings with Limerick FC for me." That will either have no impact or a negative impact on us.

I remember watching the Heineken Cup/CPL finals in a pub (the Old Quarter maybe?) in 2010 I think and he turned up to watch the football (and do a bit of a canvass, obviously). Is he a football man?

I'm surprised that I've never seen The Rubber Bandits in a Limerick jersey.

With the team doing well these days it'd seem like an obvious thing for one of them to wear for a bit in a show.

Nicky Byrne was at the Rovers game on Friday and has previously played in charity games involving Rovers. For and against I think.

Yeah, was there with the kids one night and they recognised him.

The extraordinary story of how Derry's European game against Benfica at the Brandywell in 1989 only went ahead due to an intervention from Martin McGuinness: http://www.the42.ie/martin-mcguinnes...99960-Mar2017/

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Originally Posted by Paul Keane

DERRY CITY FOOTBALL club lost a lifelong supporter with the passing of Martin McGuinness who once went to quite extraordinary measures to help the club in a time of difficulty.

McGuinness, whose brother, Paul, and son-in-law, Sean Hargan, both played for the club, was personally contacted when an apparent explosive device was found in the cemetery next to the Brandywell hours before their European Cup clash with Benfica in 1989.

The incident is recounted in the book Gods versus Mortals, which chronicles League of Ireland teams in Europe, though McGuinness declined to comment when contacted ahead of its publication in 2010.

The former IRA commander did reference the bizarre incident in a 2001 interview with the Observer Sport Monthly, however, under the headline ‘My Team’.

“Some senior representatives of the club came to see me and said there was a major problem,” McGuinness said in the article. “They explained that explosives had been found in the cemetery close to the ground.

“The club’s view was that if the British Army and the RUC were brought in they would, as they usually do, make a meal out of the whole thing, stretch it out for a week and inconvenience everybody.

“The game would have been called off and that would have been a disaster from Derry’s point of view. This was pretty much the biggest game in Derry’s history remember.

“Myself and some of the club’s directors went up to the cemetery. I remember them hiding behind the headstone while I tied a rope around the device which, I think, was a substantial device of maybe 100lbs, and pulled the thing out.

“Nothing happened but it was a device of some description. We opened a manhole in the cemetery and threw whatever material was in it – I don’t know if it was explosives – down the drain and flushed it away. Between the directors and ourselves we managed to avert what would have been a disaster for Derry City.

“The game went ahead; we lost 2-1. No doubt if it had been left to the authorities, the game would have been cancelled.”

Ian Doherty was Derry chairman at the time and recalled the remarkable incident in Gods versus Mortals.

“To tell the absolute truth, I asked, ‘Is it gone?’” said Doherty. “‘Yes, it is gone’, was the reply. So I said, ‘I just don’t want to know about it’. What could I do? I only know what I was told at the time that the device turned up.

“Somebody went to Martin McGuinness when it happened. He decided, and I hold no brief for Sinn Fein, (to dispose of the bomb). If he did that, in all the circumstances, it was a decent thing to do, a courageous thing to do.”

Following McGuinness’ 2001 interview, it was claimed in media reports that the device was originally planted by the provisional IRA and aimed at an army patrol.

Tim Dalton, who played in goals for Derry against Benfica, said the players thought it was a hoax at the time.

“As far as we were concerned, it was a hoax,” said Dalton in the book. “I didn’t think at that particular time that somebody would have wanted to follow through with something like that. Maybe I’m being naive but it wasn’t the impression we got at the time. So, did it phase us? Not in the least.”

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So McGuiness took what he thought was a substantial and viable explosive device and put it into the city's public drains system ?!

Jesus - that's an appalling thing to do. It could've blown up anywhere randomly between there and the river (including under the Brandywell stadium itself), and/or hit one of the bridges or a boat when it ended up in the river.

Tackling it was definitely courageous, but putting it into the drains was just madness.

Yeah, it could have detonated and killed nobody.