Are the Ireland team losing support?

[Wolfie]

My Da used to get Ireland tickets at Shoemacs in Finglas Village from time to time!!!

That shops long gone now.

[EalingGreen]

It doesn't mean rugby was more popular than football then either. There were public sale sof 5 nations tickets. In the 80's and early 90's you could buy 5 nations tickets over the counter in certain shops.

Eh?

When I first started going to Ireland rugby games in the late 70's, there was no way you could buy match tickets on open sale anywhere in NI.
I'm not saying tickets were impossible to come by, but you definitely needed to "know" somebody - usually someone who was a member of a Rugby Club.
I remember one game (England?) where a mate who was in Banbridge RFC managed to get a few tickets for a group of us (students) who were driving down from Belfast in a minibus.
They were "Schoolboy" tickets, with a face value of £0.70 each! Seeing as some of us had beards amd moustaches etc, we weren't confident we'd actually be admitted, but no-one bothered to check when the time came.

Meanwhile, two of the lads who were less keen than the rest of us on rugby "gave in" to requests from ticketless fans in a Dublin pub and sold them theirs. I can't remember how much they got, but it can't have been that much, since they had drunk it all by the time we met up with them after the game!

Still, I don't think Northern rugby fans would have been too pleased had they known how easily their Southern counterparts could come by match tickets in those days. And those who were forced to buy match tickets from touts before games will have been extra angry if they knew that those same touts may have sourced them easily enough from their local sports shop!

[gspain]

I thought we had a chance otherwise I wouldn't have taken a half day off work to watch it. RTE must have thought so as well as they showed the game live. Not much of a chance of course and Scotland were blessed but we all know anything can happen in football.

I sneaked out of work to watch the 2nd half along with 3 colleagues. I'd had just started work and was scared I'd be caught.

Re rugby tickets, I was in college in Cork in the mid 80's and I think it was lawsons near the Metropole that sold them. In Galway it was a pharmacy just off Eyre Square. It was all word of mouth and never advertised but they'd have tickets for a day or 2.

[ifk101]

I sneaked out of work to watch the 2nd half along with 3 colleagues. I'd had just started work and was scared I'd be caught.

Re rugby tickets, I was in college in Cork in the mid 80's and I think it was lawsons near the Metropole that sold them. In Galway it was a pharmacy just off Eyre Square. It was all word of mouth and never advertised but they'd have tickets for a day or 2.

So they were sold on the sly?

From my own personal experience, six-nations tickets went through the local rugby club. I never knew you could buy them in shops.

[geysir]

I thought we had a chance otherwise I wouldn't have taken a half day off work to watch it. RTE must have thought so as well as they showed the game live. Not much of a chance of course and Scotland were blessed but we all know anything can happen in football.

You might have been looking for any excuse to scive off work and hit the pub for a match, "for patriotic duty" of course
Rte showed the Belgium V Holland game live a few years earlier when we had even a lesser chance of getting a result that suited us to put us through.
I think it was more to mark the achievement of still being alive on the last day that RTE showed the game than the remote distant hope that something might go right for us.

[paul_oshea]

Yes, funny that many on here wouldn't realise that tickets were bought in Elverys and elsewhere around the country. I used to get mine in Elverys. No block booking then.



I thought we had a chance otherwise I wouldn't have taken a half day off work to watch it. RTE must have thought so as well as they showed the game live. Not much of a chance of course and Scotland were blessed but we all know anything can happen in football.

NO my point was that wasn't elverys stauntons, or did elverys buy out stauntons then?! I know you could buy tickets at shops.

[Duffman]

I personally don't know one Irish person who would rather see the EPL (or otherwise foreign club) club they support win over the Irish national team.... if there are any like that they are the smallest fraction of prats you get with anything in life.

You don't know me but count 1. If it comes down to winning the LOI or a World cup then there is no contest. I have been going to Ireland games for 20 years and enjoyed the whole day out and the craic involved but in answer to the OPs question, I have found my interest wane over the last few years. I am totally disenfranchised from the team nowadays. the time was that the Ireland team would be training locally to me, you would see them about and they were reasonably accessible, nowadays its players not wanting to play for the country and issuing press releases about their feelings. Maybe its just a matter of getting older.

[Noelys Guitar]

Prices have changed understandly. It cost me 20 pence into the 3-0 Ireland v Russia match at Dalymount in the early 70's. Prices jumped up to about 4 quid for the later Giles years qualifiers at Lansdowne. I also bought all my tickets at Elvery's.

[paul_oshea]

so elverys bought stauntons? i always thought stauntons bought elverys and hence the name on Mayo jerseys as stauntons were mayo based.

[Closed Account]

so elverys bought stauntons? i always thought stauntons bought elverys and hence the name on Mayo jerseys as stauntons were mayo based.

Off topic but Stauntons bought Elverys. But kept the Elverys brand name as it was more recognisable on the East coast.

[weldoninhio]

Whats the official attendence at tonights game?? Have they given it out yet??

[holidaysong]

I would have went but tickets were €40. Not a chance I'd pay that for a meaningless friendly. I'm sure there were others like me who felt the same.. That might explain the empty seats!

[tetsujin1979]

Whats the official attendence at tonights game?? Have they given it out yet??

wasn't given (at least I didn't hear it) but I'd guess somewhere in the 50,000 - 60,000 region, a good third of that were Polish

[EastTerracer]

I think it was more to mark the achievement of still being alive on the last day that RTE showed the game than the remote distant hope that something might go right for us.

There was definitely some sense among Ireland fans that something might happen in that Scotland - Bulgaria game. I was glued to the TV that day wishing for the right result. Instead of having their usual panel RTE had Maurice Setters, Chris Morris (the day after making his debut against Israel) and a few other heads sitting in what looked like a hotel bar to watch the game and the champagne was flowing at the end. Personally I was at the Bulgaria game a few weeks before and the reaction at the end was a clear sign that our hopes were still alive. The real surprising element of that day was that Scotland didn't play particularly well so when Gary Mackay popped up to win the game it was a bit of a shock - but a very enjoyable one

If that game hadn't been played 4 weeks after our last game it obviously wouldn't have taken on the legendary status it has since. The table tells the story - we got more points than the other teams....

Team Pts
Republic of Ireland 11
Bulgaria 10
Belgium 9
Scotland 9
Luxembourg 1

[EastTerracer]

The Russia game was packed. Against France twice - absolutely jam packed.
Qualifiers against the big teams mostly would be from 40k to 50k
smaller teams average 25k.
But consider Wed afternoon kick off time as well.

It's obvious now that Lansdowne Road was a bit like the GPO in 1916, there were so many people there.

Allowing for the fact that the FAI routinely made up these numbers the reported attendance at the Russia game in 1984 was 28,000 so nowhere near packed but still a great day (we'll never forget Mickey Walsh). That campaign was pretty poor for home attendances all the way through [Norway 15,000; Switzerland 17,300; Denmark 15,000] and was probably the low point of my time following Ireland (until the Stan era).

Even when Jack took over, the first two games against Wales and Uruguay drew about 18,000 each. Then after we had qualified for Euro 88 none of our 3 home warm-up games managed a crowd above 20,000.

The momentum created post-Stuttgart really took hold during the 1990 qualifying games and tickets became scarcer after that.

[gspain]

The viewing figures for Munster v New Zealand topped 1 million on Tuesday night. This easily eclipsed any other sporting event this year including the previous front runner Ireland v Cyprus. This means a rugby match will be top of the RTE sporting charts for the 2nd year in a row.

[NeilMcD]

Was I the only one that was glad that New Zealand won that match the other night.

[jbyrne]

Was I the only one that was glad that New Zealand won that match the other night.

hopefully yes

[Oink]

Unfortunately i do know a few who give more of a fcuk when liverpool are playing than Ireland.........REALLY REALLY pi**es me off.

That's really is a shock to me. I'm football born and bred and my life revolves around it so naturally most of the lads I know are footie fans too. The passion people I know have for wanting Ireland to qualify for a tournament far exceeds that of any club competition/game... except maybe the CL final or a last day of the premiership to secure the title.

Ireland is part of me and vice-versa, when they win I win and get drunk, when they loose I cry and get drunk and when they draw i'm probably already drunk to make the game more enjoyable. How can anyone feel that for a foreign club team, sure I support and EPL team and follow them religously but they dont truely represent me.

[eirebhoy]

Unfortunately i do know a few who give more of a fcuk when liverpool are playing than Ireland.........REALLY REALLY pi**es me off.

That's just simply a lack of patriotism from my experience. If you're patriotic football fan you'll be a big supporter of your country.