This poll is public, so please vote in this one.
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Started off as a Man U fan, purely because my brother was a Liverpool fan and I had to be the opposite.
My dad was a Cork Celtic fan for years and years, and didn't like the way things were going, so took us to a Limerick game. Within weeks, we'd basically forgotten about our other clubs.
my dad's junior side. heading in the car to what seemed like far away places to watch soccer at its best. I still love junior soccer over the rest.
I was and still am a Newcastle fan, although my interest in the EPL in general has dropped over the last few years. You only have to look at last season to see how dull and uncompetitive a league it is.
My Dad brought me to a Drogheda game in 2002 when I was a young'un, have been a fan ever since.
You've got no fans.
Nice one, osarusan. Like I'd say most people, I grew up supporting an EPL club (Man Utd) because my dad did and EPL was all my friends talked about. As a teenager, I started going to Rovers matches with some of the same friends and never looked back.
My Da used to manage school and U13 football teams, that was my first real contact with football- as soon as I was at school I was at trainings and matches with him (he was headmaster). I got into English football well before the LOI though. I was brought to the Brandywell a few times but didn't like that as they were so obviously evil. The national team would have had a big impact in those days though, they were starting to really fly. Later we started following GAA and went to Donegal games all over the country. Finally we started going to Harps and soon everything else starting fading into relative irrelevance apart from the national side who remain important to me.
So basically, it's a bit of a mishmash.
Last edited by Mr A; 17/07/2013 at 3:26 PM.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Born in Manchester and lived in Old Trafford till I was four, though closer to the cricket ground than Man Utd. That rarest of things: a Man Utd follower from Manchester. Started to take an interest in the LoI around about 1990 with the Bray Unmentionables - St Francis cup final. Seem to recall being more interested later that year or the next listening to reports of Dundalk taking on Kispest Honved, I think. It was just the big games back then that caught my attention Galway - Odense, that kind of thing. Took my younger brother to the first Carlsberg Challenge (little beggar has middle child syndrome and supports Liverpool / Derry in a house of Man Utd people) and was really impressed by Pats against Lazio. Catenaccio had no answer for the question that was Ian Gilzean! Started to go to the odd game here and there after that. Soft spot for Shels, but very ecumenical; I try to get to a few teams in Dublin each year.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Through collecting football stickers.
Can't really remember when I first started following football, but I was a Manchester United "fan" from the age of about 6, probably because most people in my class (and my older cousin, who I idolised) were.
My dad is from Stoke, and he disapproved of this, and eventually won me around to the idea of supporting them when I was about 13 or 14, and we started going to games together. I became known in my school as that weird kid who went and actually watched live football (and not only that, at some sort of strange club nobody had ever heard of!)
A wee bit later on, a friend of my mate Duncan started taking him to United Park to watch Drogheda (this would have been about 2003-ish). One Friday, they were away in the UCD bowl (or whatever the auld place was called), and Dunc's mate couldn't come, so, instead of going alone, he thought he'd invite "obscure live football guy" to come with him.
Before then I'd never even considered the fact that I might attend a League of Ireland game (which is why I think there are loads of people out there for with no ill-will towards the league to whom a bit more exposure would make a huge difference). After what I seem to remember as a 1-0 win for Drogheda (Andy Myler with the goal), it was like trying a new food for the first time, and being a bit incredulous you hadn't discovered it sooner. Went to my first Bray game, coincidentally* also against UCD a week or two later, and the rest is history. Was a regular at the Carlisle for about 4 seasons until I left the country, but still try and make my visits home coincide with an Unknowns home game.
*Not so much a coincidence as a 1-in-9 chance, now I think about it!
I can't believe there isn't actually a team with this suffix.Originally Posted by Eminence Grise
Starting playing u10's locally with mates from school, it's been an ever-constant in my life since.
Started going to Harps games about same time too with my neighbour and was hooked.
I'm a Liverpool fan too, been to Anfield on a few occasions. "This year is going to be our year"
91/92 European Cup, drew away and hammered at home.
Started with being taken up to Oriel Park on European nights for me as a very young lad early - mid 80's. Thought it was amazing when we got home to see the results on BBC Sportsnight/News or the like with Dundalk score and other LoI sides being mentioned among all these other huge European clubs! Grew up a few hundred yards from Oriel so the games always featured even for something as simple as not being able to get parked near our own place at times on match nights. Then knowing the score roughly as ye could hear the roar of the crowd, it was so intriguing for a young fella and pestered my Dad to take me to the games, he stopped going when i was old enough to go myself but then he was never really a sports fan.
After the EPL route ran into an unussailable 6-0 lead, we've since seen a resurgence in people getting into football through LOI sides and junior football. Can we surmise then that converted EPL fans are lively young go-getters, whereas the lifelong LOI fan is typically only waking up around 3pm having wasted his entire day in the scratcher?
Cork have a monopoly on all the good suffixes. They probably have it listed under intellectual copyright protection down there!
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
For me it was all about Euro 88 and Italia 1990 - stickers, RTE, subbutteo, etc in primary school. First time was when my father in hospital with cancer gave me a shiny book on Euro 88 with all the pictures of the teams and players. Boy did i read that book inside out. (father recovered as well!!), then ireland beating england was brilliant.
Secondary School, EPL was kicking off and the Big Match on tv, but never had a team.
After that college and travelling all around the place, but when I came home it did take me a long time to notice the LOI (as Peader alluded to), never knew about it really at all as i from a town with no loi team, and at that time I did actually follow the gah all around the country.
Only the last few years (with my passion for the national team dropped) have I actually gone to many loi games. But not only LOI games but as much live (and Local) football as i can.
Actually getting into football, I just remember playing outdoors with my dad, my mates, my dog from as far back as I can remember. My dad was principal of a school, and we lived on the grounds, so after school sports finished at about 5, we had free run of the sports fields, and would kick a ball around until it got dark. Which is why it's an absolute travesty that I'm still awful at football!
Every Sunday evening, family supper at my grandmothers when I was about nine or ten seeing Newcastle West's scoreline being read out on the evening RTE news sports bit. Seeing their name up there, albeit briefly, with the country's biggest sides was exciting and I pestered my parents into bringing me to Ballygowan Park, my dad did, but would often drop me off & collect me, these days he rarely misses a Limerick F.C. home game even though he goes alone as I live away these days. I'm proud of that conversion, it took a bit of time.
NCW dropping out of LOI really upset me. I loved going there. Still attend the very odd Desmond League game there when at home.
Around this time, McKay scored against Belgium and everything changed. Everything. The next decade was all about soccer. Euro 88 led me to discovering the clubs the Irish lads played for and ultimately to supporting Aston Villa because at one stage they had McGrath, Staunton, Houghton, Cascarino all in the side. I still keep an eye out for their score and even go along to Villa Park sometimes, but its Limerick fixtures I plan the trips home around, was taken to see them soon after NCW dropped out, to keep me quiet probably, around 1990/91 and followed since then.
Or that the LoI lads are dedicated, unwaivering, and with a masochistic touch which keeps them off the web at work times. EPL converts are a bit renegade maybe a touch fickle and therefore play on work pcs all day? Im part of the second bit without the EPL conversion...
Oriel Park on Sunday afternoons.
I was five before my Dad would bring me, just at the beginning of the Jim McLaughlin era. Been there ever since. Nothing compares to Oriel Park when the place is jumping.
Had no interest in football up to age 11, my late father brought me to a game one Sunday afternoon,
( to get me out from under my mam' s feet) and I've been hooked ever since.
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