Where have you watched an Ireland game?

[brine3]

I watched Ireland vs Italy in 1994 on a delayed broadcast in Japan. I already knew the result because I had gotten it on the shortwave radio via BBC World Service with loads of interference. "Repub-shreeeeesdlakaks-and one, Itadlfkjljfaly -il" But is was great watching it with all these Irish people in Japan, with half the people knowing the score but pretending not to for the sake of the people who didn't know.

The worst has to be in the away end of the St. Jakob's stadium in Basel at 2-0, just waiting for the final whistle to blow so we could get the hell out of there.

[pedro]

The very same. Maybe we watched the game together or even worse danced together at a ceili.

what r the chances eh? i arrived to col lurgan halfway through cos i got kicked out of another college up th road! that was back in my wild rebellious days..hold on im still wild and rebellious!

[Stuttgart88]

Stuggart did you play in the UCD superleague by any chance? Same question for college till I die.

I did indeed. We even won it one year. 1989 I think it was. You?

[Tired&Emotional]

Ah, the good aul 'UCD Superleague....we had a keg of a none-the-wiser for our exploits the year we won (Sunday league)...not sure of the year at this stage but did have the DART's to get us s/s!

[Junior]

Sorry if this is a bit long........

It wasn't an Ireland game, but was during the World Cup out in Japan. We had 3 or 4 days to spare between our group games. Myself and the lads headed over to Okanowa for a few days to try and meet up with Mister Meagee and co. and to have a mouch around.

Apart from the Amercian squaddies stationed out there, it was as though no one else spoke a word of english and when you tried to discuss the world cup they were oblivious as to what you were on about. We eventually found a sports bar on the main island and went to try and watch the afternoon game between Sweden and Nigeria. We found the place, the screens were on, showing the game but all the lights were off and the doors were locked. We battered on the door and eventually a guy came out a basically said in sign language ‘closed’. We put on our best Swedish accents and begged him to let us in and eventually he did so – just for us. The 4 of us supped there for the afternoon in darkness watching the game.

Whilst this was happening, the phone was ringing non stop and yer man was answering and writing stuff down in between serving us our cold beers. We thought to ourselves, ‘this will be a great spot to watch the Argentina v England game tonight’, the all-dayer was planned (well in fact it was well in progress at this stage!).

Anyway come 7-8 oc’clock that night the doors were opened and people began to start coming in a sitting at the tables. Our friendly bar man asked us if we would vacate our ‘prime seats’ as they were all booked up, even the ones at the bar!!! We were a little confused but then it sank in, that’s what all the bleedin phonecalls were about. They were all booking their seats and yer man didn’t even tell us that’s what you had to do!

Anyway it was standing room only for us, but for some reason the gargle all of a sudden became free – no one wanted to take any money off us?? It turns that everyone was paying a one off entrance fee and then it was free drink for the rest of the night. Well seeing as we hadn’t paid in – it was just free gargle all night for us!!!!!

We were getting pretty buckled by this stage, England were winning 1-0 and a group of English teachers started up with en-ger-land, en-ger-land etc….. We sucked the locals in with a rousing chorus of Nipon, clap,clap,clap Nipon clap,clap,clap and then proceeded to teach them a number of other classics such as ‘who put the ball in the English net – Diego Diego’ ‘Dieeegoooo, Dieeegooo – Diego scored and the brits went home’ and the old classic AR-GEN-TINA AR-GEN-TINA.

It was a great atmosphere and the brits took it all in good humour and even brought us to an old drinking den to completely finish us off in the early hours of the morning.

Happy days…………….

[Junior]

Sorry just remembered another good 'free drinking ' tale following Ireland, though I'll summarise this one!!

Riga, 1995 - cracking German type boozer gives you a credit card for your party as you enter the premises. Every time you order food or drink you hand the card over to the bar staff who just keeps adding it to your tab. You pay when you leave.

What happens when you get 2 cards for your party by mistake and you wake up in the morning with the unused one still in your pocket??

You go back to the same place - get another card as you go in. Pile all the drink and food you can muster for every bleeding irish fan in the place on one card. Put a token round on the other and pay for that one as you leave!!!!!

Jaysus, must have been about 20 of us eating and drinking for the best part of a day and it cost us about a fiver in total!!!!

[Noelys Guitar]

I did indeed play in the superleague..82-83 & 83-84 for the maintenance. A team made up of people who couldn't get a game anywhere else! And I kid you not with this one. In the 2nd season we played a game on a pitch with a steep embankment on one side. Somebody brought up a "winger" from Walkinstown. About 2 mins into the game he disappeared down that embankment to get the ball and hasn't been seen since. Everybody was waiting around for him to bring the ball and he just disappeared. He either jumped on the #17 in his kit or the more likely scenario disappeared into the student bar!..