Epiphanies

[Sheridan]

I was just thinking that it might be a helpful means of establishing what keeps people away from eL grounds if each of us were to describe how our enthusiasm for domestic football was kindled. This will probably work best for relative newcomers such as myself, rather than those of you who were fortunate enough to be bitten by the bug at an early age.

My own excuse for ignoring the League of Ireland as a football-mad kid can be expressed in three words: lack of exposure. Football never really gripped me until 1990, when I was nine years old. Strangely enough, my sudden conversion occurred just before the World Cup but had nothing today with the imminent tournament (Italia ’90 did, however, seal my fate.)

My interest was primarily in the national team, and since Charlton’s squad idled away the time between internationals by playing for English Football League teams, this was the league I followed on TV. Having tentatively adopted Everton as “my” team (I think I felt sorry for them after reading about their 1989 FA Cup final defeat) I was fully-equipped to wade into the schoolyard slanging matches with all guns blazing (sadly, as I was soon to discover, Everton’s decade-long slump left me firing blanks.)

But the club versus country debate was always a “no contest” for me. Infuriated by Kevin Sheedy’s release on a free transfer, the announcement of which was humiliatingly relegated to the small print of the sports pages, I tore all my Everton posters from the bedroom wall. Well no, I didn’t tear them. Being a pragmatic kind, I removed them carefully and placed them in a drawer, ready for reinstatement once my chagrin faded. My flirtation with Everton had fizzled out by the mid-nineties. Today, I feel no residual affection for the club.

As for the League of Ireland, it simply didn’t register on my radar. For a whole chunk of the nineties, Derek Swan was the only LoI player whose name I would have recognised, and only because a classmate of mine was related to him. My father, a regular visitor to Richmond Park in the late fifties/early sixties, never made any reference to the LoI, except to comment mournfully that “Shamrock Rovers would beat this lot” as we watched some hapless bunch of Slovakians or Greeks get taken apart by ManU.

Actually, rewind a bit to the early nineties, because I’ve just remembered an incident which might have changed the entire course of my football-supporting life. My dad had a friend who was involved, in some capacity, with Home Farm FC. He said that my brother and I could drop over to his house any time and pick up season tickets. We duly headed over one afternoon, but he was out; for some reason, we never went back. Ten years later, I finally got my season ticket for Whitehall. Fate is strangely unimaginative sometimes, isn’t it?

Secondary school presented me with another missed opportunity; a group of kids in my technology and science classes were keen Bohs fans, but their tales of real-life football failed to capture my imagination. I remember one of them asking our technology teacher which Irish club he supported; his response (In Irish, of course) was “I don’t bother with that league.” (Ní bhacaim leis an líg sin?)

Things gradually changed as the nineties drew to a close. I’d always watched (with a certain amount of detached bemusement, admittedly) the FAI Cup finals broadcast on TV. Gradually, the occasional league match crept into RTÉ’s schedules, and these I viewed conscientiously without ever really being inspired to get off my backside and go to a game.

But the proximity of Whitehall began to create a nagging sense of guilt that ate away at me until finally I succumbed. Reasoning that a newly-created club (Dublin City) was appropriate for a newly-created fan (me), I finally began making the short journey to Whitehall. And, as if to confirm that there’s hope for us all, my father (now 63) came to the St. Pat’s-Dublin City cup game with me recently. It was his first visit to Richmond Park in around forty years, and he was disappointed to find trees obstructing the view of the Camac, but otherwise enjoyed the experience.

Anyway, that’s my story. What’s yours?

[pineapple stu]

Started following football in 1988 at Euro '88. Started following Liverpool because they had more Irish players in my sticker album than any other club (presumably also because they were good). The next year (third class), there was a big football tournament in school, and all the teams were named after Irish teams - we were Shamrock Rovers, and I remember beating Sligo Rovers and losing to Derry City. Went to a few (five to be precise) Rovers games over the next ten years, including the '91 Cup Final. When I started in UCD, I went to a couple of games, but the major one was the 3-0 win after the Doc died in 1999. I went along in my Rovers jersey and scarf and within two minutes was cheering on UCD! Never looked back since!

Will await the anti-Rovers backlash with interest now!

[Schumi]

I have to say that Sheridan's story isn't all that different from mine. My parents were (and still are) Liverpool fans so as with most kids, I became a Liverpool fan too. I only really became interested in football properly at the age of about 7 (1987) and the England game in Euro '88 is the first game I really remember (not that I saw much of it in a packed pub, hearing a huge roar when we scored and getting my arm burnt by someone's cigerette). While I was still a Liverpool fan, Ireland was infinitely more important.

At the age of 11 or 12, I began to get bored of Liverpool and to be different (and because their shirts were nice) I decided to become a Norwich fan, I still have the yellow jersey with all the white and green splotches on it. A few years later, they got relegated and with the resultant lack of TV coverage, my interest and knowledge began to slip and any club football I watched was generally as a neutral (except Juve games on Channel 4).

Through all of this, the League of Ireland wasn't something that I had any interest in at all but when I went to college, one of my friends was a UCD fan and had been for years (there's a photo of him somewhere at a game as a 12 year old with a dodgy haircut!) and he eventually talked me into going to a game. That game was a cup game against Bohs in Dalymount which ended 3-3; a brilliant game. This, I'm ashamed to say, was the first competitive football game that I'd ever been to!

As the replay was a few days later, and feeling that we'd (it was we already!) been robbed, I went to that. We lost that 3-0 to two blatently offside goals and an appalling display from the linesman. While giving him abuse for most of the second half, it occurred to me that I'd become a fan. At that stage, I was hooked and went to most of the rest of the Dublin games (bar Pats away) and the last game of the season in Drogheda where we qualified for Europe that season.

Since then it's been a downward spiral all the way to trips to Derry on a Tuesday night!

[yur man]

when i was young i never really watched any sport cos i was too busy playin on our local green. the only games i remember watchin on tele were the sligo/bohs cup final (i tink i went for bohs, i was young ) and an english cup final where kevin moran was sent off

in school i remember bein hassled in school 'whats yur team?' and i didnt want too choose man u, pool or arse cos everybody else did, so i chose tottenham. i had a name at least when people asked me who me team were, but i never really followed their results

euro 88 was what started it all off again tho. it made such a difference to watchin a game to have an emotional stake in the game. the next i heard about ireland was italia 90, that was great. when i tink back about why i never saw any qualifyin games it just never crossed my mind to follow them after a tournament. i must have escaped the media hype. then again, there was hardly ever any football on our tele cos medad isnt a big soccer fan. we just watched the world cups

i never even knew cork had a team till '93. i did see cork play once against limerick in limerick where they won 0-1. 'they' bein the operative word cos i felt fairly neutral about them. i went cos it was a day out and i fancied one of the girls supervisin the kids travellin. i didnt even watch the game really. i did see a bald fella run up n down for cork, thats all i remember

i left for england when 19. i started watchin match of the day when all the continental players came along and then could see all the irish lads playin too. i got sky sports just to watch ireland play crucial games a couple of times and will do again this week

i only ever knew 1 person who went to cork matches. i would chat to him every so often and i tink he planted the seed. so, because of him, for the last year or more ive called cork my team when asked. now that i have the internet over here i can at least listen to games every week and keep up with (and learn about) cork city. its nice to have a club team that i have a real connection too

the feelin is growin all the time too and im gettin me family involved too. ive got me sister recordin eLeague weekly and cork games on chorus when she can. she'll have to do better tho cos she's missin nearly every second highlights show. i saw the cork v pats game that was on tv3 and although it wasnt a great game, it was great to see it

and i now feel the anger a lot of eLeague fans feel about the promotion of our game. our league is far better than we've been led to believe and i hope more n more people realise that too. im lookin forward to goin to the cross when i get back home next and experience watchin my team playin in my league. im lookin forward to seein cork on the road aswell in all those grounds around the country too. comin back in summer 2005 for good, so ill catch the second half of the season. for now ill carry on listenin to games online and catchin the odd highlights show while i wait for cork city fc get their finger out and sort out a radio broadcast online. im always listenin to dublin derbys, which i suppose keeps me well up to date on the oppostion . i listened to galwaybayfm last week just to hear updates of the cobh game. ive got the eLeague bug



plus, ive stopped watchin the premiership

[Real ale Madrid]

My interest in Cork City was stirred first in 1989 when we got to the FAI cup final against Derry. I supported Liverpool as well around then and my first ever Cork city game was the first round of the cup the following season and we beat Waterford 1-0 with Paul Bannon scoring a far post header I can still vividly see it. I've been hooked ever since. But unlike some of the other posters I still support Liverpool and I've been to Anfield a few times. Cork City would be my number one without doubt but i still think the quality and atmosphere of games in England is great. The people there are equally great. But you can't beat live football week in week out at the cross' thats why i feel you are not a real soccer fan unless u are involved in the game at home be it playing, supporting your local junior team but especially supporting your eL team. And shouting abuse at referees in real life - not at the telly.

[John83]

It would seem that a lot of us found football by watching the National team, and I'm no differant. At the tender age of seven, I watched Italia '90, and continued to follow the team under Charlton. My interest wained as Charlton's regulars began to age, but I continued to watch the games. In the 99/00 season, I watched the Champions League on RTÉ, following the trials and tribulations of Chelsea and Man Utd, the two English clubs I still keep an eye on.

That summer, Belgium and Holland hosted EURO 2000, which was a great tournament. I watched Holland's total football take them to the point where their penalty-taking skills failed them, Italy defend marvelously with a back-line including Maldini, Nesta and Cannavarro and Toldo on top form behind them after Buffon's broken wrist gave him his chance. I was cemented as a football fan, helped by the National Team's gutsy attempts to qualify ahead of Holland and Portugal.

When I went to college, I met up with Pinapple Stu, who was studying commerce some two or three years ahead of me, and I went along that summer to watch UCD take on Coventry in a friendly. I began to come along to the home games the following season, and became a fan as they scraped out of religation with a spell of form the top clubs would have envied. This season has been noting but trouble, but I'm stuck with my local team, whether they're any good or not.

[gspain]

My mother was pregnant with me at the 1966 Cup final but I don't rememebr too much about it.

Started going to the Markeys field at the tail end of 70/1 season but was deemed too young to go the Cup Final but can rememebr kicking up a fuss. My first memories are from 71/2 - firsat time int he stand for Kevin Fitzpatrick's testimonial rather than on the Popular side. My late grandfather used to bring me to Limrick games and I went with my father (a LoI referee) to such exotic spots as Kiulcohan Park and St Mels for other games when Limerick were away. Only missed 1 home game from 72-84 and that was a 2-1 win over Drogheda in October 76 when we went on a family holiday to my Dad's sister in Reading and I got to see Chelsea for the first time (supported them because they wear blue and white like Limerick).

Saw my first International in 1975 (Switzerland). My brother won a trip for 2 with the old Soccer Reporter to Holland for the 81 game and I got to see my first away game but only started travelling regularly when I finished college and started work in time for Euro 88.