EURO HAPPY

I’m back. I’ve been away from 360dublincity.com for a couple of months due to hospitalisation followed by recuperation and my delightful Euro ’16 voluntary incarceration. Hospitalisation and recuperation I’d rather forget. But my “voluntary incarceration” experience of Euro ’16 I’d love to share.

It’s great to be alive and fit enough--with close proximity to remote control and cans of beer--to watch tournament football on the telly, especially since Ireland qualified. Accidentally funny incidents added to the enjoyment, alongside the intentionally funny Après Match lads.   The Republic of Ireland team, fans and smaller nations did themselves proud. Unsavoury behaviour, although visible with some big nations, did not ruin the fun.

“It seems that soccer tournaments create those relationships: people gathered together in pubs and living rooms, a whole country suddenly caring about the same event. A World Cup is the sort of common project that otherwise barely exists in modern societies,” said Simon Kuper, author of the excellent book, Football Against The Enemy, a paperback that explores the sociopolitical aspects of soccer.

During my period of voluntary ‘incarceration’, I spent a lot of time in living rooms and pubs soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the highs and lows of being an Irish soccer fan. Irish people, for example, could be said to have engaged in what Simon termed a ‘common project’ by decorating their houses with flags and bunting in honour of the Boys in Green’s French, heroic exploits. Various green, white and orange streamers and emblems festooned most houses on my estate, in a kind of patriotic fervour peculiar to tournament soccer.  

I watched the France/Republic of Ireland game in a Dublin pub. Despite the fact that Ireland lost the game, the atmosphere and craic was mighty. When Dubliner Robbie Brady scored the penalty I thought the noise generated would lift the roof off the pub. Even though France replied with two goals, rousing renditions of The Fields of Athenry soon greeted each French goal. Irish fans must be unique, because we don’t just sing when we are winning.

Furthermore, the Irish soccer fans recently received the Medal of the City of Paris from the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. She said the medal for exemplary behaviour and sportsmanship was awarded to the Irish fans, North and South, because French people had been charmed by internet videos of the humorous, singing Irish. According to Ms. Hidalgo, with last year’s Jihadist massacre in Paris obviously in her mind, she said, “In the disturbing times we live in, the acts of kindness and positivity shown by the Irish fans serve as a model and a sign of hope to all.” It sure makes one proud to be Irish.

I did enjoy those social media videos of Irish fans. For instance: fans singing to a nun on a train, despite the evident albeit comical contrivance; fans serenading a French equivalent of Sally O’Brien and the way she might look at yeh ; fans fixing a puncture for an old couple, and numerous other clips that displayed great humour and noteworthy friendliness. My favourite video was of a group of Irish and English fans ribbing each other with bawdy chants, outside a French pub; it was all affable stuff, thank God. In obvious reference to a recent violent and nasty confrontation between English and Russian fans, the Irish fans were chanting, “Please don’t start a riot, please don’t start a riot, la, la la la.” The English fans gave as good as they got, and it was all conducted as good-natured banter. The episode is proof that the majority of English fans love their football and craic as much as we do. Unfortunately, their violent minority get all the headlines.

England was knocked out much earlier than their experts predicted. Again. It gets increasingly harder NOT to indulge in that “Irish psyche” idiosyncrasy of stifled sneering when England fail to live up to their much hyped expectations. Their albatross of thuggish fans do them no favours. The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Iceland and Wales punched above their weight, exceeded their expectations, connected with their fans in a positive manner, and thus contributed to an enjoyable spectacle for us couch potatoes and lounge lizards.

Besides the actual football, there were lots of other things I enjoyed about the tournament. Robbie Keane once said: 'I can't even remember when the Seventies was.' During the Ireland/Sweden game, when Robbie came on as a late sub, the cameras caught a close-up of him widening his eyes in a weirdly comical stare. Perhaps the penny just dropped regarding the seventies era, I thought. Also during that game, there was a lone Irish fan, in full Leprechaun regalia, amongst the yellow-coloured multitude of Swedish fans. Great stuff!

I also enjoyed the celebrations after beating Italy, even though my overexcitement resulted in inadvertently kicking my can of Guinness across the living room floor. On the plus side, the dog lapped up the spillage. One enjoyable part of the Irish team’s celebrations was watching Roy Keane trying to maintain his bear-hug on Martin O’Neill, despite it seeming a tad too long. Nice one, Keano.

There were lots of other unintentionally funny episodes during the tournament. The most amusing few, in my opinion, was France’s Paul Pogba tearing Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka's shirt to shreds, like it was made of paper; Gareth Bale frequently re-arranging his man-bun; Ronaldo’s spoiled child’s look when things go wrong for him; Kevin Keegan predicting England could go all the way after they beat Iceland; The Albanian manager thumping his assistant on the shoulder when opposition scored, and getting no reaction; France’s poor rendition of the “Haka-like” Viking Thunderclap perfected and made famous by the Icelanders, and finally, my missus asking the same question “When is this football over?” after EVERY match.

As I write this it is the final day of the tournament. The hosts, France, will face Ronaldo’s Portugal tonight. I predicted France would reach the final, simply because they are the hosts and an excellent side. However, I never expected Portugal to be their opponents. I hope and expect France(despite Thierry Henry’s handball) to win. In the face of terrorist threats, economic upheaval and industrial unrest (who said they’d no strikers), the French ran a successful, outstanding competition. I pray it stays that way.

Have a nice day.

Tomas O’hArgadain.