WHEN YOU’RE ACTUALLY away at a tournament, you’re pretty much detached from the whole media circus that attached itself to the competition.
You’ve no idea how the general tournament is being received, what the underlying narrative is, what the big stories are about or what the general mood is back home.
All you’re doing is getting up every day, hitting the bars, singing songs and desperately trying to commit as much to the memory bank as possible.
If I was to take a stab at it, I’d suggest that the mood, colour, attitude and quantity of the Green Army must be one of the stories of the tournament. While Poznan featured some pockets of Croats, and Gdansk has had a few groups of Spanish here for today’s game, the prevalence of green shirts and Irish voices has swamped everything else.
The Poles have adopted Ireland as their second team with the song ‘Polska for the Boys in Green’ being sung by groups of Polish fans on every street you pass. In fact, I’ve also heard Spaniards, Croats and even French singing their own variant of the ‘Stand up for The Boys in Green’ chant.
I’d bet my bottom dollar some local bright spark will sample that chant on a pop song over the next few weeks and it will fly straight to the top of the Polish charts. Maybe an idea for Jedward for next year’s Eurovision?
Of course the fun and the wit of the chanting and singing is one of the greatest pleasures of being a football fan with a personal favourite being:
“Alive-Alive-o-oh
Alive-Alive-o-oh
Steven Ireland’s 2 grannies
Are Alive-alive-o”.
Any famous faces or celebs planning to come out for the rest of the tournament should be aware you won’t be let melt into the crowd and enjoy the tournament like an anonymous punter might. Any already here will be only too aware of this.
Last night we heard a bit of a kerfuffle near where we were drinking outdoors and there’s Pat Kenny being mobbed by a bunch of fans who hoisted him up on their shoulders singing his name. We darted over eager not to pass up this photo opportunity and Pat was only too happy to oblige.
Or possibly too fearful not to! And like any group of sarcastic slagging Irishmen the general cheer turned into a bit of stick for him with the chant ‘There’s only one Gay Byrne’ being chanted at him. Pat took it on the chin and then cheered up when the chant changed to ‘Turbridy is a ******.’
The best I heard so far of a famous face being cut down to size was when a ‘tired and emotional’ John Delaney was sent home in his bare feet by a drunken Irish mob, with Jason McAteer, Joe Calzaghe and any Sky News reporter coming in for a bit of playful stick too.
It will be interesting to see if we get beaten by the Spanish tonight will the fact that we are out of the tournament have much of an adverse effect on the mood of the Green Army.
The defeat by the Croats, save for the few minutes after they scored each of their three goals, didn’t temper the mood of the Irish fans one bit or their absolute determination to make this couple of weeks in Poland the time of their lives.
Most people I’ve chatted with aren’t too hopeful that we can get a result against Spain, which will condemn us to an early exit. While being very friendly and respectful, the Spanish fans are super-confident, which supporting the current European and World champions entitles you to be.
But like I said in my first column before I headed out here, there’s always a huge result, a momentous day in all our tournaments; we won’t be going anywhere with a whimper.
We’re the fighting Irish and the slick Spaniards could be in for a big surprise when Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews start snapping at Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas’ legs — come on Ireland!