Fans ‘blown away’ by Merkel flag furore

The Irish soccer fans who are behind the now famous — “Angela Merkel Thinks We’re at Work” flag — have unwittingly become international celebrities.

The picture of the group, with their flag, was uploaded to Twitter last Friday and quickly went viral around the world on social networking sites.

The photo then made the front page of two Irish national newspapers including the Irish Examiner as well as appearing on the BBC’s website.

Richie Touhy from Dromkeen, Co Limerick, was part of the six man group photographed at Dublin Airport last Friday morning, who headed to Poland to watch Ireland versus Croatia.

He described the response to their joke about Ireland’s bank bailout by Germany, as phenomenal.

“We took a picture for ourselves in Dublin Airport before we left with our flag. By the time we landed in Prague the picture had gone everywhere. Some of the lads had put it up on their own Twitter accounts and sent it to friends and it kind of spread from there.”

Mr Touhy said the group has been treated like stars in Poland since they arrived last weekend.

“We came up with the idea last week, and we were saying it would be great if someone showed it on telly or maybe someone would mention it in an article.

“But, it’s gone all over the world now, and we’re getting phone calls from Canada, China, and South America. It’s pretty insane now at this stage to be honest.”

Incredibly the photo has also reportedly made its way to German chancellor Angela Merkel’s office, via the BBC, who looked for her reaction to the non-political statement.

“We were blown away by that,” Mr Touhy said laughing.