Neo-Nazis leave their mark on Ireland fan

PATRICK says he was lucky.

Not that you would think so looking at the stitches to his head and inch-long cuts across his back.

He has been on painkillers since he and his friends were set upon by a group of up to 20 neo-Nazi skinheads before the Ireland v Russia Euro 2004 qualifier in Moscow last Saturday.

One of his friends, Michael, had his jaw broken and narrowly missed losing an eye, such was the savagery of the attack.

“I was lucky, because I was able to cover my face. I also had a shoulder bag on so that protected me a bit also,” said Patrick.

Patrick, 50, from South Dublin, was going to buy chewing gum from a kiosk on Red Square when he heard a scream: “It was like a battle cry and I felt a blow on the head and several blows in quick succession on the back. They beat me on my arms, back and legs and kicked me. They kept shouting ‘Russian nationalism, Russian nationalism’.”

His friend Michael, who had bravely come back to help him, fared worse.

“They got his face. His jaw was broken in a few places and he had a cut very near his eye. He was lucky they didn’t get his eye. Several of his teeth were broken.”

Michael, 32, from the Mid-West, flew back to Shannon Airport yesterday, and will be in hospital for another month. Patrick said that from speaking to other fans in Moscow he estimated that several hundred Irish supporters were attacked.

Talking on the Pat Kenny radio show earlier he said there were three separate attacks on Rossiya Hotel, where he was staying, over the weekend.

James O’Shea of the Irish Embassy in Moscow said he had not been able to confirm these attacks, but he said there were two attacks on a beer tent outside the hotel, during which a number of Irish fans were injured.

Mr O’Shea said the other serious attacks occurred in McDonalds and an Irish pub on Tverskaya Street, near Red Square.

Mr O’Shea said that Michael was the only one of the 20 Irish people injured that had to be hospitalised overnight: “These were all unprovoked attacks on Irish supporters. Some of the attacks were orchestrated, involving large numbers.”

He said attacks by extreme nationalists on foreigners had taken place in recent months.