Ambulance is just what the doctor ordered for fans

It was headed for the junkyard, but now a rundown airport ambulance will be home from home for three Irish soccer fans.

The trio converted the disused ambulance at Knock Airport and will be able to take turns stretching out in the back on the long road from the west of Ireland to Poland. Fergal Mannion, Brendan Johnston, and Eoghan Mullooly will pile into their novel camper on Thursday morning to start the journey of about 2,000km to Poznan.

“The old airport ambulance was on the way to the junkyard when one of the eagle-eyed lads spotted it and quickly realised they could use it for their trip to Poland,” said Ireland West Airport Knock marketing manager Donal Healy. “We were delighted to help them out and hope the lads have a safe journey and that the boys in green get off to a ‘flying’ start next Sunday.”

Brendan Johnston was the one who spotted the old ambulance when he was working in the airport and the idea just developed from there. “It was Brendan who came up with the idea,” said Fergal, from Tubbercurry in Co Sligo. “He is an electrician and does some work in Knock Airport and he heard about the old ambulance that was sitting idle. It is in fairly good nick. There are 300,000 miles on the clock already so we reckon what is another couple of thousand? The plan is to take the boat from Rosslare to Cherbourg and from there it is about 1,400 miles to Poznan. It is not too bad, I’m sure we’ll make it in time.”

The ambulance needed some major revamping to make it ready for the long trip into mainland Europe, but Fergal is delighted the way it has turned out.

“We did a good bit of work on it, we stripped it out, put in beds, a table and a cooker and we just got the all-important fridge installed so we are ready for the road.

“We sprayed it white but we have put green and gold stickers on it to make it look the part for the trip.

“And fair play to Mickey Macs Pub in Tubbercurry, they helped us out with a bit of sponsorship and we’d be going nowhere without them.”

While the trio have tickets for two of the games in the bag already, the search goes on for tickets for the Spain game on June 14. “The plan is to go to Poland for the two-and-a-half weeks anyway and we’ll see what happens after that. We have tickets got for the Croatia and Italy games, but we hope to pick up some for the Spain game along the way.

“We’ll make the trip to Gdansk either way, I’m sure we’ll manage to get a couple of tickets. Maybe being in the paper will help us pick them up.”