Our man in the van: Deluge fails to dampen Irish spirits in Paris

What started as a steady trickle has, in the past 24 hours, become a deluge — the Irish are here en masse.

While the throngs on Parisienne streets have pockets of yellow, the green swathes leave little doubt as to which team will have the biggest support in Paris tonight.

However these same streets cleared pretty quickly at around 5pm yesterday, when a more literal deluge presented itself. The heavens opened on a miserable and overcast day, with even the hardiest supporter fleeing the open-air fanzone in Parc du Champ de Mars for the sanctuary of the ridiculously overpriced bars in the tourist trap under the Eiffel Tower. “If it buys us a seat out of the rain, I’ll pay it,” one fan was heard saying of the cost of a €9 pint.