Tommy Martin: Was FAI Cup final the start of something special or just a big day out?

What does it all mean? All the people and the noise and the power chords and smoky atmospherics? And what about the carry-on in Irishtown? Are they even worth talking about?

Bohemians supporters light flares during the FAI Cup final against St Patrick’s Athletic at the Aviva Stadium. Picture: Seb Daly

You’ve walked into the Aviva Stadium many times but you’ve never walked into it like it was coming up to four o’clock last Sunday.

Flashing disco lights burned through thick flare smoke, illuminating multi-coloured clouds billowing out from either end of the ground. Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ chugged out from the speakers into the primordial haze and the teams emerged into the fog like they should have been riding on winged horses.