A World Cup plea: spare a thought for England fans based in Ireland

France ‘98 and I’m living in Dublin about a year. After a less than brilliant tournament, England go out to Argentina, in less than glorious circumstances and amid the controversy of David Beckham being sent off. Watching it in a pub in Blackrock, I’m amazed to find that far from sharing my uncontrollable grief, my fellow drinkers are at the least highly amused, and a good deal of them celebrating boisterously in a manner befitting their own country winning the damn thing.

Fast forward two years and it’s the turn of Belgium and the Netherlands to host Euro 2000. England go out again in a blaze of mediocrity, but I shrug my shoulders and get on with it. The next day I’m at a conference for work, trying not to look as bored as I am, when the main speaker snaps me out of it. “Apologies if I seem a little jolly today”, he begins, but it’s difficult not to be happy after the events of last night. England got knocked out”. I gawp incredulously.

Two years later it’s Japan/Korea 2002 and I’m sitting in the sports and social club of my employer, watching England on the brink of exacting revenge on their biggest South American rivals. One nil up and heading for victory.

I can’t sense those present willing England on to a famous triumph. One of my colleagues, a well known sports broadcaster, entertains me by yelling into my ear at regular intervals, “Here it comes Richie. Here comes the equaliser”.

England won.

These days I know better than to watch England games in pubs in Ireland. It is nearly always good-natured but, however jocular, England-baiting always seems to annoy me perhaps more than it should. Moving from England to Ireland at the age of 25, a white Londoner, racism was something I’d never experienced. That’s still the case although the recollection of being told “less of the Pom accent” by another audience member at a concert, after shouting out for a song, still grates.

Better still the occasion in a Galway chipper when, on placing an order, I was told to head back to my homeland, or words to that effect, by a fellow patron. It was to my surprise and delight that I turned around to be confronted by the sight of a young man only slightly more inebriated than myself, but resplendent in a Liverpool home jersey. I’ll leave you to imagine what I said to him.

That irks me most. Barring perhaps Celtic supporters, of whom there are many, and who fall maybe into both camps in some cases, most of those who are massive fans of soccer in this country are not supporters of Bohemians, or Shamrock Rovers, or Bray Wanderers.

They follow Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool: teams which play in the English Premiership. And, perhaps more pertinently, teams which boast the likes of Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard and Campbell — the very players on whom England’s hopes are pinned by punters such as me this World Cup. Contradiction with your pint, anyone? What’s more, with Ireland’s absence from this year’s tournament, the interest from the Irish media in the English team and their chances is nothing short of phenomenal — which maybe illustrates in itself the point of this letter. The Irish do indeed have an interest in English football, although let’s face it — it might not always be a healthy one.

With an Irish mum and grandfather I’d be eligible to kick for either side (give or take a few years/stone), and have always supported Ireland when they haven’t been playing England, travelling many times to see them including the USA World Cup in 1994, for which England failed to qualify. And I know it’s a cliché to say it, but Ireland have the best fans in the world when it comes to international football.

So it does annoy me just a little bit when my fellow Dubliners proactively revel in the misfortune of those they cheer on week in week out from August to May.

So do me a favour, spare a thought for all us Irish-living England fans if you’re thinking of celebrating during this World Cup when we get knocked out.

That’s if we get knocked out at all.

Richie Ryan, via e-mail.