Big guns and hot dogs welcome Irish

By Caroline O’Doherty

HELLO Korea, where at Gimpo Airport yesterday police in black boilersuits, dark glasses and rather long rifles lined up to escort the Irish team through arrivals.

Thanks partially to US president George Bush declaring North Korea a fast spinner on his so called axis of evil, the South Koreans are on high alert and no one gets into the team hotel without security checks and metal screening.

Before Mick McCarthy’s squad headed off today to check out their new training grounds in preparation for Sunday’s Spanish inquisition, it looked as if the guards might turn even their footballs inside out as part of the airport security checks.

The team’s base, the Westin Chosun Hotel, is in a cluster of luxury hotels in the Myeong dong district of downtown Seoul.

It seems one would need to attach electric cables to Damien Duff’s legs in order to power all the flashing, pulsing, blinding electronic big screens screaming with advertising slogans that cling to every high rise.

An underground shopping arcade runs beneath the street outside the hotel, selling cheap football tee shirts among the bargains, while gold credit cards cross marble counters in expensive department stores.

McDonalds and Pizza Hut dominate the indoor restaurant menu while outdoors wrinkled women work through clouds of steam, cooking traditional dishes of battered vegetables, noodles and hot dogs on sticks to eat on the go.

It’s all surrounded by heaving traffic that doesn’t seem to flow unless there are 10 lanes merging at any one time as close to an intersection as possible.

But if the players do feel they have been transported to a Flash Gordon set after their comparatively serene stay in the Tokyo suburbs, the Korean end of the World Cup organisation machine are reminding them why they’re here.

There are World Cup flags and banners and welcomes galore.

Let’s just hope they can acclimatise to a faster pace of life before Sunday’s match against Spain.