Euro 2012 – Reporter’s Notebook
Sitting outside his well lived-in campervan in Sopot’s campsite, Patrick Dempsey from Trim, Co Meath, was the picture of contentment, despite having lost his passport.
Well at least they weren’t his tickets was his philosophical approach to the situation. Sure, worrying could be done after Ireland get knocked out of the tournament. When asked of his plan to get a replacement passport, he simply chuckled.
“It was in my pocket, but I haven’t a clue where I lost it. I haven’t got a plan. Drink pints, watch football, go home. That’s it.”
Priorities are everything for the Irish in Poland.
Jason McAteer with Richard Dunne watch Ireland train.
While, the current team sort the fans out with toiletries, some ex-internationals are apparently skimping on their rounds.
Anto Malone from Dublin was happy to bump into Jason McAteer in Sopot and even went so far as to buy him a beer or two.
However, McAteer seems to have been a little slow getting him one back.
“Yeah, we got him some gargle but I saw nothing coming back.”
Instead, his gang decided to swipe an enormous bottle of Hennessy brandy, which they hoped would last them for weeks.
However, when his posse lined up shots back in the campsite, all was not what it appeared to be. “It looks like brandy but it’s bloody Mr Sheen or something. We nearly poisoned half of Poland with the stuff.”
Paul Green: ‘Decent skin’.
KEEP IT CLEAN: The Irish team is nothing if not a generous bunch. Paul Green may have been criticised for making the team but he’s been helping out fans no end.
Damien O’Leary, from Knocknaheeny, Cork, decided he had gone long enough without a shower and hit the Irish team hotel in Sopot looking for towels.
“I saw Paul Green so I went up to him and said I was disgustingly filthy and could he sort us out. To be fair to him, he went up to his room and sorted us out with six towels. He’s a decent skin.”
KEY CONUNDRUM: It’s a hard thing to swallow being €1,300 down on a campervan deposit — particularly when you haven’t even moved it.
One group of Irish guys did just that when picking up their campervan. Christie Vickers, from Wicklow, was picking up his vehicle from the firm and wondered why the employee was being so thorough. “He was pointing at the door saying, ‘this is the door and how you open it’, things like that,” he said.
“It turned out that two other clowns had locked the keys in the camper before even starting it up. They had to break the door to get them. So they were down €1,300 and they hadn’t even moved it from the parking space.”
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