League of Ireland

[Kejan]

Anyone watch or support a League of Ireland side? Anyone know why they went for the summer league considering their climate is reasonably mild, but you could argue it seems to work a bit as many Irish sides can waltz through a few rounds, notably Shamrock Rovers about 7 years ago getting to the Group Stages under Michael O'Neill. I take it they are part-time? There teams and leagues (look from a scan at Wiki to have 90% Irish players plus some odd Scots, Norn Irish and foreigners plying their trade). And when I said odd Scots, it really is a who's who of rejects . e.g Derry City have 3 Scots : Darren Cole (ex Rangers) ; Ally Gilchrist (mostly Elgin) and Peter Cherrie (a few games for Airdrie)

I caught a bit of Dundalk v Qarabag tonight and Dundalk had a brilliant chance to level it up at 1-1 (2-2 on agg) they lost 2-0, and 3-1 on aggregate. Dundalk will now drop in to the Europa League

Shamrock Rovers beat Apollon Limassol 2-1 in Dublin last week and head to Cyprus tomorrow and see if they can grind out a result and get through. I will try and find a stream tomorrow of this between the Dons game.

Is the standard decent or do they seem to play out of their skin in European games? From my limited knowledge, they seem to play a lot of their league games on a Friday night. How popular is the league? Is it gaining fans per year due to stagnation in the EPL and the reasonably decent performances of the Irish sides in Europe of late.

I was reading a book 'Gunshots and Goalposts' about NI and mentioned how Derry ended up playing in that league. I take it there's nae danger someone like Cliftonville or Belfast/Donegal Celtic would ever join the league?

Also I know a guy in the SDLP and he thinks if a united Ireland ever happened - Stormont, Northern Irish national team/league would stay as part of the deal!

Havering a bit, but much obliged to anyone who can tell me more about the league.

 

[Victor von Doom]

I'm not an expert by any means - I'm a f****** H**, for Christ's sake! - but I lived in Dublin for a while, a few years back. Watched Bohemians a fair bit, as I lived five minutes from the ground. Would've been two minutes if I could've walked through Mountjoy Prison, but I doubt I'd fit in well there. 

A bit like the Premiership in Scotland, the League of Ireland does look to be on the up at the minute. There's a respected school of thought that cites "The Troubles" as the source of the league's decline - it being slightly frowned on to play "soccer" rather than GAA once nationalism became a big issue in the late-60s and early 70s. This was also the time that pro soccer players in England and Scotland started earning reasonable money, so part-time L.o.I. players with fair jobs back home found switching to the UK more attractive. Dublin's GAA football team also became sexy in the early 1970s, which made the urban youth gravitate towards following them, rather than the soccer teams.        

Summer switch? Really a case of trying to get people to watch games when English (and East End of Glesca) games weren't taking too much attention. Loads of lads walking round deprived areas of central Dublin in Liverpool, Man.Utd, Arsenal and Celtic shirts who won't pay €15 to watch a L.o.I. game.    

Fridays seems mainly to avoid clashing with Gaelic games. Only Sligo play regularly on Saturdays and that's a "soccer" town: the GAA football team rarely has a decent run, they don't play hurling at anywhere near top level and I can't say I've heard tell of a rugby team there. 

The summer switch definitely helped change the culture from a purely British or maybe Scandinavian style of physical hoofball to some fairly pretty stuff, which can look odd. I remember being by the tunnel on the way back to my seat at Dalymount (Bohemians) with a pre-match burger when Galway came out a wee bit early. Size of the buggers, you'd've expected Hull Kingston Rovers to run on and play them, but they tippy-tapped it around in anaemic fashion without a half-decent striker. 

The switch to summer also co-incided with the "Celtic Tiger" boom and the clubs were paying decent wages - usually by trading insolvently on the back of sugar daddies. The higher standard of player, together with summer football, made switching to more eyepleasing tactics easier. The reported highest earner then was Joe Gamble at Cork City, allegedly on €4,000 per week! There were a good few more on €3,000. No wonder a fair few players went back home from League One and League Two in England.

Money ran out though. All sorts of stuff was going on. Police raided Derry after the last game one season, opened the club safe and found just about every player was on duplicate contracts - the "sensible" ones that passed licensing regulations were at FAI HQ; the real "brown envelope" ones were in the safe. Derry were relegated as punishment. Cork City ended up in the scheidt too and lost their license, having to drop down to the second tier. Champs Shelbourne, who held Deportivo La Coruna to a draw in the last qualifying round for a Champions League group place, also collapsed financially and haven't come back up. Shamrock Rovers went down for a while, as did Dundalk. So did Drogheda, who nicked a title on the back of "investment". Clubs came and went. Sporting Fingal - think Gretna, but a lot closer to the biggest city and with far fewer fans - won the cup and folded. A Dublin City appeared and vanished. As did Kilkenny. Teams in the third and fourth biggest cities - Limerick and Galway - seem to come and go with the frequency of St.Mirren managers. Cork must've had about six teams in the last 50 or 60 years.

Licensing is reasonably strict. I doubt anyone's on €1,500 pw now. Reports of clubs teetering are not uncommon, licensing or not.     

Gates? Cork have been pulling 4,000+ in the past few years, but they've been in the top two for the past five seasons - won't be there this year, as they're not absoultely safe from a relegation fight - and both the Cork hurlers and footballers have been underperforming badly in GAA for a while. Shamrock Rovers are traditionally the biggest Dublin team. They've moved to a new stadium in Tallaght, well away from their traditional area, but they pull 2,500. So do perennial champs Dundalk. Bohemians, who won a couple of titles at the end of the "Celtic Tiger" boom are now part-time, but they're going well this year and also pull 2,000+, as do Derry if they're going OK. Sligo would get that too, if they were going well. 

Not enough punters to have more than about 10 teams in a league though. Rovers, Bohs, Pat's & Shels in Dublin; Cork, Derry, Dundalk; teams in Limerick & Galway, then Sligo as a traditional "soccer" town. That's about it, though Waterford have €€€€ at the minute, as they have had at times in the past. Donegal's Finn Harps have a bit of tradition, but are a rural team with more mugs, badges and scarves on shelves and walls in the northwest than fans in the stadium. Athlone were once good and have the population & a bit of a catchment area 

Standard? Well, I reckon they play above themselves in Europe. I'd have said Dundalk in recent years would've struggled to stay in the Premiership, but I admit I can't see the Dundees, Particks, Ross Countys and Caleys of this world ousting BATE Borisov in Europe. (Can't really see the Sheep or Embra duo doing that either.) The strugglers would usually be struggling in League One.  UCD - a geunine student team - wouldn't be that good this year.

Can't believe I'm on a keyboard at 12:30am answering a post about Feen... you know what I mean!      

              

Edited August 1, 2019 by Victor von Doom

[Jacksgranda]

I keep an eye out for Derry City's results but that's about it really.

[The Mantis]

Gunshots and Goalposts is a fascinating book although Derry are the only LOI interest. I also read Sam Allardyce's book which mentions his time at Limerick.

Been to a few games in Norn Iron but never the ROI.I had a few days spare in 2016 and looked at flights to places with summer football. It boiled down to Ireland or the Faroes and I chose the Faroes.

Edited August 1, 2019 by The Mantis

[denltfc]

On 31/07/2019 at 23:32, Kejan said:

Anyone watch or support a League of Ireland side? Anyone know why they went for the summer league considering their climate is reasonably mild, but you could argue it seems to work a bit as many Irish sides can waltz through a few rounds, notably Shamrock Rovers about 7 years ago getting to the Group Stages under Michael O'Neill. I take it they are part-time? There teams and leagues (look from a scan at Wiki to have 90% Irish players plus some odd Scots, Norn Irish and foreigners plying their trade). And when I said odd Scots, it really is a who's who of rejects . e.g Derry City have 3 Scots : Darren Cole (ex Rangers) ; Ally Gilchrist (mostly Elgin) and Peter Cherrie (a few games for Airdrie)

I caught a bit of Dundalk v Qarabag tonight and Dundalk had a brilliant chance to level it up at 1-1 (2-2 on agg) they lost 2-0, and 3-1 on aggregate. Dundalk will now drop in to the Europa League

Shamrock Rovers beat Apollon Limassol 2-1 in Dublin last week and head to Cyprus tomorrow and see if they can grind out a result and get through. I will try and find a stream tomorrow of this between the Dons game.

Is the standard decent or do they seem to play out of their skin in European games? From my limited knowledge, they seem to play a lot of their league games on a Friday night. How popular is the league? Is it gaining fans per year due to stagnation in the EPL and the reasonably decent performances of the Irish sides in Europe of late.

I was reading a book 'Gunshots and Goalposts' about NI and mentioned how Derry ended up playing in that league. I take it there's nae danger someone like Cliftonville or Belfast/Donegal Celtic would ever join the league?

Also I know a guy in the SDLP and he thinks if a united Ireland ever happened - Stormont, Northern Irish national team/league would stay as part of the deal!

Havering a bit, but much obliged to anyone who can tell me more about the league.

 

 

As a long suffering Longford Town currently in the graveyard of the First Division (Bottom tier). Happy to answer questions. 

Friday night football is the norm in the  League of Ireland (LOI) and has been for a long number of years as it doesn't clash with GAA which are usually Saturday and Sunday and previously UK football when we had a winter season. Summer football suits me especially when Longford are in the Premier Division as half the clubs are in Dublin and I work here so i can usually get to a game every few weeks. 

There is going away from the fact that following the LOI is considered pretty niche and you don't tend to bump into many fans of other clubs in work. There are two Boh's fans here as well and that's it out of 500 people in a large government department. My own small section has 5 Leinster rugby season ticket holders within it. Also I am a pretty hardcore GAA fan who spends the summer following my own county of Roscommon around and being honest if there was a clash between the two teams I would pick the GAA. My own wife has only come to one football match in 5 years and can not understand the difference in crowd atmosphere etc. She hated it but loves going to Croke Park and its amazing to see the number of females and families at GAA games and no fan segregation . Its a family day out. There can be 80,000 in Croke Park and there will be lack of passion or noise amongst the fans.  

The standard can be decent at times and the great pub debate is always where would Dundalk, Rovers be in the SPFL.  Most people think they would hold their own against all bar Celtic and Rangers. if you look at this https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/the-argus/20190521/282411285780127 , the prize money gap between the two leagues is huge. If Irish clubs had that level of money to spend it would improve. Teams do raise their game for Europe but its still impressive that Rovers and Dundalk made it to Europa group stages over the past few years. 

The crowds are terrible and some of the facilities are awful. If you ever suffered the away section in Oriel Park, Dundalk then primitive does not do it justice.  Longford got nearly 10,000 to the FAI cup final in the two years we won back in 03/04 but the week before at league match maybe 850 at it and in the First Division maybe 250/300.  One of the issues is for Longford is that most of the team are from Dublin and have real no connection to the town other than showing up every second week for a  game and even training is on the outskirts of Dublin which obviously contrasts badly to GAA where transfers are not really a thing and you play for where you come from. 

Still if only a small majority of barstoolers went to the game they would see no matter what nothing beats being at the game. 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2019 by denltfc

[AyrTroopMajor]

34 minutes ago, denltfc said:

 

As a long suffering Longford Town currently in the graveyard of the First Division (Bottom tier). Happy to answer questions. 

Friday night football is the norm in the  League of Ireland (LOI) and has been for a long number of years as it doesn't clash with GAA which are usually Saturday and Sunday and previously UK football when we had a winter season. Summer football suits me especially when Longford are in the Premier Division as half the clubs are in Dublin and I work here so i can usually get to a game every few weeks. 

There is going away from the fact that following the LOI is considered pretty niche and you don't tend to bump into many fans of other clubs in work. There are two Boh's fans here as well and that's it out of 500 people in a large government department. My own small section has 5 Leinster rugby season ticket holders within it. Also I am a pretty hardcore GAA fan who spends the summer following my own county of Roscommon around and being honest if there was a clash between the two teams I would pick the GAA. My own wife has only come to one football match in 5 years and can not understand the difference in crowd atmosphere etc. She hated it but loves going to Croke Park and its amazing to see the number of females and families at GAA games and no fan segregation . Its a family day out. There can be 80,000 in Croke Park and there will be lack of passion or noise amongst the fans.  

The standard can be decent at times and the great pub debate is always where would Dundalk, Rovers be in the SPFL.  Most people think they would hold their own against all bar Celtic and Rangers. if you look at this https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/the-argus/20190521/282411285780127 , the prize money gap between the two leagues is huge. If Irish clubs had that level of money to spend it would improve. Teams do raise their game for Europe but its still impressive that Rovers and Dundalk made it to Europa group stages over the past few years. 

The crowds are terrible and some of the facilities are awful. If you ever suffered the away section in Oriel Park, Dundalk then primitive does not do it justice.  Longford got nearly 10,000 to the FAI cup final in the two years we won back in 03/04 but the week before at league match maybe 850 at it and in the First Division maybe 250/300.  One of the issues is for Longford is that most of the team are from Dublin and have real no connection to the town other than showing up every second week for a  game and even training is on the outskirts of Dublin which obviously contrasts badly to GAA where transfers are not really a thing and you play for where you come from. 

Still if only a small majority of barstoolers went to the game they would see no matter what nothing beats being at the game. 

 

 

Interesting, I've always wondered what the number one sport is in Ireland - would you say that both GAA and rugby are more popular than football?

Also, what made you join this forum? Do you have a team over here?

[Brummie Clyde]

Support Galway United as they play in claret and blue at the Eamonn Deacy stadium.

They're not very good.

[The Mantis]

1 hour ago, denltfc said:

My own wife has only come to one football match in 5 years and can not understand the difference in crowd atmosphere etc. She hated it but loves going to Croke Park and its amazing to see the number of females and families at GAA games and no fan segregation . Its a family day out. There can be 80,000 in Croke Park and there will be lack of passion or noise amongst the fans.  

So you're saying the football has more atmosphere? Sorry maybe I'm just being thick. Croke Park is the GAA right?

What if you wanted to make a long weekend out of it? LOI on the Friday. Would you have to go back north to get a game on the Saturday? Sunday?

[denltfc]

54 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

So you're saying the football has more atmosphere? Sorry maybe I'm just being thick. Croke Park is the GAA right?

What if you wanted to make a long weekend out of it? LOI on the Friday. Would you have to go back north to get a game on the Saturday? Sunday?

 

Attendance wise GAA is the most popular with Irish sports fans that attend games, its a day out and depending on who is playing huge crowds will descend on Croke Park or other grounds. The All Ireland semi final between Dublin and Mayo on this coming Saturday night is heading towards an 80,000 sell out. I have been to see my local U16 club team play a  GAA county final and 3500 showed to watch the game.  My home county's ground of Dr Hyde Park has a capacity of 30,000 but we only have about 64,000 living in the county. 

I would suggest that would be a good weekend, if Bohs v Rovers was on a Friday night and Dublin playing on a Saturday or Sunday in Croke Park. I would suggest that any Scots man who shows up in Quinns  post match wont be going home alone ..... unless the wife frowns upon that sort of thing . Hurling might be a more interesting game for a tourist to watch, anyone who has seen shinty will be able to follow the basics easily enough.  Longford, Cobh Ramblers and Sligo play on Saturday nights but you would get a match in Belfast on a Saturday afternoon if you wanted more football. They won't be playing football on a Sunday up north !

There is no real tradition of going to football matches in Ireland and getting on a flight and going to England or Scotland doesn't count !  Rugby gets decent attendances but even still the capacity of the RDS is about 18,500. Participation rates are highest for football but the survey includes things like 5-a-side etc so I would be skeptical of the data. Every GAA club in Dublin has decent all weather pitches, club house etc and thousands of members. 

 

 

 

[denltfc]

1 hour ago, The Mantis said:

So you're saying the football has more atmosphere? Sorry maybe I'm just being thick. Croke Park is the GAA right?

What if you wanted to make a long weekend out of it? LOI on the Friday. Would you have to go back north to get a game on the Saturday? Sunday?

Apologies that should of been "no lack of passion" !!!!!!!, if you saw a GAA crowd in full flight. The air will be blue and the noise unreal. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

4 hours ago, denltfc said:

 

Attendance wise GAA is the most popular with Irish sports fans that attend games, its a day out and depending on who is playing huge crowds will descend on Croke Park or other grounds. The All Ireland semi final between Dublin and Mayo on this coming Saturday night is heading towards an 80,000 sell out. I have been to see my local U16 club team play a  GAA county final and 3500 showed to watch the game.  My home county's ground of Dr Hyde Park has a capacity of 30,000 but we only have about 64,000 living in the county. 

I would suggest that would be a good weekend, if Bohs v Rovers was on a Friday night and Dublin playing on a Saturday or Sunday in Croke Park. I would suggest that any Scots man who shows up in Quinns  post match wont be going home alone ..... unless the wife frowns upon that sort of thing . Hurling might be a more interesting game for a tourist to watch, anyone who has seen shinty will be able to follow the basics easily enough.  Longford, Cobh Ramblers and Sligo play on Saturday nights but you would get a match in Belfast on a Saturday afternoon if you wanted more football. They won't be playing football on a Sunday up north !

There is no real tradition of going to football matches in Ireland and getting on a flight and going to England or Scotland doesn't count !  Rugby gets decent attendances but even still the capacity of the RDS is about 18,500. Participation rates are highest for football but the survey includes things like 5-a-side etc so I would be skeptical of the data. Every GAA club in Dublin has decent all weather pitches, club house etc and thousands of members. 

 

 

 

Bohemians 1 Shamrock 0 a couple of years ago was the most hostile atmosphere I'd been in since the 80s. Enjoyed the night to be fair.

[Kejan]

10 hours ago, denltfc said:

 

As a long suffering Longford Town currently in the graveyard of the First Division (Bottom tier). Happy to answer questions. 

Friday night football is the norm in the  League of Ireland (LOI) and has been for a long number of years as it doesn't clash with GAA which are usually Saturday and Sunday and previously UK football when we had a winter season. Summer football suits me especially when Longford are in the Premier Division as half the clubs are in Dublin and I work here so i can usually get to a game every few weeks. 

There is going away from the fact that following the LOI is considered pretty niche and you don't tend to bump into many fans of other clubs in work. There are two Boh's fans here as well and that's it out of 500 people in a large government department. My own small section has 5 Leinster rugby season ticket holders within it. Also I am a pretty hardcore GAA fan who spends the summer following my own county of Roscommon around and being honest if there was a clash between the two teams I would pick the GAA. My own wife has only come to one football match in 5 years and can not understand the difference in crowd atmosphere etc. She hated it but loves going to Croke Park and its amazing to see the number of females and families at GAA games and no fan segregation . Its a family day out. There can be 80,000 in Croke Park and there will be lack of passion or noise amongst the fans.  

The standard can be decent at times and the great pub debate is always where would Dundalk, Rovers be in the SPFL.  Most people think they would hold their own against all bar Celtic and Rangers. if you look at this https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/the-argus/20190521/282411285780127 , the prize money gap between the two leagues is huge. If Irish clubs had that level of money to spend it would improve. Teams do raise their game for Europe but its still impressive that Rovers and Dundalk made it to Europa group stages over the past few years. 

The crowds are terrible and some of the facilities are awful. If you ever suffered the away section in Oriel Park, Dundalk then primitive does not do it justice.  Longford got nearly 10,000 to the FAI cup final in the two years we won back in 03/04 but the week before at league match maybe 850 at it and in the First Division maybe 250/300.  One of the issues is for Longford is that most of the team are from Dublin and have real no connection to the town other than showing up every second week for a  game and even training is on the outskirts of Dublin which obviously contrasts badly to GAA where transfers are not really a thing and you play for where you come from. 

Still if only a small majority of barstoolers went to the game they would see no matter what nothing beats being at the game. 

 

 

Superb post, Dentl.

I'm a bit envious of the GAA culture you guys have. We have the Shinty here, but it's nowhere near as big and played only by certain regions. I have met a few Irish people and one thing (apart from the few I know from Dublin) they all had in common was their support for their GAA county. I even ken the colours a bity - light blue - Dublin ; green/yellow - Donegal and red/white - Tyrone.  I keep trying to get in to it and watch more of it, but I never know what time its on etc - a bit of a shite excuse, and suppose getting into another sport is probably not the best plan.

I've never been to Longford, but I recognise the name. I met about 5-6 Dundalk fans at Glasgow airport about 5 years ago on their way to I think Iceland and they were top lads, even bought me a pint! So ever sine then I've been keeping an eye on their results in Europe etc, e.g see their playing tomorrow. But I also had a great and wild night out in Drogheda about 12 years ago, and believe they are big rivals - so maybe I should stay clear of declaring either my 'side'.

Good luck to Longford Town and maybe one day we'll see a European game between a Scottish side and yourselves.

[denltfc]

10 hours ago, Kejan said:

Superb post, Dentl.

I'm a bit envious of the GAA culture you guys have. We have the Shinty here, but it's nowhere near as big and played only by certain regions. I have met a few Irish people and one thing (apart from the few I know from Dublin) they all had in common was their support for their GAA county. I even ken the colours a bity - light blue - Dublin ; green/yellow - Donegal and red/white - Tyrone.  I keep trying to get in to it and watch more of it, but I never know what time its on etc - a bit of a shite excuse, and suppose getting into another sport is probably not the best plan.

I've never been to Longford, but I recognise the name. I met about 5-6 Dundalk fans at Glasgow airport about 5 years ago on their way to I think Iceland and they were top lads, even bought me a pint! So ever sine then I've been keeping an eye on their results in Europe etc, e.g see their playing tomorrow. But I also had a great and wild night out in Drogheda about 12 years ago, and believe they are big rivals - so maybe I should stay clear of declaring either my 'side'.

Good luck to Longford Town and maybe one day we'll see a European game between a Scottish side and yourselves.

Sky sports have GAA coverage in the UK and if you have free sat then BBC NI usually have matches earlier in the summer.  Both games are  on Sky Sports Arena this weekend throw is at 5 on Saturday night is the  Dublin v Mayo game which should be a sell out and a cracker  and on Sunday throw is 3.30 for Kerry v Tyrone is a clash of football cultures dirty nordie fucks  ( i may be biased as we lost to Tyrone 4 weeks ago) v the aristocrats of free flowing football ! It is totally unacceptable to wear county colours of another team and no matter how shite your county is, you support them all the way. It can be hard at times 64,000 people live in County Roscommon v 1 Million in Dublin. We last won the Championship in 1944 !!!

I live close to Drogheda and they hate Dundalk, two shit holes fighting over which town is less shite. 

I had 3 great nights in Europe with the Town seeing them play in Bulgaria, Liechtenstein and the worst night of my life losing 5-1 in Wales to Carmarthen after beating them 2-0 at home and it should of been 5/6. Town were shocking and to the day I die I am convinced the team threw the match and made a killing in the bookies. 

Bohs v Rovers is the only real derby as in vicious they hate each other stuff. Other Dublin derbies can be fun but there is a visceral hatred between Bohs and Rovers. It is the LOI game i would recommend attending or any Dundalk game in Dublin would be next.  Don't mind Dundalk having success at all, its a real football town  and of course Stephen Kenny got his break in the LOI as manager of Longford Town and Dundalk manger now Vinny Perth is a Longford legend. The biggest loss to football was his brother Paul "Gucci" super player  for the town who should of made it across Chanel but did his knee in but had made it back after being lost to heroin. 

Longford have had a decent season to date and lie second in the First Division (FD) 5 points behind Shels who have spent a fortune who come to Longford this weekend. Neale Fenn is the town manager and definitely has a future at a bigger club. 

On the piece about finances I would say that every LOI club is about 4-6 weeks away from getting into severe financial difficulty. 

Edited August 7, 2019 by denltfc

[thekorean]

Supports football clubs from land of the former colonizers but can't be arsed to go to domestic games.

Sad.

[The Mantis]

18 hours ago, denltfc said:

Apologies that should of been "no lack of passion" !!!!!!!, if you saw a GAA crowd in full flight. The air will be blue and the noise unreal. 

[Boscerson]

Been to a few games in Ireland.

Last game I took in was a bit random. Wasn't LOI but was in the preliminary rounds of the FAI Cup. Glengad Utd v Home Farm in the wilds of Donegal near where I was visiting. Pitch was on the side of a mountain and Glengad won on pens. Really enjoyed it but standard wasn't great imo. I'd say bottom level juniors standard, if that.

Home Farm seem to have fallen from grace. I remember them being a big name back in the 80s/90s and they had a tie in with Everton at one point. Just goes to show that LOI clubs do seem to be in a constantly precarious financial position as other posters have said.

[Bill]

4 hours ago, thekorean said:

Supports football clubs from land of the former colonizers but can't be arsed to go to domestic games.

Sad.

It is sad and the worst part about it these clowns don't see the irony sitting in a pub with a Liverpool or United top on celebrating every goal England concede in a tournament. Irish fans for the most part are cretins but its changing somewhat, the LOI does seem to be on the up, Bohs alone are selling out consistently and pulling in a lot of football tourists , the old Dalymount reminding many of what football was like before modern stadiums seems to have this positive effect.  Standard wise it wouldnt be near SPL BUT Dundalk/Rovers could compete imo which always makes me wonder why Scottish clubs outside of Celtic and Rangers seem to struggle in Europe? Surely Kilmarnock are miles ahead of Welsh teams.

[Kejan]

4 hours ago, denltfc said:

Sky sports have GAA coverage in the UK and if you have free sat then BBC NI usually have matches earlier in the summer.  Both games are  on Sky Sports Arena this weekend throw is at 5 on Saturday night is the  Dublin v Mayo game which should be a sell out and a cracker  and on Sunday throw is 3.30 for Kerry v Tyrone is a clash of football cultures dirty nordie fucks  ( i may be biased as we lost to Tyrone 4 weeks ago) v the aristocrats of free flowing football ! It is totally unacceptable to wear county colours of another team and no matter how shite your county is, you support them all the way. It can be hard at times 64,000 people live in County Roscommon v 1 Million in Dublin. We last won the Championship in 1944 !!!

I live close to Drogheda and they hate Dundalk, two shit holes fighting over which town is less shite. 

I had 3 great nights in Europe with the Town seeing them play in Bulgaria, Liechtenstein and the worst night of my life losing 5-1 in Wales to Carmarthen after beating them 2-0 at home and it should of been 5/6. Town were shocking and to the day I die I am convinced the team threw the match and made a killing in the bookies. 

Bohs v Rovers is the only real derby as in vicious they hate each other stuff. Other Dublin derbies can be fun but there is a visceral hatred between Bohs and Rovers. It is the LOI game i would recommend attending or any Dundalk game in Dublin would be next.  Don't mind Dundalk having success at all, its a real football town  and of course Stephen Kenny got his break in the LOI as manager of Longford Town and Dundalk manger now Vinny Perth is a Longford legend. The biggest loss to football was his brother Paul "Gucci" super player  for the town who should of made it across Chanel but did his knee in but had made it back after being lost to heroin. 

Longford have had a decent season to date and lie second in the First Division (FD) 5 points behind Shels who have spent a fortune who come to Longford this weekend. Neale Fenn is the town manager and definitely has a future at a bigger club. 

On the piece about finances I would say that every LOI club is about 4-6 weeks away from getting into severe financial difficulty. 

Cheers again, skipper, great post and information, I'll keep my eyes peeled this weekend for the GAA. I've always fancied the Ireland -Scotland shinty game in Ireland, and I speak a bit of Gaelic, enjoy comparing the languages (can work out a fair bit of it although there's always a false friends in there or something completely different eg Bothar/Rathad, Christ I am rambling on, I probably should go looking for a book about the league. 

The standard must be pretty good. I watched Shamrock Vs Apollon and they played some lovely stuff at times (home leg). Ethan Boyle looked impressive and going by your Under age groups, I think it will be an exciting future for Ireland - u17s, u19s success in recent tournaments. 

PS I take it lads and lassies can play GAA and football/soccer together, or is it still frowned upon? Were you not even banned from your GAA team if someone caught you playing soccer, even just a few decades back? I believe Niall McGinn's first love was the Gaelic football, and took to football/soccer later and he's going to play at a Euros and made a career from the game.

Once again, cheers for the information. Really interesting and best of luck to Dundalk tonight in Slovakia..

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by Kejan

[denltfc]

2 minutes ago, Kejan said:

Cheers again, skipper, great post and information, I'll keep my eyes peeled this weekend for the GAA. I've always fancied the Ireland -Scotland shinty game in Ireland, and I speak a bit of Gaelic, enjoy comparing the languages (can work out a fair bit of it although there's always a false friens in there or something completely different eg Bothar/Rathad, Christ I am rambling on, I probably should go looking for a book about the league. 

The standard must be pretty good. I watched Shamrock Vs Apollon and they played some lovely stuff at times (home leg). Ethan Boyle looked impressive and going by your Under age groups, I think it will be an exciting future for Ireland - u17s, u19s success in recent tournaments. 

PS I take it lads and lassies can play GAA and football/soccer together, or is it still frowned upon? Were you not even banned from your GAA team I'd someone caught you playing soccer, even just a few decades back? 

Once again, cheers for the information. Really interesting and best of luck to Dundalk tonight in Slovakia..

 

Where I grew up every parish has a GAA team but not everyone had a football team. We had a team at under 12 and under 18  for football but the other years nothing. It was more for craic really as we played with guys from school who were from other neighbouring GAA clubs who we normally would fight on the pitch with.  Whereas we had GAA at every age group and a squad of about 30 but we would be lucky to have 14/15 for football out of 5 times the size of catchment area. 

The ban was lifted on foreign sports in 1972 within GAA and but in some areas it is still frowned upon to play both. Plus in dual counties, guys who are good at GAA and football are usually good at hurling as well. Where I am from the football team is for when the GAA season is over and guys want something to on a Sunday morning to blow off the hangover. 

As for the Shinty it has taken place in Inverness the last few years and are usually close games but the Irish team is made of level 2&3 players rather than most of the top tier guys but a good game of hurling will have you on the edge of your seat for 70 minutes. 

As for books on the LOI I would recommend a read of "Just follow the Floodlights" by Brian Kennedy. Its a few years old but a great read and depressingly familiar in parts. 

U19's did great to make European semi finals considering about they were missing about 20 guys who could of been in the squad but had pre season in the UK instead and not released. Troy Parrot of Spurs is the player to watch for the future, looked good playing with Kane. 

I think Slovan might have too much for Dundalk but will be interesting to see how it goes. 

[Victor von Doom]

Slovan Bratislava! If people think football in Scotland has fallen a long way, try being a fan in Eastern Europe. Fifty years ago, Slovan beat Barcelona in the Cup-Winners Cup final. They’d beaten Dunfermline in the semis! Slovan had to get past Porto and Torino to make it that far. The Pars had beaten W.B.A. and Olympiakos to make the last four.

I’ve known a couple of Yugoslavian 1980s hooligans. I still see the Radnicki Nis lad. He used to love getting in a train on Saturday to fight fans in Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Macedonia, or just going up to Belgrade to fight Red Star and Partizan fans. Plenty of clubs getting 10,000 or 15,000 fans every week. He speaks fondly of European excursions when they got to the UEFA Cup semis one year and lost to Hamburg. The break-up of Yugoslavia has seen even the bigger clubs followed by three men and a dog in diddy leagues. For Serbia, think Rangers and Celtic playing the roles of Red Star and Partizan and moving to the West Juniors, with Kilmarnock taking the part of Radnicki Nis. (I’m sure a fair few on here would be keen on Rangers, Celtic and Killie going to the Juniors.)

Speaking of hooliganism though, Sergeant Wilson is correct about Bohs v. Rovers. I went to one of those a while back. This season and last, there have been English and Eastern European fans arrested at those games. The fixtures are now such good “craic” that tourist hooligans seemingly adopt one side or the other and head over to Dublin for a good old-fashioned “Donnybrook”. What makes the fighting inside the stadium so funny is the peculiarly “Irish” attitude of An Garda Siochana to any bout of fisticuffs. They administer a stiff telling-off: “Ah Jaysus, lads! Will youse not be at that at all now?! Cop yourselves on, lads!” while attempting to manhandle the odd miscreant back to his seat. No rugby tackles or arrests. I often used to wonder how the typically humourless and taciturn Polis Glesca officer might fit in, if an exchange programme took place.

Back on topic…

The GAA’s huge advantage is that it’s strictly amateur. Managers at county level get generous “expenses” and there are undoubtedly brown envelopes going to some of them, but these will be from sponsors. Gate receipts are not siphoned-off. Some club managers also have generous packages. GAA clubs in Ireland play exclusively in leagues within their own counties. The winners go on to contest knock-out provincial championship in Munster, Leinster, Ulster or Connacht. The four winners of those contest the All-Ireland semi-finals and final.

Players, no matter how good, do not get paid – not even via brown envelopes – so gate money goes on development of the game. The system works rather like Rugby Union in the amateur days. A good player of low social status might be found an army, police or teaching job doing relatively light duties. A better educated one will get a white collar job with a bank or suchlike and do as much PR duty as actual work.

As I say, clubs only play games within their own county. Many counties have fewer than 60,000 people. Longford, which I’ve never visited, has 40,000. However, the lack of greedy players and agents mean facilities at many clubs in villages of 200 people, well off the beaten track, are astounding. A stand with 500 seats, with decent dressing rooms and a weight-room underneath, is not uncommon in a location that’s no more than a crossroads with a church and maybe a pub, as most local village shops disappeared a while back. As Denltfc points out, just about every GAA club in Dublin has all-weather training facilities.

Some of the county stadiums are impressive. Croke Park is five-star by anyone’s standards. Wexford have a shiny, newly renovated 25,000 job. They even have a cryogenic chamber there. The number two ground – Semple Stadium in Thurles in Tipperary – is more “lived-in”, as is the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Some of the county grounds are a mite 1960s though. I went to games at Pairc Tailteann (Meath) and St.Conleth’s Park (Kildare) and it wasn’t necessary to actually go into the gents to be just about certain that it would be a “pish-against-the-painted-wall-and-watch-it back-up-in-a-concrete-gutter” job. Both counties have endured a long period of underwhelming performance though, so a lack of interest, sponsors and funding is understandable.

Considering the excellent facilities at Shelbourne dog track – and the adequate ones at the recently demolished Harold’s Cross dog track – League of Ireland grounds are embarrassing, right enough. I didn’t venture to Shamrock Rovers’ new ground in Tallaght (Not sure my life insurance covers me for Tallaght, or what inoculations I’d need), Derry have renovated the Brandywell and Cork’s Turner’s Cross is tidy. The rest are eye-openers. I genuinely don’t think there’s anything in Scotland to match them, though I haven’t been to Cliftonhill Park for 30+ years.

Rule 27  “The Ban” on anyone connected with the GAA playing “garrison games”, mainly soccer, rugby and hockey, was lifted in 1971, as Denltfc says, but it could be enforced with a rigidity that would make Rangers blush. Just before “The Emergency”, as it was known in Ireland – World War Two to everyone else – the President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, attended an Ireland v Poland soccer match in his capacity as Head of State. He was patron of the GAA. He had founded the Irish culture and language organisation, the Gaelic League, in 1893. This cut no ice. His “crime” was so serious that he was “warned-off” in racing parlance: banned from all GAA activities for life.

Jack Lynch won All-Ireland titles in hurling and football with Cork. He watched his younger brother play soccer or rugby just after his retirement. Someone snitched. Banned for life. He was still banned for life when he became a cabinet minister, though The Ban had been lifted by the time he became Taoiseach (a fantastic Gaelic word for “Prime Minister” - adopted by Fine Gael’s “blueshirts” at a time when Der Fuehrer, Il Duce and El Generalissimo were all doing rather well!)

It seems to have depended who you were though - and whether anyone would grass! Denltfc will know that there is an urban myth that outstanding Roscommon GAA player Dermot Earley, who was Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces at his fairly recent untimely death, was fairly blatantly playing soccer as “Dermot Late” at the time The Ban was lifted. As his county’s best player, he was confident nobody would alert the authorities.

Separation of the codes is still strictly enforced in other ways. American Football at Croke Park – or in Limerick – has never been a problem. Gridiron, though hardly Gaelic, is not viewed as a “garrison game”, so it can be tolerated. Allowing soccer at Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was redeveloped was a one-off concession, which required an emergency amendment to the GAA’s constitution: the temporary suspension of “Rule 42” for that particular purpose. Outside of that agreement, “garrison games” are not permitted at GAA stadiums. Teams playing “garrison games” are not allowed to use the facilities at GAA clubs. A few years back, the Munster Rugby team were preparing for a European Cup semi-final. They were struggling for training facilities at a training camp in Cork after heavy snowfall. They used the state-of-the art facilities at Nemo Rangers GAA club in Cork City. Nemo are the biggest and best GAA club in County Cork. Four full sized artificial pitches, with floodlights, and a full-sized indoor one. The pitches are rented-out to all and sundry, in all codes – even though this is against the rules. Nobody complained about local sports teams paying a GAA club fair wedges of Euros. When news got out that Munster had been there, however, the GAA sprang into action. Charges were swiftly brought. Consensus was that Nemo were lucky to escape without a suspension.

This illustrates a problem soccer faces up and down the land. Soccer clubs are not officially allowed to use GAA facilities. Young soccer players in those villages of 200 will have to change in a cowshed, while young GAA players have heated dressing rooms.

As for Home Farm, they’ve almost always been a junior team – in the Irish sense of an underage & schoolboy club. Maybe third behind Stella Maris and Cherry Orchard as a production line for young Britain-bound players in Dublin. They joined the League of Ireland after neighbouring Drumcondra went belly-up in the early 1970s. The Home Farm board saw some mileage in taking-over the defunct professional club, so it was a merger to continue Drumcondra’s existence and hopefully get the De Drums back on track with Home Farm youth players moving straight through… and get a few punters through the gates in the days when Dublin clubs still got half-decent attendances.