Irish people living abroad will be watching Rep of Ireland v Italy in different time zones around the world tonight. Here, fans in Qatar, Bahrain and Sweden share what supporting the boys in green from afar means to them.
Eddie Dowling, Qatar
I’m watching the European Championships from Qatar, the controversial hosts of World Cup 2022. The country has been turned into one massive building site in preparation for those finals. I’ve been here for the past ten months working in an international school.
There was a shutdown on the sale of alcohol a week before the Euros to coincide with the holy month of Ramadan, so we’re going dry in the desert in every sense as the temperatures creep up. We’re looking on with envy at the great football and the buzz of the Euros from afar but inshallah we can make it out of the group and revel in some of the Euro commotion at home.
The Euros are a big deal here. There has been much talk about the riots that marred the opening round last week, and the how the Irish fans from north and south are keeping the party going in France in our own inimitable way.
There are no bars open during Ramadan, and no local broadcaster is showing the games for free, so I watched the first match in our house with friends on a dodgy wifi connection. Due to buffering, Ireland was 1-0 up and Wes and Robbie were celebrating before we knew what was what. All technical problems were sorted for the Belgium game (in Qatar at least).
There is great excitement here surrounding the games, with plenty of Irish jerseys on show, as well as those of the Welsh, English, French, Spanish and other European teams. The Euros for us mean good-natured banter and the enjoyment of watching from afar the joy that it brings to the country.
The performance of Northern Ireland and Iceland really fires us on. Tonight's game will be watched in the house with a few football mad friends, and I've even managed to procure a nice bottle of Italian wine for it, hopefully to toast an Irish victory.
Grace Lovquist, Sweden
I moved to Scandanavia when the Republic of Ireland team was heading to Poland and Ukraine to compete in the 2012 European championships. I remember sitting in the Globe in Copenhagen, watching that fateful match in Poznan, with a tricolor draped around my shoulders as I listened to the Irish fans celebrate our boys in green to the bitter end.
The years aren’t long coming round and here we are again, Ireland in the Euros with a nation of supporters at home and abroad filled with hope that we might just pull it off.
I have been glued to the Irish matches so far, and hopefully for more to come, along with my Swedish husband and our little girl Allison. When Ireland and Sweden were drawn in the same group, I immediately put in an order from home for our baby’s first Irish kit. Putting on that tiny jersey over her blonde head of hair, my heart exploded with pride and love, for family and country. The first match between Ireland and Sweden was going to be a bit of a pickle though with Irish mammy and Swedish papa, so in the interest of fairness and democracy, Allison’s favourite teddy was dressed in the Swedish colours. Each side came away with one point, but Ireland’s number 1 supporter in Sweden missed the final result, having fallen asleep at half time.
My hopes are high that the boys in green can make magic tonight against the Italians. As a supporter abroad, I feel an intense sense of pride, community and belonging when I see our team line out and play for their country on an international stage. Proud to be Irish and proud to have my daughter cuddled up beside me wearing the colours of her mammy’s homeland, whatever the result.
Domnick O’Reilly, Bahrain
I will be sitting with some friends and colleagues at the Art Rotana Hotel in Manama Bahrain watching tonight's crucial game between Ireland and Italy. It is 6,979km from where I watched the same fixture in 1990, at the Bottom of the Hill in Finglas. That game marked the start of my life as an adult having finished my Leaving Cert days before. It is also 7,200km from where I watched us exact revenge four years later when I was living as a student in Shannon Airport. Both of those games were special for most Irish fans, who like myself kicked every ball, ran every step and still feel a pain in their heart when they hear the name Toto Schillaci.
A lot has changed for me over the past 22 years. I have left my beloved Tolka Park behind, and despite trying to find soup and sambos as unique as the ones sold there, I have failed miserably. In Moscow, the CSKA stadium had terrible sandwiches but great vodka. I came close in Damascus where they had great food but only juices at the Al-Jaish ground, and at Dynamo Kyiv's stadium a nearby kiosk offered passable cheese rolls. But the closest I have come was at the Carib Eden Stars ground in Barbados where amazing ham and cheese rolls were available and served with an obligatory Banks beer.
Nowadays, I don’t get to as many games as I used to. From time to time I try a pastry at FC Muharraq’s home ground here in Bahrain, but if I am honest, they are still nowhere near as good as the old £1 Soup and Sambo deal from Tolka. If anybody is wondering where my fascination with sandwiches comes from, they have obviously never travelled on a cold wet Irish night to watch football.
Many things may change in life and football, we may lose loved ones who gave us our grá for the game, or even change our footballing heroes (although mine is still Packie Bonner because of one special save) but one thing will never change: that feeling you get at any game when the band strikes up Amhrán na bhFiann, or your team scores in the dying moments giving you a crucial point or three. That is why, although football is not as integral a part of my life here in Bahrain as it was when I was younger growing up in Ireland, that tonight's game will still have the same spine-tingling start as all others.
