Ireland v. Italy. Dalymount, 1985.

briany

Originally posted to Reddit. A still from the game with a few supporters standing on the terrace roof. Looks mental to me, but they don't seem to have a bother on them, so it may be that this is either a Photoshop job, there's details that the photo doesn't quite depict, or it's just the 80s and it really was a more relaxed time. I'm not quite sure...

Nalz

There was fans sitting on the sideline during the game, those photos are legit I believe

ArnoldJRimmer

Yep, read a really good article on this a few years ago. Apparently at one stage, an Italian player went to take a long throw in so took a few steps back. Next thing someone just walked past in front of him as he was about to release the ball.

Fr Tod Umptious

briany wrote: »

Originally posted to Reddit. A still from the game with a few supporters standing on the terrace roof. Looks mental to me, but they don't seem to have a bother on them, so it may be that this is either a Photoshop job, there's details that the photo doesn't quite depict, or it's just the 80s and it really was a more relaxed time. I'm not quite sure...

It was a more relaxed time.

Loads of those sorts of things going on it the 80s, in Croke Park also it was common on finals day.

Back in 1987 Scarborough were the first ever team promoted from the conference to Div 4.

In their first game v Wolves there is footage of a guy who was dancing on the roof on the stand when he fell right through it.

I'm using the phone so I can't link it now.

Edit - Here it is actually
https://youtu.be/egWbklcsfFw

briany

I know it was a more relaxed time but that roof still looks quite steep, like a 45 degree incline leading to a fairly long drop, and people are just there, all casual looking, with some gravity/angle defiant stance going on. There's 'more casual', as in smoking in pubs, and there's more casual as in apparently death-defying. :P

rossie1977

i remember people sitting on the roof of the stand at hyde park in roscommon for connacht finals back in the late 80s/early 90s..just was something you did back in those days.

Lovely Bloke

why would someone shop that? It's absolutely legit, I also remember fellas on the roof of Croke Park in the 80s

dan1895

Remember a bunch of Dublin fans falling through a roof in Wexford. Mid 90's I think.
First time i saw that footage from Dalymount, I thought there had been a temporary second tier added to accomodate the crowd.

asteroids over berlin

That's the shed end, it is real - I was there with my Dad and uncle, we were standing just down from them on the old Connaught St end which is now the car park in Dalymount. Great days

Oh I think they were mostly Italians on the roof, maybe due to overcrowding or was there a small scuffle - I was 9 a the time

GLaDOS

I've seen other photos of people standing on the roof in Dalymount, not sure if it's the same match or not.

DUBACC

It's legit alright, I was at that game with my dad. Couldn't get over the crowd that evening, people rammed in everywhere. Pretty much the norm at dalymount back then.

bohsman

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I've seen other photos of people standing on the roof in Dalymount, not sure if it's the same match or not.

Seem to remember plenty from the Rangers game.

BMJD

I was at a Bohs - Celtic friendly around 89 or 90, a couple of lads climbed up one of the floodlight pylons to hang a Celtic flag from it, then just sat at the top watching the match. Those things are fairly high -pic

Captain Havoc

Not the same match but>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9OIJ6cwE6o

Paz-CCFC

Here's one from Milltown as well, presumably around the 70s/80s. Rovers fans jumping around in celebration on a similarly sloped roof.

asteroids over berlin

Whilst somewhat risky, ya got love them there days, fcuking rules for everything now, disc parking too!

WoollyRedHat

Any tickets still going?

GLaDOS

According to Just Follow The Floodlights by Brian Kennedy, the record attendance at Dalymount was 48,000 for Ireland v England in 1957.

45,000 attended the 1945 FAI cup final between Rovers and Bohs.

Difficult to imagine!

ionadnapokot

Can anyone name the Italians in the wall?
http://www.11v11.com/matches/republic-of-ireland-v-italy-05-february-1985-238974/
I presume the wall is made it predominantly of midfielders. But i cant make out Tardelli or Conti. Nearly sure Bergomi and Vierchewod are not in the wall.

dd972

IIRC it happened at Highbury on the first day on the 87/88 season, a 2-1 away win for Liverpool, top of the old North Bank, quite a feat.

Zaph

I was at the Italy game and the OP's pic is definitely genuine. Myself and my father were on the terrace accessed from the North Circular Road. It was dangerously crowded there so we, and many others, left at half time. Paul McGrath made his Ireland debut in that match iirc.

dfx-

There are many legends told of how crowded/crushed that game was/fences giving way.

Looking from the Connaught St end in its later days it is astronomical how much you would have to pay me to go to the bottom section if it was a packed terrace. Not a hope.

Zebra3

Paz-CCFC wrote: »

Here's one from Milltown as well, presumably around the 70s/80s. Rovers fans jumping around in celebration on a similarly sloped roof.

That photo could be of Celtic fans from when they played there in the Europen Cup in the mid-80s.

The Italy match in Dalymount is worthy of a documentary. Absolute chaos that night and very fortunate that nobody died.

Rigor Mortis

I was there that day, eight years old. I was scared s**tless.

Alex Meier

My two older brothers were at that match and it was a very dangerous situation unfolding. . . It could so easily have been a Hillsborough.

SEPT 23 1989

all Irish on the roof according to my aul lad

Sr. Pirotecnic

I was at the game as a schoolboy. Ended up in the shed though paid in at the other end, couldn't see much of the game. There was a major crush at the turnstiles, gates were thrown open after I got in I believe. Madness that it wasn't all ticket. Was a bit of a hairy experience for a young lad but not as nearly as bad as na Ireland-France rugby game in 1983 (?).

briany

And this was just a friendly? Couldn't have been WC qualifying as Ireland didn't have Italy for that. Different times indeed. Smoke filled pubs, ZX Spectrums, dirty aul' towns, a decidedly lax attitude towards health and safety, and over 40,000 Irish people happy to risk life and limb in order to watch a friendly v. Italy.

Zebra3

Italy were world champions at the time.

Very little football on TV.

Ireland's star player was playing in Italy then.

The 80s were a horrendous time. A match like that was what people would've lived for for months.

keeponhurling

€60 a ticket for a friendly game seems to have sorted out the overcrowding issue in recent years

dfx-

The main stand was wooden as well was it not. They expected 20,000 at it and because of the congestion, future matches were moved to Lansdowne...article in the independent from a few years ago on it

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/seconds-from-disaster-26571556.html

Fr Tod Umptious

dfx- wrote: »

The main stand was wooden as well was it not. They expected 20,000 at it and because of the congestion, future matches were moved to Lansdowne...article in the independent from a few years ago on it

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/seconds-from-disaster-26571556.html

What is it with the Indo ?

Did no one notice that the opening words were "HEYSEL Stadium, 1984"

secman

I was at the match, the crowd congestion at the shed end entrance was pure manic. The kick of time was delayed. Some genius decided to open the gate at the shed end.we were just moving without trying. .like flowing in a crush. Got very scary when you knew the layout of the ground inside the gate. I kept trying to go left inside the gate and get up to the back of the standing area. It was a Hilborough in the making..pure luck that nobody died that night. Scariest moment at a match for me....The crush in the shed forced them to go on to the roof. Security was non existent on the night....Dalyr was totally unable to cope with the crowds that night.. I had to abandon my car about 2 miles back down the SCR getting to the match...and we Bleedin lost !

Alex Meier

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

What is it with the Indo ?

Did no one notice that the opening words were "HEYSEL Stadium, 1984"

In the third paragraph. . "This was the last occasion on which Italy came to Dublin as World Cup holders"

Er. . 2009 anyone?

Edit: Apologies Indo - Didn't realise the link was in 2009.

Besides Heysel in 1985 was hardly an accident.

Alex Meier

"Those on the pitch had been let through by the gardai at a point where the security fence was opened up to cater for pitch-side TV cameras. Just as well."

listermint

My oul lad was on the pitch that night, My uncle was stuck in the crush. He said it was Manic and utter madness to do a cash at the door for a match that would have such a draw.

citytillidie

Alex Meier wrote: »

My two older brothers were at that match and it was a very dangerous situation unfolding. . . It could so easily have been a Hillsborough.

I was at the Cup Final between Derry and Cork in 89 and all the younger ones were put onto the side of the pitch for over crowding and this was just a few weeks after Hillsborough, I was 9 at the time and my da would not let me go to the replay for safety fears

NufcNavan

My Father was at the game. He said himself and a mate got separated in a crush. They were moving without their feet touching the ground. Mad stuff.

Zebra3

dfx- wrote: »

The main stand was wooden as well was it not. They expected 20,000 at it and because of the congestion, future matches were moved to Lansdowne...article in the independent from a few years ago on it

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/seconds-from-disaster-26571556.html

The match took place in February. Lansdowne was never available to the FAI in that month due the 5 Nations up until about the mid-90s, but was already being used for qualifiers (though it was unavailable for Euro84 qualifiers as the new East Stand was being built).