Ireland Vs England : Over 10 years on...

whiskeyman

It was Landsdowne Road on that infamous evening of 15th February 1995 that saw the last meeting in a "friendly"
Our rugby teams meet every year without any problem... yet a meeting of the soccer teams is still unlikely to happen for a good while yet... unless if we're drawn in a major competition against each other.
It's such a shame really... has any other close national rivalry gone without a meeting in so long?
Does anyone know if either FA has every approached each other to plan a "Friendly"?
Many on this site probably dont even remember that last meeting when David Kelly put us in the lead before the match was stopped after 27mins....

arbeitsscheuer

Oh dear god I remember that...

I don't mean to be selfish (well... maybe I do) but you have no idea how hard it was the next day in school, being the only English person there (I was in primary school, 5th or 6th class). F**kin nightmare.

You know it was the neo-nazi's right? It wasn't the regular England fans. And Scotland Yard gave the Guardai a list of names and faces of potential troublemakers, which the Guarda Siochana chose to ignore.

Just thought I'd get that out there...

whiskeyman

SebtheBum wrote:

Oh dear god I remember that...

I don't mean to be selfish (well... maybe I do) but you have no idea how hard it was the next day in school, being the only English person there (I was in primary school, 5th or 6th class). F**kin nightmare.

You know it was the neo-nazi's right? It wasn't the regular England fans. And Scotland Yard gave the Guardai a list of names and faces of potential troublemakers, which the Guarda Siochana chose to ignore.

Just thought I'd get that out there...

Oh man, I bet that was nasty.
Yeah, the Gardaí fecked up royaly - It was elements of "Combat 18" and other scum that were just here for a fight.
Many innocent English fans got caught up in the mess.

Healio

I was (un)fourtunate enough to be at the match, i was only nine at the time though. Combat 18 were at the helm from what i remember. The irish fans were partly to blame aswell, they were pissing in cans and throwing them at the english section of fans, while chanting rebel songs. You have to also remember that it was pre-good friday agreement when it occured.
Id say a friendly could be arranged this day in age. It would be great to see two international teams playing against one another, with nearly all their players competing in the same league. Plus it would be great to get one over on sven and the boys.

grimloch

I remember it. What a great first Ireland match that was for me. Was fairly young at the time though so I don't remember it all that well though.

I'm sure another match could be organised now.

arbeitsscheuer

They changed the seating arrangements for soccer matches after that game.
Since then, Away fans have all been located at the end of the ground (I'm sorry I forget the stand's name, but it's at the opposite end to the "Schoolboy" end).

In that game, England's away fans were put on the upper tier of the west stand. Dunno bout now, but back then the seating in that part of the ground was made up of wooden benches. The hooligans ripped up the benches and through them down on top of the Irish fans, who were forced onto the pitch to escape the rain of missiles being hurled at them (added to the wood were bottles, cans, etc etc. English fans not searched going in, unlike at Premiership soccer stadia).

Anyway, while the Guardai and Security and FAI officials f**ked up royal, it is undeniable that there was, and maybe still is, something institutionally hooliganistic about England fans. But the FA and the clubs have done their best to rid our stadia of this disgusting section of the game, and have done pretty well.

So I for one hope there will be a peaceful soccer friendly between my two nations in the future.

Healio

The only way i can really see us playing them, is by force i.e play-off/qualifier/world-cup.

jubbly

I dont think we should have another england "friendly" until we get a new stadium in landsdowne road. The old one is a fúcking bucket and I dont think it helps the GARDA police the stadium very well AFAIK.

England dont do friendlies anyways so I think it would be a flop with funny tatical systems, lots of players out of position and lots of subs from Sven. Whats the point ?

whiskeyman

Healio wrote:

The only way i can really see us playing them, is by force i.e play-off/qualifier/world-cup.

I think thats crazy though... the tension during such meetings is going to be fuelled by the importance of the match.

I think we need to have a friendly soon to get rid of the whole "the last time we met was a riot" vibe.
There's even plans in place to invite the Queen over, but we still cant get the soccer team for a friendly?
It's a sorry state for the perception for both sets of fans if we its still seen as "avoid at all costs".

Davei141

Id love to see it but if some little scum bags started chanting anti english slogans id be ashamed, and as much as i hate to say it i wouldnt be suprised in the slighest if some of them do. The hooligans are out of english soccer so i dont think there would be any trouble in that regard. It was only a few years back when alot of gob****es started booing lovenkrands for playing for rangers, even though it wasnt even him.

Our rugby teams meet every year without any problem...

As the old saying goes, rugby is played by thugs and supported by gentlemen, football is played by gentlemen and supported by thugs.

Creamy Goodness

the only way i see the irish playing england in a friendly is if it's in wembly

KdjaCL

SebtheBum wrote:

O
You know it was the neo-nazi's right? It wasn't the regular England fans.

Yeah i know they werent allowed enter the country full stop , 5000 lovely people werent let travel over.


I was meant to be steward that day, thank god for sickies


kdjac

applehunter

Remember the kid holding his fathers hand almost crying.



"Dad!, What the **** is going on?"

Spider_Baby!

I remember that match....Paul Ince's face(expression) springs to mind, for some reason everytime i think about it.

I do hope that we do play them again soon. What a great WC final that would make, eh?

MrJoeSoap

grimloch wrote:

What a great first Ireland match that was for me.

1st Ireland game at Landsdowne for me. Never forget it.

Draupnir

Davei141 wrote:

As the old saying goes, rugby is played by thugs and supported by gentlemen, football is played by gentlemen and supported by thugs.

You dont know your sayings Dave, the saying is:

"Rugby is a thugs game played by gentlemen, Soccer is a gentlemans game played by thugs."

p.pete

Draupnir wrote:

You dont know your sayings Dave, the saying is:

"Rugby is a thugs game played by gentlemen, Soccer is a gentlemans game played by thugs."

Think the full saying is "Rugby Union is a thugs game played by gentlemen, Soccer is a gentlemen's game played by thugs and Rugby League is a thugs game played by thugs"

Culchie

LOL, these were the days when Skysports was very rare indeed.

I was working in the Swiss Alps and travelled a 5 hour round trip to Geneva to a pub (ran by an Englishman) called The Post Café on Rue de Berne.

We had just about finished our second pint, when all hell broke loose at Landsdowne, and then their compatriots decided to follow suit.

Exit Stage left 4 very fast Irish men.

BaZmO*

p.pete wrote:

Think the full saying is "Rugby Union is a thugs game played by gentlemen, Soccer is a gentlemen's game played by thugs and Rugby League is a thugs game played by thugs"

I always thought the saying was as above but instead of Rugby League it was GAA.

B.

Davei141

Draupnir wrote:

You dont know your sayings Dave, the saying is:

"Rugby is a thugs game played by gentlemen, Soccer is a gentlemans game played by thugs."

Yeah i dont know were i came up with that, but im sure theres something about supporters floating about.

whippet

I was in the schoolboy section beside (and underneath) where the english 'fans' were. It was scary and out of order, but the 'RA and anti english chanting that was going on before hand was bizzare and very nasty.

Unfortunatly you will always get the 'RA scummer element at these types of games (usually wearing celtic tops) similar to the types at croker who booed through the minutes silence for the london bombs .

arbeitsscheuer

whippet wrote:

Unfortunatly you will always get the 'RA scummer element at these types of games (usually wearing celtic tops) similar to the types at croker who booed through the minutes silence for the london bombs .

Don't forget Tolka. I'm a Shels fan, have been for about 9 years now, but I'd never heard any "RA scummer element" til we played Linfield in the Setanta Cup, and then Glentoran in the Champ#s League Quals.
Even then, it wasn't much, but it's tough for me, a Shels fan, hearin supporters around me chantin "F**k the Brits" as one. No, F**k you. I mean, wtf?

Big Nelly

SebtheBum wrote:

Don't forget Tolka. I'm a Shels fan, have been for about 9 years now, but I'd never heard any "RA scummer element" til we played Linfield in the Setanta Cup, and then Glentoran in the Champ#s League Quals.
Even then, it wasn't much, but it's tough for me, a Shels fan, hearin supporters around me chantin "F**k the Brits" as one. No, F**k you. I mean, wtf?

Did you hear what the Glentoran fans where shouting? after a while either RTE moved or switched off the speakers at pitch side close to the Glentoran fans because it was f**kin fenian this f**kin fenian that!!!

Also why is everyone complaining about the Irish fans shouting a few things and the Garda???? they should have batter those fans right out of Landsdown and back onto the boat!! I remember watching the game that night and I cant remember who was doing coverage for BBC but they where all apologizing for the fans and everything which I thought was correct!!! remember it didnt stop in Landsdown.....they went into town then and started again!!!

Davei141 wrote:

It was only a few years back when alot of gob****es started booing lovenkrands for playing for rangers, even though it wasnt even him.

Where you at that game? or did you read the crap they wrote in the Sun.....I was at the game and there wasnt that much booing of watever player it was....he came on at halftime or something and we where already 2-3 nil up and the game was boring....a few fans started booing because the the announcer read out the wrong player was brought on......after about 10-15 mins the announcer came back on and said to stop booing and read out the correct players name.....the whole crowd started to cheer him then whenever he got the ball.....soon after for some reason McCarthy lost the head and started to shout at some of the fans.....then to take the piss.....everyone started to boo the Irish players when they got the ball and cheer the Danish players!! this went on for about a minute till the whole of Landsdown was in tears laughing!!! so who are you calling gobs****es?????????????

por

A scum element is slowly creeping into Irish soccer. There were a few bottles thrown outside O' Sullivan’s in Paris the night of the Ireland v France game, it was only a few but it was not surprising with the amount of drunken yobs that were around.
I'd also expect a bit of arge-barge (sp) in the resorts in Cyprus in a few months time.
In light of this an Ireland v England friendly in Ireland would be un-wise at this time. Many of the scum elements of the English traveling support may not be allowed travel this time but I am sure that there are plenty of Irish yobs who will want a crack at the decent fans who do travel.

arbeitsscheuer

Big Nelly wrote:

SebtheBum wrote:

It was only a few years back when alot of gob****es started booing lovenkrands for playing for rangers, even though it wasnt even him.

Eh... Could you point out to me (and everyone else here, for that matter) where I said that?
Because, and don't hold me to this, I am after all the person who supposedly said it, but I don't remember reading that comment anywhere.

So, on reflection, you are the gobsh*te sir.

Good day.

Big Nelly

SebtheBum wrote:

Eh... Could you point out to me (and everyone else here, for that matter) where I said that?
Because, and don't hold me to this, I am after all the person who supposedly said it, but I don't remember reading that comment anywhere.

So, on reflection, you are the gobsh*te sir.

Good day.

Sorry copy and paste didnt work correctly ,....changed now to correct person

Quit with personal insults as well! :mad:

arbeitsscheuer

Big Nelly wrote:

Quit with personal insults as well! :mad:

Ok, I apologise - I was merely responding to what I thought was a personal insult in your post, but I reread it, and I was wrong.

I was gonna post something insightful here, but I've gotta go - I will post what I wanted to say, at a later date. So er... Stay tuned.

Draupnir

por wrote:

A scum element is slowly creeping into Irish soccer. There were a few bottles thrown outside O' Sullivan’s in Paris the night of the Ireland v France game, it was only a few but it was not surprising with the amount of drunken yobs that were around.
I'd also expect a bit of arge-barge (sp) in the resorts in Cyprus in a few months time.
In light of this an Ireland v England friendly in Ireland would be un-wise at this time. Many of the scum elements of the English traveling support may not be allowed travel this time but I am sure that there are plenty of Irish yobs who will want a crack at the decent fans who do travel.

Forgive me for a comment that will probably incite a riot, and Im not generalising here.

I feel that the growing yob culture amongst Irish fans, Nazi salutes at the Israel game and the old chestnut "I hope you die in a cafe bombing" being good examples, is coming from the growing gang/yob mentality of certain elements of Eircom League support.

Im not branding all eL fans here, some of the support down in Tolka Park and Cork is amazing, but their is a distinct section in all of the eL clubs, more in some than other, where its more about abusing the opposing fans and starting trouble than it is about football.

These sections are typically young guys, 18 - 30, who have seen to many movies/documentaries about Chelsea headhunters and 80's football hooliganism. They then think its fantastic fun to act the hard man in a group on the terraces.

These guys are then being brought in to Internationals as "real supporters" and imo thats how the yob mentality is creeping into Irish soccer.

Sadly, for me, the eL is not being marketed correctly for what it should be, a family league, attracting all age ranges to watch football.

At times now it seems like its just 22 irrelevant lads on the park while motley crews of arseholes abuse each other from the stands.

**Please dont start a flame war here, Im just throwing out the opinion of someone on the outside looking in, completely impartially. I would even put my own Irish club down as possibly the second worst for muppet fans. Not all fans mind you.

jubbly

SebtheBum wrote:

Don't forget Tolka. I'm a Shels fan, have been for about 9 years now, but I'd never heard any "RA scummer element" til we played Linfield in the Setanta Cup, and then Glentoran in the Champ#s League Quals.
Even then, it wasn't much, but it's tough for me, a Shels fan, hearin supporters around me chantin "F**k the Brits" as one. No, F**k you. I mean, wtf?

You would expect some trouble with the northern teams invovled. After all there has been 30 years of conflict up there. I think things will improve for Setanta cup games, but shelbourne fans are no angels, i will be the first to accept that.

As for the anti english chanting, its very bad, no wonder they wrecked the stadium. Hopefully all that is history.

Davei141

Big Nelly wrote:

Where you at that game?

It was perfectly audible on live television.

I was at the game and there wasnt that much booing of watever player it was....he came on at halftime or something and we where already 2-3 nil up and the game was boring....a few fans started booing because the the announcer read out the wrong player was brought on

Thats perfectly acceptable then, you were booing because you thought he was a rangers player. He was singled out for a good while so dont give me that bored crap. Its a sorry state for fans to amuse themselves by booing players who play for rangers, yet you dont seem to get it.

soon after for some reason McCarthy lost the head and started to shout at some of the fans

Maybe because a bunch of Gob****es started humiliating him, the players, and the country with their booing.

so who are you calling gobs****es?????????????

I already said who.

Big Nelly

Davei141 wrote:

Thats perfectly acceptable then, you were booing because you thought he was a rangers player. He was singled out for a good while so dont give me that bored crap. Its a sorry state for fans to amuse themselves by booing players who play for rangers, yet you dont seem to get it.

Read my reply again will you and then reply! I said a few people.....if you where at the game then you would know that! saying it was audible on the tele is crap to be honest....you havent a clue of the mood in the crowd......there was only a small few booing and nobody really took them serious....the whole crowd only joined in when we started to cheer the player after the announcer came on and said it wasnt a Rangers player.....this was to show up the idiots that where booing him......

Also it was because the game had gone boring.....it was something to amuse the crowd because the life of the game had gone....also it was bloody frezzing that night so anything to warm yourself up!! I was with 5-6 mates and we where chatting away to fans in the North Stand and none of them where taking it serious!!!

It was only after they started cheering that mick went mad.....he didnt realise until everyone started to boo Ireland and cheer on other team that we where taking the piss is what I could make out.....or maybe the fans that where booing the player in the beginning where the ones he tackled......didnt have a good view of what happened so maybe your TV coverage can clear that up.......I was in the North stand and was maybe 1-2 people booing and it wass packed in the North stand was was very few people.......and yes one of them wasnt me that was booing!!!

I have been to alot of Irish friendlys and so on and have never really seen players getting booed....mind you I havent been to one in a year cause of work but every other game I was at there was never these gobs***es you keep refering to....only time I ever really seen a player getting booed by most of the crowd was against Oz and if my memory serves me right it was Okon who should have been sent off that night after making 3-4 bad tackles.....had to be taken off pitch because had a yellow card and was on course to get a red(if competitive game would have been gone in first 30 mins)....even the Oz guys we where talking to couldnt believe he was still on pitch!!

The crowd that night was great.....usual sort of crowd in the North stand of Irish supporters........but about 40-50 or more Oz people in the North Stand with us as well and the banter was unbelieveable......renditions of Skippy the Kangaroo and everything!! great atmosphere!! could you tell that from the TV? prob not!!!

soma

Big Nelly wrote:

Where you at that game? or did you read the crap they wrote in the Sun.....I was at the game and there wasnt that much booing of watever player it was....he came on at halftime or something and we where already 2-3 nil up and the game was boring....a few fans started booing because the the announcer read out the wrong player was brought on......after about 10-15 mins the announcer came back on and said to stop booing and read out the correct players name.....the whole crowd started to cheer him then whenever he got the ball.....soon after for some reason McCarthy lost the head and started to shout at some of the fans.....then to take the piss.....everyone started to boo the Irish players when they got the ball and cheer the Danish players!! this went on for about a minute till the whole of Landsdown was in tears laughing!!! so who are you calling gobs****es?????????????

I have to say, that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life, the irish fans booing the irish players as a kind of "apology" to the danes - absolutely hilarious and I couldnt believe the negativity with which it was reported in the press!!!! :eek:

soma

Draupnir wrote:

I feel that the growing yob culture amongst Irish fans, Nazi salutes at the Israel game and the old chestnut "I hope you die in a cafe bombing" being good examples

Jesus H christ when did that happen!?!? I was away during that game & didnt hear anything about that, if I was standing beside someone when they did that Id be hard pressed not to lose the rag :mad:

Davei141

Big Nelly wrote:

Read my reply again will you and then reply! I said a few people.....if you where at the game then you would know that! saying it was audible on the tele is crap to be honest....you havent a clue of the mood in the crowd......there was only a small few booing and nobody really took them serious....the whole crowd only joined in when we started to cheer the player after the announcer came on and said it wasnt a Rangers player.....this was to show up the idiots that where booing him......

Also it was because the game had gone boring.....it was something to amuse the crowd because the life of the game had gone....also it was bloody frezzing that night so anything to warm yourself up!! I was with 5-6 mates and we where chatting away to fans in the North Stand and none of them where taking it serious!!!

It was only after they started cheering that mick went mad.....he didnt realise until everyone started to boo Ireland and cheer on other team that we where taking the piss is what I could make out.....or maybe the fans that where booing the player in the beginning where the ones he tackled......didnt have a good view of what happened so maybe your TV coverage can clear that up.......I was in the North stand and was maybe 1-2 people booing and it wass packed in the North stand was was very few people.......and yes one of them wasnt me that was booing!!!

I have been to alot of Irish friendlys and so on and have never really seen players getting booed....mind you I havent been to one in a year cause of work but every other game I was at there was never these gobs***es you keep refering to....only time I ever really seen a player getting booed by most of the crowd was against Oz and if my memory serves me right it was Okon who should have been sent off that night after making 3-4 bad tackles.....had to be taken off pitch because had a yellow card and was on course to get a red(if competitive game would have been gone in first 30 mins)....even the Oz guys we where talking to couldnt believe he was still on pitch!!

The crowd that night was great.....usual sort of crowd in the North stand of Irish supporters........but about 40-50 or more Oz people in the North Stand with us as well and the banter was unbelieveable......renditions of Skippy the Kangaroo and everything!! great atmosphere!! could you tell that from the TV? prob not!!!

Why on earth are you arguing with me, i called those booing the player gob****es, you called them idiots. You should take time to actually read the sentence next time before spitting your dummy out.

Me wrote:

It was only a few years back when alot of gob****es started booing lovenkrands for playing for rangers, even though it wasnt even him.

Draupnir

soma wrote:

Jesus H christ when did that happen!?!? I was away during that game & didnt hear anything about that, if I was standing beside someone when they did that Id be hard pressed not to lose the rag :mad:

There was some cabbage beside me, on the North Terrace, basically giving it all the anti Jewish anti Israel business, a few people told him to stfu, then an extrememly large steward removed him.

A few heads were gonna bash him if he wasnt removed.

The_B_Man

When is landsdowne set to be torn down? we could organise a friendly for then. Let them demolish the place if they want. Might even save a few euros!

Spider_Baby!

I remember that Denmark game, it was hilarious! Id love to see it again, never saw it on telly though, what was the players reaction when he started gatting booed? I remember cheering every time the danish players passed the ball between themselves, for some reason this was highly entertaining!!

Big Nelly

Davei141 wrote:

you were booing because you thought he was a rangers player

Thats why according to you I am spitting my dummy out!

Big Nelly

soma wrote:

I have to say, that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life, the irish fans booing the irish players as a kind of "apology" to the danes - absolutely hilarious and I couldnt believe the negativity with which it was reported in the press!!!! :eek:

Was a classic game alright! then 2-3 days later I read all da crap that was in The Sun and so on!! how does that paper get published?

StickyMcGinty

i remember that night it was horrible, i was only 10. wasnt allowed to go to an international game again for 3 years, the mammy wouldnt have it! i got sculled with a piece of chair and all, we were at home watching the gards beat 7 colours of sh1te outta the fans, and they deserved every bit of it

RE*AC*TOR

Watched it at home. Firstly I was annoyed by the fact we were winning and they had to call it off. Watching the gardai lash into them with batons though was excellent. It was if I was there swinging the batons myself.

Just saw this on the Combat18 page on wikipedia:

At a 1995 soccer match in Dublin between England and Ireland, Combat 18 members led other English supporters in chants of "No surrender to the IRA!" after Ireland scored, and the Englishmen soon began breaking up the stands. The game was called off, and the troublesome supporters were herded onto the pitch, where the Garda Síochána had a quiet word in their ears.

whiskeyman

Article in todays Indo suggests that the FAI and English FA are in negotiations to set up a friendly early next year.
According to them, Anfield is on standby for a March 1st fixture and say that Sven is keen on it.
It'd mean the FAI would have to get a move on to appoint a new manager... and this could be their first game.
Some game for El Tel

Necronomicon

Not sure how true this is, but apparently the FA and FAI are disagreeing about venues. Each wants to be the host...or so I read in The Star