Now that we have qualified for Euro 2016, we, as a nation and a people, must ask ourselves what we have learned from history? How will we avoid the mistakes of 2012? Because many mistakes were made in the build-up to that tournament.
Ireland's official song of the Euros, for instance. We, as a society, can improve on previous efforts.
Allow me to remind you what happened in 2012 because you have probably blocked it from your memory. Someone had the terrible idea of entrusting the very important task of writing the official Irish Euro 2012 song with the Ray D'Arcy radio programme and its listeners. You wouldn't trust people who'd had their tongues cut out to cook a meal for a visiting head of state, and similarly, vanilla mid-morning radio programmes shouldn't be writing football anthems.
Groupthink then ignobly produced 'The Rocky Road To Poland', a rewriting of arguably the greatest Irish song ever . All of the beefy Irish male popstars of the time - Damo Dempsey, Bressie, your man from the Coronas - were enlisted. The surviving members of the Dubliners played on the track. The Irish squad apparently sang back-up vocals. It reflects very poorly on all involved.
Wikipedia tells us the song 'debuted at Number One on the Irish Singles charts..beating the likes of Jedward'.
We don't mean to bang our own drums here but we managed to produce the very catchy Shane Long song within 24 hours of Ireland beating Germany. Surely we can do a whole lot better this time around. Surely.
Here are the lyrics for your delectation.
THE ROCKY ROAD TO POLAND
’Twas in the merry month of June,
from our home we started,
Left old Eireann’s Isle, to Poland we departed,
Hope within our hearts, we can win the trophy,
We are all a part of Trappatoni’s army,
Get behind the team, hear the Irish scream,
C’mon you boys in green,
Ireland’s bouncing back again,
We have got our Trap, the cat is in the sack,
We’ll not forget you Jack, On the rocky road to Poland.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five,
Irish eyes are smiling,
Let your voices ring
Trappatoni’s army,
Everybody sing.
You’ll never beat the Irishx 4
Make your mother proud, inflate your plastic hammer,
Bate your bodhrán loud and learn your Polish grammar,
Credit Union loan, sold the Opel Corsa,
Hired a camper van, picked it up in Warsaw,
Been so close before, hopes slammed in the door,
Now we’re back for more, we can win the battle,
C’mon you boys in green, never have we seen,
Such a fearless team, on the rocky road to Poland.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five,
Irish eyes are smiling,
Let your voices ring
Trappatoni’s army,
Everybody sing.
You’ll never beat the Irish x 4
Ireland Abú. We love.
