The country needed this.
As a disparate sporting nation, not much unites us. The Irish football team can though, when things are right, and the last few weeks reminded us of just that.
As a fan of American sports, I'm often envious of the way an entire city will come together in celebration and grief for the biggest events. Boston for the Red Sox, Philadelphia for the Eagles etc.. Sports fan or not, this is about your city and about who you are. You might not like baseball, but the Red Sox winning would mean everything.
Around the country, we do have it in our GAA teams at least. I can't imagine many in Mayo not shedding a tear if they finally won an All-Ireland.
As a small country though, we rarely get this on a wider scale. It's also not the case in Dublin. Their footballers have amazing support but it doesn't hide the fact that a huge amount of people in the city are uninterested or oblivious: they see a Dubs game in Croke Park as a traffic inconvenience more than anything else. There was a fair presence of blue and navy around the city centre yesterday but for every Dublin fan watching Ireland before heading on to Croke Park, there were four or five who couldn't care less. The ratio gets lower as we get closer to September for sure, but honestly, does a Dublin win ever truly bring the city together?
The closest I can remember to this happening was the night of the 2011 All-Ireland Final. Dublin had ended a sixteen year drought in the most dramatic way possible. There was a buzz around the city that night you only get from sport, but still, it was nothing like the last couple of weeks.
We love the Irish rugby team, but it has to be acknowledged there is still a large, if shrinking, number of people who genuinely dislike rugby, and rugby culture. They begrudge the coverage it gets in the media, and bemoan fans who seem to give their international success any kind of credence at all. I have friends who even actively want them to lose games, to make sure the bandwagon doesn't get out of hand. It's an alien idea to me, but it's hardly something that brings the nation together as one.
No, only the football team can do that.
The area I live in is covered in green, white and orange bunting and there's flags hanging from every house. We might be past the era of coming out on the street to celebrate a goal but that's probably because everyone is in the pub or in France.
Now that #Brexit is done can we all get back to #COYBIG?? Let's keep the bunting up!! #BestBunting #Ireland pic.twitter.com/lAN3E7swdN
— SEDCo (@SED_Co) June 25, 2016
I watched yesterday's game in a pub in town. The unanimous singing, support and passion was something I just haven't seen in Dublin in a long time. It was a stadium atmosphere. We sang when Ireland scored. We Olé Olé'd when we won a free kick on the half way line, we sang to lift the lads after France scored, and we stood up for the boys in green on the full time whistle, even if everyone was standing already.
On Wednesday night, the pubs emptied and a party started on the streets. Yesterday afternoon, it was different. The pubs emptied and there was a feeling of sadness among us. But we shared it. We were proud of the team and the performances but we hadn't quite been good enough. I'd never experienced such a lack of a post mortem. There was no desire for analysis. Some of us still aren't ready for it today.
The truth is though that we all shared the feeling. The Irish team has given this city and this country a shared sense of occasion we just can't get anywhere else. Euro 2012 never got going. 2002 took part in a post-Saipan haze and early in the morning. We probably haven't had anything like this since America 22 years ago.
Irish players just standing and looking at the fans serenading them. Quite a scene. They don't want to leave. pic.twitter.com/w2go6NAL0s
— Daniel McDonnell (@McDonnellDan) June 26, 2016
Lets not pretend this is always the way though. During qualifying campaigns, there's almost an apathy to a lot of the games. The build up feels non existent. A massive football fan I know bemoaned the international break when we would go on to beat Germany as there would be no Premier League that weekend.
When the games are on, in bad times, it can just be too much. I left Lansdowne Road, and later Croke Park, too many times just feeling disgusted. We'd done everything wrong. The manager hadn't a clue. The players didn't want the ball. They don't care about playing for their country.
None of this was probably ever true, but it's how we felt at the time. There was a massive disconnect between the country and the players. It seemed to last for years, but they could always get us back. Paris 2009, Richard Dunne in Moscow, qualifying for Euro 2012.
But there's something different about this. The celebrations and joy among the players and management after we beat Germany really hit home. For the first time probably since the Charlton era, we feel as one with the team. We love them in a way that's beyond reproach. The cold hard analysis of the RTE panel, while once lauded, is now scorned upon once again. We are fans again, no longer angry pundits.
The atmosphere of the last couple of weeks has borne this out. It's on us as fans, and on Martin O'Neill and his team to keep this up through the World Cup campaign to come.
For now though, it just feels good to have the real boys in green back to unify us again.
