Recently a friend of mine came home from Chicago for a few days and while I was chatting to him on the phone after he landed I managed to invite him for dinner that evening without even realising I was doing it. I hung up the phone and about two minutes later I thought “Sh*te I invited him for dinner and I don’t even know what I have in” so I went on a panicked search of the kitchen and luckily I had bought some fresh hake the evening before so at least I had a main ingredient. Now all I had to do was work what could I make that would be easy but still look like I had gone to this huge effort(its nice to make them think you were slaving all day). I remembered a pollock dish I had made from a BBC recipe and thought surely I can make a version to suit the hake and here it is…. Enjoy

Ingredients:

A piece of fresh Hake filleted, enough for 2 people

A handful of plain flour to dust the hake

100g Chorizo, diced

400g Can of mixed beans, rinsed and drained

250ml Chicken Stock

250g Spinach

100g Goats cheese, crumbled

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat some oil in a pan, dust the hake with the flour and shake off any excess. Place the hake in the pan skin down and cook until the skin becomes crispy about 3 -4 minutes, flip over and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

2. Meanwhile add the chorizo to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, add the chicken stock and mixed beans and simmer until the beans are cooked through about 2 – 3 minutes.

3. Add the spinach and goats cheese and still until the cheese has melted. Season to taste.

4. To serve, place one of the fillets in the middle of the plate and spoon over the chorizo, bean and cheese mix. I also served it with a fresh bloomer and some butter.

Nom!

The perfect accompaniment to a nice cup of tea, this standard frangipane tart is transformed by the blackcurrants scattered over the top. I had been meaning for a few days to pick the last few blackcurrants of the season on the bush in my back garden, finally got around to it yesterday and this little piece of tasty awesomeness is what resulted. To say it got a hammering is an understatement, I baked it yesterday morning and it was gone by evening, just too tasty to last. Its such a simple recipe you have to try it and it could be used with so many other berries, I was thinking last night how nice it would be at Christmas with fresh cranberries. Light and tasty, enjoy!!

Ingredients:

Packet of shop bought short crust pastry

70g Butter, softened

100g Caster sugar

100g Ground almond

2 Eggs

100g Fresh blackcurrants

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan. Grease a 23cm tart tin, line with the shortcrust pastry and trim. Get your jar of loose change, fill some kitchen foil with the change and wrap it tightly, place in the centre of the pastry and bake the pastry in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes. Then remove the kitchen foil weight and cook for a further 5 minutes to brown. Remove and set aside.

2. For the filling, cream the butter and sugar in a mixer until completely combined, add the eggs and ground almonds and mix into a cream. Transfer the filling to the pastry case, top with the blackcurrants and bake for 45 minutes until gold in colour and spongy to the touch.

3. Serve with whipped cream or a scoop of good vanilla ice cream.

Nom!

I love this dish, it’s simple, looks great and tastes awesome. If you’re ever trying to impress someone and want something fool proof then this is it, plus its not a very expensive dinner either. Today I’m not going to bore you with ramblings of my day or the weather and just get straight to the recipe, so enjoy…

Ingredients:

2 Chicken breast fillets

2 Good size waxy potatoes, peeled and halved

550ml Chicken stock

Sprig of fresh thyme

1 Onion, sliced

1 Head of gem lettuce, shredded

250g Smoked bacon lardons

1 Cup frozen peas

Butter

Olive oil

Salt and Black Pepper

Half a chicken stock cube

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200c. Heat a approx 3tbsp of olive oil in a roasting tin over a medium heat, place the potatoes in the oil cut side down and cook until golden brown. Turn over potatoes, add the thyme,  a good size knob of butter and about 250ml of chicken stock or until it comes about a quarter of the way up the potatoes. Place in the oven and cook for 20 – 25 minutes until they are cooked through.

2. Pour 3tbsp of olive oil into a bowl, crush in half a chicken stock cube and mix with a fork until the stock cube has dissolved and season to taste with salt and pepper. Place the chicken fillets in the bowl and coat thoroughly, leave to rest in the bowl for a few minutes.

3. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, add a glug of olive oil and cook the chicken fillets until golden brown and cooked through. Cover and leave to rest for a few minutes.

4. In a saucepan melt 50g of butter, add the sliced onion and bacon lardons and cook until the onions have become translucent. Add 300ml of chicken stock to the pan, bring to a simmer and add the peas. Cook the peas for a about 4 minutes then add the shredded lettuce and cook for a further 2 minutes.

5. To serve, place 2 pieces of fondant potato in the middle of the plate, top with the chicken breast and spoon over the peas, stock and bacon mix.

Nom!

I woke up this morning to this strange glow around the edge of my bedroom curtains and thought ‘that’s weird’, so I hopped up and like Joseph I drew back the curtains. Shock of shocks, it’s sunny!! So as the saying goes “make hay when the sun shines”, because in Ireland sunshine is so rare these days that when it manages to break through the miles of grey cloud its time to get the BBQ out and that’s just what I did today(well after I cut the grass). I thought it might be nice to do something different instead of the normal BBQ steak or burgers and decided a pizza off the BBQ would be awesome. I knew I had some leftover chorizo and baby potatoes so that was the basis of this masterpiece in the sun….

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough

500g Plain flour

7g Sachet of yeast

2tsp Salt

320ml Lukewarm water

Pizza Topping

Chorizo

Cooked baby potato, sliced

Tomato passata

1 Red onion, sliced

1 Roasted red pepper, sliced (From a jar is fine)

1 Garlic clove, diced

Mozzarella  cheese

Olive oil

Black pepper

Chilli and Garlic Pizza Breads

Leftover Pizza dough

Chilli infused olive oil

2 Garlic cloves, diced

Dried oregano

Directions:

1. Pizza Dough… Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Slowly add the water a little at a time, mix with your hands until you form a dough. Place in the bowl, cover and leave for 5 minutes. After this, remove from the bowl, split into two and knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface. Finally place the dough balls on a floured tea towel, cover with another damp tea towel and leave to rise for 30 minutes.

2. Light the BBQ, cover and leave to heat until the coals are white hot. Place a pizza stone on the grill and leave to warm up.

3. Take one of the dough balls and stretch out by hand to form a large round pizza base and rub with olive oil. Pour some tomato passata on the base and spread with the back of a spoon. Top with the remainder of the ingredients, season with black pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Transfer to the pizza stone, cover the BBQ and leave to cook.

4. Meanwhile, split the remaining dough into 2 – 3 smaller balls and stretch out by hand. Drizzle with the chilli oil and rub in with your hand. Sprinkle with garlic, oregano and place on the BBQ until cooked.

5. To serve, drizzle the pizza with olive oil, slice and pop open a nice cold bottle of beer.

Nom!!

Here’s a nice hearty dish I made last week when I had a mate over for dinner, it’s a perfect dish for those dull rainy days(everyday in Ireland). I think I originally saw the recipe in Easy Food Magazine but I’m not 100% sure, this is my version which is a rough version of what I remember with a few bits added here and there. We had it on a dull Wednesday in front of the TV with a glass of red wine, could it be more perfect??

Ingredients:

1.5kg Potatoes, peeled and sliced

300ml Milk

250ml Cream

3 Garlic cloves, sliced

250g Pack of Smoked streaky rashers (approx 14 rashers)

3 Large tomatoes, sliced

1 Head of Savoy cabbage, shredded

Grated cheese

Pinch of Nutmeg

Salt and Black pepper

Olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan and heat over a medium heat. Add the garlic, salt and pepper and stir until it begins to simmer. Add the slices of potato and cook until just tender, about 8 – 10 minutes. Once cooked stir in the nutmeg and set aside.

3. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the rashers until crispy. Remove from the pan and leave to drain on some kitchen paper.

4. Cook the cabbage in boiling water for 3 – 4 minutes until just cooked, drain and set aside.

5. In a large oven dish(or individual serving dishes) place a layer of the potatoes on the bottom of the dish then pour in approximately one-third of the milk mixture. Top the potatoes with a layer of bacon, then with a layer of tomato slices and then with a layer of cabbage. Repeat these layers again, potato, bacon, tomato and cabbage. Finally top all of this with the remaining potatoes and finish with grated cheese.

6. Bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes and serve. I served it with slices of fresh bread, toasted on a griddle pan and rubbed with a garlic clove.

Nom……

A well known building in the heart of the village, the Milesian Restaurant is a small white traditional stone cottage which oozes charm and personality. If you meet the right man on the right day and he will tell you enough stories(each better than the last) about the former goings on in this place to fill two books, but that’s all in the past now. Each summer for the last few years it has been taken over by head chef Greg O’Mahoney who has turned it into one of the most unique restaurants in Kerry and a must try for anyone visiting the Castlegreory area.

Walking along the street you can’t help but be attracted by the exterior of the building, it’s white stonewashed walls, green sash windows and hand painted wooden sign lure you in and you just have to take a gander inside. Once in you’re greeted by the large open fire which is burning away(typical Irish summer, fire in July), the white stone washed walls continue on the inside and are dotted with artwork of the local area. The tables are covered in green table cloth topped with glass which protect old photos and newspaper clippings relating to Castlegregory, the whole place is filled with little quirky trinkets and pictures that you spend the first few minutes taking it all in. The staff are warm and welcoming and greet you with a basket of freshly baked bread as you sit down, which is always a great start.

For starter I went with the Flash Fried Calamari with Black Pepper, Harissa, Lemon Aioli and Cherry Tomato. The dish arrives and is presented beautifully with a modern simplicity and elegance that you’d think would be totally out of place in such a traditional setting but it’s just enhanced by its surroundings. The calamari was perfectly cooked and tender with a light and crispy batter, the contrast of the lemon aioli and harissa with the calamari is just right with no one flavour dominating the plate. A great start to the meal.

After this I had a second starter(don’t judge me) which has just been added to the menu, Citrus Cured Turbot with Cucumber Caviar, Lime Jelly and White Asparagus. The presentation of this dish is a thing of sheer beauty, strips of cured turbot topped with cucumber caviar, cubes of cucumber and lime jelly, it’s almost a shame to disturb them. The turbot is so delicately cured it melts almost as soon as you put it in your mouth, you get a lovely hint of the citrus before the freshness of the caviar comes in and then from nowhere you get hit by this amazing tangy lime taste from the jelly. For me the lime jelly is the outstanding part of this dish and it ties the whole thing together to make a beautifully light and refreshing starter.

For mains I decided to leave the sea and head back to dry land for the Pork Steak with Hay Smaked mash, Braised leeks and Onion Piperade. This was everything I like on my dinner plate, beautifully moist and tender pork steak oozing flavour, the hay smoked mash was soft and creamy with just a hint of smokiness that worked perfectly with the meat. The side of braised leek was a lovely accompaniment along with a little dot of what I’m almost sure was celeriac puree. Everything in the dish just worked to make a heart-warming and scrummy main course.

Lastly for dessert I had to have the Strawberry Meringue. The beauty of this dish is all in its simplicity, crispy but chewy meringue topped with sweet whipped cream and surrounded by fresh strawberries. It’s a classic combination that needs no messing about. The perfect ending to a lovely meal.

The Milesian is a very special place in which you can enjoy amazingly prepared modern cuisine in the wonderfully warm atmosphere of the old Irish cottage. From the quirkiness of the building to the fact that while I was there the waiter was bringing food across the road to the pub opposite for people enjoying their pints and didn’t want to move, you can’t help but enjoy the relaxed easy going atmosphere of the place. It’s a jewel in Castlegregory’s crown and needs to be sampled to be appreciated.

I ate from the Early Bird Menu which is 2 courses for €13 or 3 courses for €16

To check out the menus go to: http://milesianrestaurant.com/

Yesterday the sun was shining and I decided to go back to my parents caravan in the very beautiful Castlegregory, rather than show up empty handed I went to the fishmongers and picked up a lovely piece of hake to BBQ for me and the folks. I wasn’t too sure how the hake would hold up on the BBQ so to be safe(and to add a lot more flavour) I cooked it on top of a cedar plank on the BBQ and it was AMAZING!! I topped it off with a mixture of chorizo, onion and cherry tomatoes cooked in white wine(which my dad referred to as “the other stuff”) and steamed local new potatoes. It was the perfect meal for a summers day so I said I better share it

Ingredients

A good piece of fresh hake

A punnet of cherry tomatoes, quartered

100g Chorizo, diced

1 Large onion, sliced

2 Lemons,

White wine

Fresh rosemary

Fresh Oregano

Olive oil

Salt & Black Pepper

Garlic salt

New Potatoes

2 Pints of Cider

A clean piece of Cedar plank

Directions:

1: Soak the Cedar plank in the cider for at least 3 hours.

2: Light the BBQ and let it heat up.

3: Scrub the new potatoes and steam for approx 45 minutes or until they are cooked through.

4: Meanwhile, place the hake on the soaked plank, rub the hake with olive oil, season with the salt, pepper and garlic salt.    Cut 4 slices of lemon, place on top of the hake and squeeze the remainder of the lemon juice over the hake, top with the rosemary and oregano and set aside.

5: To a foil container add the diced chorizo, sliced onion and quartered cherry tomatoes, squeeze over some lemon juice and pour a good glug of white wine over every thing and mix. Sprinkle with chopped oregano, cover and seal.

6: Place the plank with the hake and the foil container on the BBQ, cover and leave to cook for approx 25 minutes or until the hake is cooked through.

7: To serve portion out the hake, top with the chorizo, onion and tomatoes, some fresh rocket (if you have it) and a piping hot new potato with loads of butter….

Nom!!

Earlier this week I was in a restaurant in Manchester and the person at the table beside me ordered Mac and Cheese and ever since seeing it arrive at her table I have been craving it. I woke this morning took one look out the window at the rain and misery and thought “Mac and Cheese day” so here it is. I’ll be honest I’m a bit to lazy to go to the effort of writing up the recipe this evening but if anyone wants it let me know in the comments and I’ll add it to the post in a day or so…..

And we did, I put my head in my hands and then buried my face in the sofa as Dave O’Leary placed the ball on the spot and George Hamilton spoke those famous words. I can only assume that if you are a football commentator that you long for that moment that you will forever be remembered, the “They think its all over” moment and for George Hamilton it came on summers day in 1990, five words that will forever be ingrained in Irish football history “The nation holds its breath”, little did George know that once we exhaled again it would change the country forever.

In a few days time Ireland take on Croatia in their opening match in Euro 2012 and I’ve got Euro fever, over the past few days I’ve been reliving past glories, watching Youtube clips and reading peoples stories from those great moments that we all remember. Watching the old clips brought back great memories, including some that I had completely forgotten about so I thought it might be fun to write down my memories from each tournament and what they meant to me.

I don’t normally ask this but if you enjoy what you read in this and it brings back memories for you please tell me them in the comments box, I would love to hear other peoples stories and share it on Facebook and Twitter so we can get as many stories as possible…

Here we go, here we go, here we go……..

Euro 88…. “What happened next is history, brought tears to many eyes”

This will be a short one for me, when Ireland travelled to West Germany in 1988 I was eight years old and hadn’t really caught on to the whole football thing yet. I think the most important things in my life at that stage were Matchbox cars and Lego, add to that the fact that I was also a small skinny asthmatic, who broke into a wheez at the thought of running its safe to say football wasn’t first on my list of hobbies. But I came from a home where both my mother and father were football fans so luckily for me I was going to see the matches(whether I wanted to or not). In Euro 88 Ireland were drawn in Group B along with the Netherlands, the Soviet Union and the old enemy England. This will probably shock a lot of people seeing as this is a story about the great days in Irish football, but I don’t really remember a lot about the day Ray Houghton stuck it in the net, I remember the excitement, the buzz at what had happened but at 8 years of age I just don’t think I understood the significance of what had happened. Despite this obvious lack of any real memory of the day it’s still a hugely important day in my life as an Irish supporter. I think its like the Christy Cantillon effect for Munster rugby fans born after 1978, you’ve heard the story so many times and each time with a greater passion than the last that you may as well have been there. But if I am to be completely and totally honest, I don’t really remember the day we beat England.

However the next game I do remember for two reasons, the game was played in a stadium with the longest name I’d ever seen ‘the Niedersachsenstadion stadium’  and the amazing overhead kick from Ronnie Whelan. Again my memory of the overall game is sketchy but how could anyone forget that goal? It was the kind of goal you dream of replicating on the playground with your friends(if you weren’t a wheezing wreck), I wonder how many mothers had to deal with crying children that summer who had broken their arse trying to be Ronnie Whelan. It was a thing of beauty though, Mick McCarthy put in a monster of a long throw which travelled through the air like it had been shot from a cannon, it fell to Whelan on the edge of the box where he acrobatically connected with it, sending it flying into the back of the Soviet net! The sitting room erupted, it was probably the greatest goal I’d seen in my short semi-football supporting life. To this day I’d still love to score it on the playground across from my parents house. We went on to draw that game 1-1 with the Soviet Union, but no one spoke about the result, just that goal, that glorious piece of genius.
Strangely I have no memory at all of Ireland’s last group game against the Netherlands, I say strangely because I can only assume there would have been huge hype surrounding the game. A win for Ireland and we would have been in the semi final, but alas it wasn’t to be, the Netherlands won 1-0 and Ireland went home. Maybe it was the result but I have somehow managed to wipe this game from my memory completely.
Euro 88, while it was huge for Irish football seemed to pass me by with the exception of Ronnie Whelan’s bicycle kick and I have probably learned most of  what happened that summer in 1988 from Christy Moore and Joxer, but it was just the start of things to come …

Italia 90… “Put Em’ Under Pressure”

This was to be the one where it all changed, a defining time in Irish history. I remember going to Dublin with my mother in the weeks building up to the World Cup, we were walking down Moore Street and there was a stall selling Ireland merchandise(one of many) and hanging from the top of the stall was this jersey, one half of it was a green Ireland shirt and the other half was a blue Italian shirt, I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever and I can still see it as clear as day. I don’t know why I never got that shirt, in the end I got a white t-shirt from Penneys with a cartoon of Jack Charlton and the team on it, which if I still had it now I would be trying my best to squeeze into it.
I think most people will admit that it was Italia 90 where they got hooked on Irish football, we were a country on its knees, we needed something to give us hope and the Irish team were about to give us that hope. The build up to the tournament seemed to go on forever, the buzz was building from very early on especially once they released Put Em’ Under Pressure(still our greatest football song) which you heard on a daily basis, there was a World Cup trinket free in the paper nearly everyday, who remembers the dancing Italia 90 mascot? I was ten now and into football so I was set, I knew what was happening this time around. But I don’t think anyone was really set for what was about to happen in Italy that summer.
Ireland were drawn in Group F and again faced England and the Netherlands along with Egypt. For the second tournament in a row we faced England in our opening game and this time I would remember it. We sat as a family in the sitting room as the game began, I knew that England were favourites to win because the team was filled with all the faces that I had gotten in my packets of Paninni stickers, including the man on what seemed to be the most printed sticker of all Gary Lineker, you couldn’t swap a Lineker sticker for love nor money, everyone had about six. It was to be Lineker who would strike first, cheekily chesting the ball passed Bonner and into the net, surely that can’t be allowed?? it’s “foot” ball after all(okay so I hadn’t caught on to all the rules). For a long time it looked like England were going to exact their revenge for Euro 88 until up stepped Kevin Sheedy, BANG!! 1-1 my dad gave a loud roar, so I copied him and shouted too, we were back. The game finished 1-1 and we were in a good place in the group.
The next game against Egypt is famous for two things, it was possibly the most boring game ever played in a world cup finals and some grumpy looking auld lad with curley hair firing his pen across the desk on the tv. I can remember lying on the floor of the sitting room to watch this game, as I lay there on our mad eighties orange carpet I could hear my dad and our neighbour Danny talking up Ireland and how we had a great chance so I was all ready for a good game, but what followed could have put you off football for life, although I can’t be totally sure as to how bad the second half was because I fell asleep. I woke up at fulltime just in time to see Eamon Dunphy throw his pen across the RTE desk, claiming he was ashamed of the Irish performance. I think this was the first time I’d ever really noticed Dunphy and it wasn’t the last time he would cause a stir on tv when it comes to Irish football.

I remember our final group game against the Netherlands because of a saying I’d never heard before, a gentlemen’s agreement. I had no idea what it meant but all I knew is that because of this we got to play another game. Ireland had gone behind to an early goal from Ruud Gullit before equalising through Niall Quinn in the second half, news then filtered through that England were winning and if everything stayed the same all three teams would go through. I think it was after about ten minutes of watching the two teams pass it around at the back that I heard my dad say “They’ve come to an agreement”, what agreement? I thought, what’s he on about? Ten more minutes of keep ball passed and the ref blew the whistle, we had made it into the last 16, instinctively everyone poured out of their houses onto the street, you could hear car horns beeping in all directions, neighbours hugged and shook hands like they were welcoming a newborn to the family, the outpouring of joy was huge and we still had another game to come.
The game against Romania started a bit differently for me, I had become accustomed to watching Ireland games with my dad it was the done thing, but on this day for whatever reason(biggest game we’d ever played probably) he decided to watch the game in the John Mitchells Clubhouse with his workmates. I remember being disappointed that I wouldn’t be sharing the day with him and I think this added to my tension before the game. So with my dad down the pub, it was just me and my mother in the sitting room that day(my sister was in England on holiday) but that was okay, see while most ten year olds might think it was uncool to watch a game with their mother it was different with mine. On the outside my mother is a very quiet and unassuming person, a lady, but beneath the quietness hides a great sports fan and she is one of the only women I know who understands football. My mother knows the offside rule and I am hugely proud of that, so I can think of no one better to have watched the greatest day in Irish football with. The game itself was a tense and tight affair that finished 0-0 after normal time and extra time. So we faced into the dreaded penalties, spot kicks stood between us and a place in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. It was honours even when the Romanian Timofte placed the ball on the spot, my mother and me were sitting on the edges of our seats at this stage, I’d never felt emotion like this and I’m not sure I really understood what I was feeling. Timofte ran up and struck the ball, we held our breaths as Packie Bonner dived low to his right and with his giant shovel hands stopped the ball, YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! He’d saved it, we jumped around the room, with a flick of his wrist Packie Bonner had created one of the most iconic moments in the history of the country. For as long as people could remember every house in Ireland had two pictures in it, a picture of the Pope and picture of John F. Kennedy, but now they would have to make room for another great man’s picture(you can’t help but think if Packie had been beside JFK all along he might have blocked that shot too). I think the poster of Packies save that came free with the Kerrys Eye Newspaper must have been on our fridge for at least two years after that…

But it wasn’t over yet, we still had one more penalty to take, score this and we were through. At this stage I think my ten year old body had taken all it could take, I threw myself down onto the sofa and as George Hamilton uttered those immortal words “The nation holds its breath”, I put my head in my hands, turned over and buried my face in the cushions and everything fell silent for what seemed like an eternity. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hopped up just as all the players were running toward David O’Leary, I think the whole country lifted about 10 feet when that penalty hit the back of the net, across Ireland people ran out onto the streets. I ran outside to where all my friends were, “did you see it?” you could hear people shout as they openly wept while hugging each other. I can remember hearing cars passing beeping the horn while people hung out the windows singing “One Packie Bonner, there’s only One Packie Bonner”. We played penalty shootout in the field until our mothers dragged us in that night. The way people celebrated was unbelievable, Con Houlihan famously said “I missed Italia 90, I was in Italy at the time” and he was right, I don’t think anything will ever come close to what happen in Ireland that day, as I write this now I am sitting here with tears rolling down my face remembering it. Little did they know it but on that day in Genoa Packie Bonner and Dave O’Leary changed this country forever and for me the Irish team got into my veins and his been there ever since.

With everything that happened in the Romania game you could almost be forgiven for forgetting we were the quarter final of the World Cup after that, we had drawn the hosts Italy in the quarter final and after the previous heroics the game just seem to fade away from us. I don’t have many memories of this game except for the moment that Bonner parried the ball into the path of Toto Schillcahi and he scored the only goal of the game, the dream and the adventure we’re over. This was the tournament when we really took Irish Football to our hearts, the team came home to a huge reception, I remember watching it on tv and thinking ‘imagine what it would be like if we’d won’. It was the greatest journey I’d ever been on and I’d never left the sitting room.

USA 94… “New York belongs to the Irish”

With everything that had happened in Italia 90, by the time USA 94 came around the country was buzzing. I was fourteen now and completely hooked on football, all we would talk about at school was football so I was really ready to soak this tournament up. I also had another reason to be excited about the build up to USA 94, a friend of ours Peter was going to the USA and even though I wasn’t going, just knowing someone who was made it all the more real. The qualifying campaign for USA 94 saw a change to the team with a number of young players breaking into the squad including the three amigos, Gary Kelly, Jason McAteer and Phil Babb, three messers and the new heart of the team. I think at the time, every boy of my age thought they were the coolest people ever, whenever you saw them on tv they were laughing and joking, they had it all and I loved it.
Ireland were drawn in Group E in USA 94 against Italy, Mexico and Norway. In our opening game we would face Italy, the team who had ended the dream four years earlier. This game saw a huge step up for me, I had been promoted from the sitting room and was going to the pub with my dad to watch the game. We put on our shirts and headed for Lar Hickeys pub in Knocknagoshel to watch the game with Lar and Joe Long, I was extremely excited by the prospect of this, for I was big now. We got to Lars about two hours before kick off(my dad is early for everything), slowly people started to mill in and the buzz began to build, I remember hearing one guy saying “It’s all Italians, there’s no Irish in the stadium” this brought a sense of worry to the pub, but then the coverage started and it showed a sea of green in the Giants Stadium, we were out in force. I grabbed my Club Orange and we sat on the bench opposite the tv, I really do remember thinking to myself that I had arrived, there I was with my dad and his mates watching the game in a proper pub, a pub where you had to cross the yard to go to the gents. The game drew closer and the teams stood for the anthems, we all stood too as slowly the camera panned from player to player before eventually revealing Steve Staunton, poor Steve would become one of the lasting memories of that year, with each game he looked more and more like a waxwork dummy that had been left outside in the sun. To this day I still refer to factor 50 sunscreen as ‘Factor Steve Staunton. The game had only started when Ray Houghton collected the ball and with his left foot lifted it over the Italian keeper and into the net, YESSS!!!!!!!!! the pub nearly exploded, we jumped up off our seats, my dad turned around caught me in his arms and squeezed me until I nearly burst. The Irish were back and we weren’t here to make up the numbers. If you ask most people about that day against Italy they will talk about Houghtons goal and Paul McGraths colossal performance at the back, he single handedly kept the Italians at bay for the entire game. For me though my other real memory is John Sherridans performance, I can still see his strike hitting the crossbar in the second half, I came away from the game that day talking about how good Sherridan played and how he spread the ball(I had got the hang of the football talk by now). We won the game 1-0 and it was like Italia 90 had never gone away, on the way home after the game my dad took us for a drive around Tralee and the place was hopping, filled with supporters celebrating what had just happened and me as proud as punch in the car after seeing then beat Italy in a pub.

Next up was Mexico, what’s the one thing a fourteen year old boy can’t do at home but does all the time with his mates?? Curse!! When John Aldridge blew his top on the sideline it was like a dream come true, here he was on the tv in my sitting room screaming “F**k off you, you twat, you d**khead, f**k off” and there was nothing my parents could do. I don’t know why, but I knew, I just knew that when he got onto the pitch he would score and he did, almost instantly and what we didn’t know then was that would be a very important goal. The game finished 2-1 to Mexico but it was all about Aldo, you love a bit of temper when its on your side. The other big news that day was that the council lined the road at the end of our estate, nothing to do with the game but equally as important in Ballinorig Close, it does pose the question, who the hell did they get to work on a day when Ireland were playing?? Poor feckers…

We closed out the group stages with a 0-0 draw against Norway and as much as I’ve tried I can’t remember anything of significance from this game, the most important thing is that because of Aldo’s temper fuelled goal against Mexico we had gone through to the knockout stages again.
We drew the Netherlands(again) in the last 16, it was beginning to look like we could only play the same teams in major tournaments. We got all set for the game in my house, all sitting in the room with thoughts of Romania running around our heads, would we do it again? It wasn’t to be this time, we went out 2-0 to a better Dutch side and it the blink of an eye it was over. The team returned to another huge welcome, thousands of fans gathered on the streets to welcome them, I watched the home coming on the tv and it was just as big as the last time, they could do no wrong in our eyes. I remember reading some time later that the team had to be convinced to go to the home coming, that they didn’t believe they deserved it, but we loved them and we wanted them to know. This world cup lasted a bit longer for me as I waited for Peter to come home and tell us all the stories, he didn’t let me down he came back with stories, photos and a programme from the games!! A world cup programme, jealous much?!

Japan and South Korea 2002… “Take me back, take me back, what do you mean take me back?”

World cup 2002 had it all, but there is only one place we can start this one. Saipan will forever be etched in the history of Irish football, I missed most of the action as it happened in Saipan because I was in Cardiff watching Munster in the Heineken Cup Final. We were coming back on the bus from Cardiff when the news broke that Roy was coming home, WTF? who had agreed to let or greatest player go home? The bus was all talk about what was going on, with a straight split down the middle. By the time I got home, Roy was back home and had started the process of walking the four legs off poor Triggs. We all knew there was no going back for Roy at that point, the UN couldn’t solve this one so we just had to get on with it.
We were drawn in Group E against Germany, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia and with every thing that had gone on, the games kind of crept up on me. We faced Cameroon in our opening match, I picked up Peter and we headed into Maurice Fitz’s to watch the game. It was 7am in the morning, the pub was packed and Peter ordered a Guinness for himself(liquid black pudding). Cameroon went one up and I felt nervous, but the game will be remembered for Matt Hollands great equalising goal, a daisy cutter from just outside the box. The game finished 1-1 and Roy was forgotten(well a little bit).

The next game was against Germany, this was a midweek game, I remember panicking at the time because it was on during work. How the hell I am supposed to concentrate when the game is on? How would I cope? Luckily I had a very understanding boss who came in and told us all to pack up and go watch the game, he hadn’t even finished his sentence and we were gone. The Greyhound bar was our home for that day, I set up base on a stool right in front of the big screen, the pub was packed and we knew this was going to be our toughest game, the Germans never make it easy. They took the lead through Klose after twenty minutes, halftime came and I tried to force a few free cocktail sausages into my mouth but I was too worried about the game to eat, the game kicked off again and it looked like the one goal was going to be enough for the Germans, but up stepped Robbie Keane, a knock down from Quinn and Keane ran onto it and smashed it passed Kahn, we went wild! We had a chance, beat the Saudi’s by two goals and we were through.

I watched the Saudi Arabia game in Spillanes with Peter and his son, before the game we laughed at Peters stories from USA 94 again, you could see he wished he was in South Korea.  There was a nervousness in the pub that day, we knew we needed to win by two clear goals but we weren’t a high scoring team. The game kicked off and Keane quickly settled our nerves, making it 1-0 early on, we had to wait until the second half for the all important second the enigma that was Gary Breen making it 2-0, it was party time. The songs began to flow, “We all dream of a team of Gary Breens, a team of Gary Breens, a team of Gary Breens”. We looked comfortable and we were already talking about the knock outs when Duff made it 3-0 and bowed his head in respect to the fans. Three goals without reply, we’d done it again. What happened next is a moment I will take to my grave, while we were all laughing and joking and looking forward to the next game Peter was sitting quietly thinking, when all of a sudden he slammed his pint glass on the bar counter, stood up and said “I’m going, I have to go, I need to be there” we all looked at him like he had three heads. He stood up, walked out and got into his car and two days later he was in South Korea and all set for the Spain game. I’d never seen anyone make such a huge decision on a whim and follow it through, just once in my life I hope to do something like that.
In the last 16 we faced an in-form Spanish side, this was another early morning game and I headed for Maurice Fitzs once again. I was extremely nervous, I remember sitting at the bar and feeling myself shaking before the game ever kicked off.The bar was packed, with more breakfast Guinness’ on the menu. The game kicked off and we were slow to settle, Morientes gave Spain a 1-0 lead and it looked like they were going to run away with it, but we settled and we began to attack. We had the beating of them on the wings, more and more we got into it, Duff was tearing them to ribbons. At one point Duff had the ball and I screamed at the screen “For the love of f**k Duff, run it into the box they’ll take you down!”(I was getting a little agitated) about two minutes later he did just that and we won a penalty. Ian Harte stood up to take the penalty and the pub groaned, it hadn’t been a good tournament for Harte and he didn’t look confident, I said to the guy beside me “he shouldn’t be taking it, no, no, no” and we were right, the penalty was saved. But we kept going, there is a very good chance this could have been Ireland’s greatest ever performance on the world stage, we kept attacking and in the 90th minute we won another penalty, this time Keane stepped up and slotted it home, the drinks flew into the air. The game went to penalties and Ireland lost out, we hadn’t prepared for a penalty shoot out and it showed. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as drained as I did after that game, we were out and we didn’t deserve to be. For long periods of the game we had played Spain off the park but it just wasn’t to be. To this day I firmly believe it was our tournament to win and I really mean that, if only……..

Poland and Ukraine 2012… “The rocky road to Poland”

If its anything like what has gone before it, then bring it on! With the country on its knees as it is, this couldn’t come at a better time for us and one thing we can be sure of is that the boy’s in green won’t let us down…

Come on you boys in green!!