GREEN WAVE SWEEPS THROUGH SURFERS IN SUPPORT OF HERO
FORGET Christmas in July – this was St Paddy’s Day in August and all thanks to a bloke called Conor with a left hook almost as big as his ego.
“It’s the best,” declared Darren Gold as he cast his Irish eyes over the sea of green that had invaded Surfers Paradise’s Fiddlers Green.
The merry throng was gathered to watch countryman and UFC champion Conor McGregor step in the ring with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather for a sporting event that was more event than sport.
“No matter who’s representing us at an international level, we always get behind them.”
For proof of that, all you had to do yesterday was stick your nose in any of the Irish pubs scattered across the city.
Waxy’s, O’Malley’s, D’Arcy Arms, Kitty O’Shea’s, Fiddlers Green – all of them a temporary home to a people who love only one thing more than a pint of Guinness and that’s a keg of Guinness.
“This is just like being back home,” Dublin-born Josh Molloy said of the craic unfolding inside Fiddlers Green, which says something about the role of a good local as a gathering place for the Irish given he’s only 16.
Josh and his mates were at the pub with his parents and definitely on the waters. Having migrated to the Coast as a 10-year-old, the Helensvale State High student also knew the right answer when asked to compare McGregor to an Aussie sporting hero.
“There’s no one,” Josh said. “He’s one of a kind.”
McGregor also rose from the most humble of beginnings, surviving a childhood on the tough streets of Dublin suburb Crumlin and his early adulthood on the dole as he chased his sporting dream.
“I’m actually from just up the road from Crumlin,” said Darren, who travelled to Australia as a backpacker more than five years ago and never went home.
“I can walk from my (childhood) house to Conor’s in about 10 minutes, although he’s moved on now. I’d say he’s in big houses with fences now.”
McGregor may well be in the market for a new fence given he was reportedly paid $100 million for yesterday’s fight.
Then there’s Mayweather, who apparently earned $300 million for playing the role of the villain in what even fans of the fight game concede was a pantomime.
“It’s a farce,” said Connor Birrell, one of the few at Fiddlers Green cheering for the American and even then only for the sake of boxing.
“I couldn’t stand Floyd Mayweather before this fight ... but it’s like MMA (mixed martial arts) is trying to take over boxing by force.”
Needless to say, Connor was cheering loudly when Mayweather stopped his namesake in the 10th round.
Not that his bar mates were crying into their pints though.
Sure, their boy had been beaten but there was a bigger picture to consider – they were in an Irish pub filled with their countrymen.
Yep, St Paddy’s Day was here again.