Tubs fury at book’s slur on Ireland’s hooligan fans
RYAN TUBRIDY has criticised author Dan Brown for portraying Irish fans as hooligans in his new book. The Origin includes a scene where two Irish soccer fans enter a pub and begin to act like “thugs” – which angered Tubridy, who spoke about it on his RTE Radio 1 show yesterday. He said: “This soldier goes into a bar and he orders a tonic water. The door opens and these two hooligans, who are then called ‘thugs’, come in with their Irish soccer jerseys and they are drunk and order pints and start slagging your man for his uniform, slagging him for his medals, poking him and starting a row and looking at the women behind the bar. “I found myself getting quite angry because this book is being sold by the bucket load around the country and around the world, more importantly. “Of all the people for him to pick on, the Irish soccer fan, the most admired and appreciated of all the fans around the world. “If you want a yob or a hooligan you can go to England, you could probably go to Turkey, Germany. You could go where you want but don’t go to Ireland, Dan. And don’t pick our guys for going to the pub.” The Late Late Show host recognised the book is fiction but questions why Brown chose Irish fans to be the football hooligans in his book. Tubridy added: “I don’t know Dan Brown, I have never met him or interviewed him but I would like to ask Dan Brown why, of all the fans did he alight on our guys? “It’s irritating, it’s annoying, it’s unacceptable. I may be going over the top here, but at the same time he has really misrepresented Ireland, the Irish soccer team and particularly Irish fans. “Hopefully people see it for the fiction that it is. Will I finish the book? Yes, I’m not going to take that much offence over it. “But I would have enough offence to say that whoever is looking after Dan Brown’s interest in Ireland, I would love them to get in touch with Dan Brown and ask, ‘What do you say to this?’.”