Irlande douze Pints
French marvel at the drinking capacity of the Irish fans, the scale of the inf lux and the simplicity of their rounds!
AN army of green descended on Paris this weekend – by planes, trains and automobiles from Ireland and across the continent – as a chain of Irish pubs reported record takings thanks to Ireland’s exploits at the World Cup.
And many fans arrived ticketless but were just happy to ‘soak up the atmosphere’ and be part of the occasion in the French capital.
Susie Murphy, a Dubliner who has lived in Paris for 30 years, said you ‘can feel it everywhere’ when Ireland are playing.
‘You don’t see that kind of presence with the other teams – except the French of course,’ she told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
The architect-turned-tour operator said she has spoken to or overheard ‘quite a lot’ of London-based Irish people who made the train jaunt over this weekend and for the South Africa clash two weeks ago.
‘They’re coming over on the Eurostar, sometimes with English friends, even if it’s just to watch it in the pub,’ she said.
‘They won’t have tickets for the match but they’ll come over to soak up the atmosphere. They have screens everywhere so you can watch it in a really nice café sitting on a terrace around Les Halles or somewhere.’
Sinéad Cahill, whose partner is co-owner of McBrides and five Corcoran’s Irish pubs in
Paris, said this weekend will ‘definitely’ be even bigger than the South Africa game – which she reckoned was the highestearning day ever for some of the venues.
She said non-Irish members of their staff have been ‘flabbergasted’ by the drinking habits of the Irish during the tournament.
‘Everyone’s asking me “How do the Irish drink like this all the time?”’ she laughed.
‘I said, “They don’t drink like this all the time – they’re in Paris for a rugby weekend. This is differentlevel stuff.” But then the pubs are packed again on Sunday after the game and they’re asking, ‘“Do these people ever work? What are they doing?”’
But the staff – who are drawn from a ‘mix of nationalities’ – appreciate the bonhomie of the Irish fans and praised them as ‘easy’ customers, Ms Cahill said.
‘They were just flabbergasted by the sheer amount of orders and for all the same thing – big, big orders but very simple orders, like 10 pints of Guinness, 10 pints of lager. They’re used to dealing with the French who don’t have a bar culture and the orders are always a bit more complicated and long-winded: “I’ll have a vodka… maybe one of those… a half of this…”’ she said.
The addition of our Celtic cousins from Scotland to the mix this weekend has proven too much for some of the staff, Ms Cahill said.
‘I had a colleague sending me photos saying there’s green jerseys coming in and a few kilts. But he was saying, “Oh my God, I thought I spoke English and I can’t understand a word they’re saying,”’ she laughed.
Aisling O’Connor, who has been to all of Ireland’s matches having secured tickets two years ago, said the atmosphere at games has been ‘much better’ than at home.
‘There’s always an element of a corporate crowd going to the Aviva,’ she told the MoS.
‘The IRFU have an awful lot of corporate sponsors, and they need to be appreciated because they’re paying for expensive corporate tickets, so they’re supporting the team,’ she said. ‘But I think when you have that element of the crowd, no matter what percentage it is, it sacrifices the atmosphere.’ Ms O’Connor, from Ratoath, Co. Meath, said the Stade de France was ‘packed’ half an hour before the South Africa game two weeks ago, with the Fields Of Athenry ‘going 20 minutes before kickoff’.
‘How do the Irish drink like this all the time?’
‘You’d never see that at the Aviva,’ Ms O’Connor said.
She and other fans have been ‘doing planes, trains and automobiles to get to matches’ – in her case catching a train to Amsterdam to get a flight home after a previous game.
Ms O’Connor, who has had ‘a few stints’ as president of the Official Leinster Supporters Club, has become an unofficial Rugby World Cup guide on social media for the travelling Irish supporters. She has frequently posted helpful information about match days, with some posts racking up tens of thousands of views and more than 100,000 views in a few cases.
Early tournament games have been dogged by poor fan experiences, from being stuck in boiling-hot trams to tickets not working.
‘We’ve all spent a lump of money to be here,’ Ms O’Connor said. ‘We want to go and enjoy it, so I said I’d put through any information I got and people are very appreciative.’