The Irish pub wild about Harry and Three Lions
THE west was awake to a new battle cry in Connemara last night as residents of a staunchly nationalist village backed a “Brits IN” call — hoping that England wouldn’t be knocked out of the World Cup.
The people of Letterfrack ( population 250) have been spurning their old loyalties of late to roar on the Three Lions and last night they were at it again as England lost to Croatia in the World Cup semi-final after extra-time.
The villagers’ conversion to the English cause hasn’t been born out of love for their traditional enemy, but rather it’s down to the fact that they’re wild about Harry — Harry Kane, the England skipper, who has Conne- mara blood in him.
And tipplers in one pub in Letterfrack are Harry’s biggest fans because they’ve had free drink every time their old boy has been able to find the net in Russia.
The deadly marks man’s goalscoring exploits have already cost the owner of Molly’s Bar a small fortune as she’s rolled out the barrels for fans of Letterfrack’s most illustrious sporting son, who once let Martin O’Neill know that he would be interested in playing for the Republic before England beat them to the punch.
Molly’s rather aptly named boss, Sally Lyons, whose pub has a giant tricolour flying outside, hasn’t minded at all about the hefty bill for her generosity.
“Harry is one of our own,” said Sally.
“His grandad Michael John
was from Letterfrack. He went to live in London in the 50s.
Harry still has relatives here and we are all proud of the connection.”
She and husband Gerry have given away seven rounds of free booze since the World Cup kicked off last month — one for every Kane goal and shootout penalty.
“To be honest, we didn’t think England would have stayed so long in the World Cup. We could be out of business by the weekend,” laughed the Lyons’ son Damien.
Just five minutes into the game the customers had been celebrating as England took the lead but Sally didn’t have to hand out the freebies because while it was a Spurs man who scored, it wasn’t Harry Kane, it was Kieran Trippier.
Not long after wards when Harry met Sally’s expectations by firing home a loose ball it looked like the on- the- house pints would flow but Kane was ruled offside.
Midway through the second half it emerged that not everyone in the bar was on England’s side.
A Croatian equaliser from Perisic was greeted by an unexpected cheer from what had previously been a silent minority in Molly’s.
Harry Kane’s cousin James was a bag of nerves.
“England have let Croatia back into the game,” he said.
“I just hope Harry can turn things around me again.”
But i n extra time Croatia grabbed a winner that ensured that it was England who were going home, not football.
And most of the people of Letterfrack went home disappointed too.
In Letterfrack last night, a photo of a stern-faced Michael Collins looked down from the wall at the unfolding of the sort of Anglo Irish treaty that he could never have envisaged.
Treason was maybe too strong a word for what played out in possibly the only bar in the Republic to cheer on Gareth Southgate’s men, but it still felt like a mutiny against the norms, a Kane mutiny perhaps.
In Molly’s, GAA usually rules the roost.
The county’s shirts are all over the place beside English Premier League football tops, including a Tottenham Hotspur number 10 jersey donated by Kane, who is no stranger to Letterfrack in real life as well as on the telly.
His last visit, however, was a sad one five years ago when he travelled over to bury his grandfather in a local graveyard.