Bohs is more than just a novel idea for Welsh

Famed author loves the passion of football away from bright lights

Dalymount Park’s existence as a football stadium is about to come to a temporary end with a rebuild of the venue that’s been open since 1901. But the old place continues to be a magnet for celebrity.

Figures from the music world, like Dublin acts Fontaines DC, Whipping Boy, Thin Lizzy and CMAT have attached themselves to Dalymount’s tenants, Bohemians. Some have even stitched their names on to a shirt, which critically-acclaimed acts like CMAT and Lankum have also worn in public.

But the club got on board a celeb fan of another level recently when movie director Jim Jarmusch appeared on stage at an industry talk in Dublin, wearing a Bohs scarf.

Before it was popular and profitable, author Irvine Welsh was a Dalymount regular and a committed Bohs fan, an early recruit as a celebrity fan.

“I don’t think I would be in the top 100 of cool Bohs fans now, we have so many,” he laughs when told about the link between the Gypsies and the Night On Earth director. “I love Fontaines DC, they are one of my favourite bands and it’s great to see them on the Bohs jerseys. It’s brilliant to see all that.”

Hometown club Hibernian FC were — and are — the first love for the Scottish-born author and he also has an affection for West Ham and Ajax. But during a spell living in Dublin (2003-2009), he was a Bohs man, more at home in the Long Bar in Dalymount on a Friday night than the celeb-filled fleshpots of a Celtic Tiger-era Dublin.

“I have had some fabulous sessions in Dalymount,” says the Trainspotting author. “You get there on a Friday night, have a couple of Guinness before the game, then five minutes before half-time, you nip down to the bar to get a pint in, sometimes you get stuck at the bar and don’t get back to your seat until 20 minutes to go, and at full-time you’re back at the bar. It’s very relaxed, very organic, very natural, just a great experience and a good way to enjoy football.”

When he first moved to Dublin, Bohs and St Patrick’s Athletic competed for his affections as he had friends in both camps.

“I’d go to Bohs one week and St Pat’s the next. But I just liked the vibe in Phibsborough, the Dalymount ground. I lived in Rathmines, but one of the reasons I was attracted to Bohemians

was the location, I didn’t like the thought of going out to Tallaght to see Rovers. I liked the idea of Bohs being rooted in that part of Dublin. I just loved that bit of the northside in Dublin, near enough to the city that you can walk there.

“I loved the fact that it was right in the city, on the northside with some cool pubs close by. I loved the Jodi Stand, there was always a great vibe there, it was always just a great Friday night in Dalymount. I got into them then and followed their fortunes and still do. When I am in Dublin and it’s in season, I get along on a Friday night.”

Welsh will be in Dublin this week but won’t get to see Bohs play at home to Drogheda United as there’s a clash with his main reason for being in the capital, an event in the city’s Liberty Hall (A Night Out With Irvine Welsh). “The clash, it’s the worst planning ever, we will see who turns up,” he jokes.

An outsider in the city, he felt at home at Bohs. “It was crazy to me that so many people in Dublin followed Liverpool and Man United, but it’d be great if people just supported their local teams as the atmosphere is always great at games. And they seem to be getting better crowds now, which is great to see.

“It wasn’t as popular then as it is now, but Bohemians were working in the community then, I know they have tried to broaden their appeal and consciously model themselves as a cool, hip, almost anti-establishment club. And it’s appealing to me when a club has an identity like that. They went down the St Pauli route and it’s great to see, Hibs are on the fringe of that, not to the same level as Bohs.”

Bohs have not won a major trophy since Welsh quit his Dublin base in 2009, but it’s the sporadic nature of success in Ireland, in contrast to the scene in his native Scotland, which still intrigues him.

“It’s a competitive league, you never know who is going to win the League of Ireland as the power base changes all the time. In Scotland, only two teams can win anything because of the finance and you don’t have that in Ireland.

“At the start of every season, I look at the League of Ireland and I have no idea how Bohemians are going to do. They could be top three or be in the relegation zone, and that makes it exciting.”

Scotland’s football industry has a habit of looking down its nose on the League of Ireland, from a bizarre attempt to relocate Clydebank to Dublin in the mid-1990s and last year a suggestion — widely derided and rightly so — by Packie Bonner that Celtic should “buy” Shamrock Rovers because “we should have a club over there” — this from a board member of the FAI.

That angers Welsh, who insists

Rovers — and the League of Ireland — should stand for themselves and not bow before monied outsiders.

“In Scotland, you have that sense of entitlement and to say to Shamrock Rovers ‘you can be our B team, in Ireland’ is nonsense. Why be part of someone else’s set-up when you have your own thing? You should be proud of your community and where you are from, why would you be a second-rate Weegie [term for Glaswegian] when you can be a first-rate Dubliner?”

It was crazy that so many people in Dublin followed Liverpool and Man United.

Two Dubliners have played a key role for Welsh’s club Hibs of late, Pat Fenlon in his time as manager and Anthony Stokes on the field.

“I’ve never met him [Stokes], but he’s like a god to me. For the cup final alone in 2016, he was unplayable that day and I will always love him,” Welsh says.

“Pat Fenlon did take us to two cup finals in a row. And we have had some terrible managers at Hibs before and after. Hibs supporters have mad expectations. They expect champagne football on Buckfast wages. Winning at Hibs isn’t good enough, we have to win in style, so we are not the most realistic bunch of people.”

Bohs and Hibs don’t win much, but to Welsh that’s not the point. “There’s so much passion in the lower leagues in England,” he says.

“Last season, I went to see Maidenhead against Torquay, it felt like a proper experience. I was at Newcastle-West Ham the other week, but these stadiums now are like footballing theme parks, it’s something that’s been lost. Bohs and Hibs still have something special and that cannot be lost.”

A Night Out with Irvine Welsh is at Dublin’s Liberty Hall on Friday, April 19. Tickets from Ticketmaster.