My team Shelbourne and our wonderful, recently-saved Tolka Park home are part of a flourishing terrace scene. The matchday experience has attracted converts from Scotland and beyond.
It’s worth remembering, in these turbulent and increasingly toxic times, that the story of Ireland is one of emigration and diaspora.
For centuries, Irish people have left their homeland in search of work and a better life, settling in every corner of the globe. It seems every Irish person has a family member abroad or a personal diasporic tale. Indeed, my own grandparents set sail from Ireland to Canada in the early 1950s, before returning – via a brief stint on Kenilworth Road, Luton – in the 1960s.
At its core, Irish identity is intrinsically linked to the migration experience.
While this a familiar story, this migratory trend has traditionally been mirrored by the flow of Irish football fans from here to other countries. With Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow merely an hour away, four of the biggest football clubs in the world are practically on Dublin’s doorstep – Liverpool, Manchester United, Celtic and, of course, the Shelbourne.
With three of those in the UK, it is no surprise that Dublin Airport has tended to be a very busy place on a Saturday morning. British football is big here. It always has been – and probably always will be.
And yet, in recent years, we’ve seen a small but notable reversal of this trend: UK football fans regularly travelling to Ireland to get their football fix.
Tolka Park, home of League of Ireland champions Shelbourne, has become something of a mecca for UK-based fans and groundhoppers who relish the matchday experience here in Ireland.
Reds supporters now travel from as far afield as London, Manchester, Hull and Nuneaton. Most intriguingly of all, there are now a couple of small corners of Scotland that will be forever Shelbourne.
For the past seven or eight years, a growing army of Scots – particularly from Glasgow and Falkirk – have adopted Shelbourne as their own and travel regularly for our fixtures.
Their Saltire – emblazed with the three castles of the Shelbourne crest – has been seen up and down Ireland and now across Europe too…
This is a preview of Barry Crossan’s full article, published in Issue 36 of Nutmeg.
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