Anton McNulty’s letter from France

OVER FOR THE MATCH Republic of Ireland supporter Willie Fahy, from Castlebar is pictured at UEFA Euro 2016 in Bordeaux, France last Friday. Pic: Sportsfile

Anton McNulty

Salut,
Greetings from northern France where you might be interested to know that it’s bucketing down with rain, which sums up the mood since Saturday’s sobering 3-0 defeat to Belgium.
The defeat leaves the ‘Boys in Green’ on the brink of elimination with a win over Italy needed to keep the party going.
Arriving into Bordeaux on the morning of the match, there was a sense of optimism among the hordes of Irish fans that we could get a result. Having got tickets for the Sweden and Italy matches, tickets for Bordeaux were harder to come by.
While the new Bordeaux stadium is, according to one Welsh supporter, ‘a proper football stadium’ its 42,000 capacity went nowhere near meeting demand.
The majority of fans had flown in for the weekend, watched the game in the fan zone, and were planning on going home with a ‘mother and father’ of a hangover.  Going by the carnage around the Connemara pub on Saturday night, it was mission accomplished.
The fanzone in the Place des Quinconces is the second largest after Paris and an equally large Belgian crowd had also travelled without tickets. A prematch DJ set got the atmosphere going so it was like a rave with a football theme.
The game itself was largely forgettable and, after a 3-0 defeat, there was only one thing to be done — drown the sorrows.
We headed down to the Connemara pub where surely Mayo would give the large Mayo contingent something to cheer about.
The football chant of ‘Cillian’s on fire, your defence is terrified’ [to the tune of the Will Griggs’ tune] soon rang around the pub — but it was short-lived.
When Galway got the goal, suddenly their fans in the pub made themselves heard and started belting out ‘The Fields of Athenry’.  For once I didn’t feel like joining in.
I decided beforehand that the best way to travel around France was by train and bus.
I talked to one lad from Kilmovee who was travelling with five other mates in a campervan.  He said the first three days were great craic, but the fact that he hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in five days meant that the novelty was starting to wear off.
I didn’t hang around Paris too long after the Sweden game and, after a mad dash through the metro, I managed to get an early train south to Biarritz. Famous for its sun, sand and surf, it was a chance to relax and soak up the French sun.
The sand and surf was waiting, but the sun was replaced by dark clouds and rain. It hasn’t really stopped raining since we got to France but it’s lovely between the showers.
Now it’s off to Lille. . . Famous for. . well, I’m not sure it’s famous for anything but we’ll enjoy it anyway. Hopefully the result goes Ireland’s way and give us something to celebrate before going home and back to reality.
À bientôt,