Was in the 60S? 70S?
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Long, long, time ago… … … .. When did you attend your first League of Ireland/Eircom League game? Was in the 60s? 70s? 80s? 90? Or 00s? If it was the 80s or after, let me take you back to a time before you started going to games or maybe to a time before you were even born! Let me take you back to what it was like to be a League of Ireland supporter in late 60s and early 70’s…. If you ever look back at photographs of games from that era the first thing you’ll notice about the crowd is the lack of colour. There were no replica jerseys, polo shirts or other leisurewear. The only time you saw someone wearing a football jersey was when was playing football. If you saw someone walking down the street in a jersey you assumed that either his clothes had been stolen or he was a bit simple! The only thing identifying what team you followed was a scarf. This wasn’t like today’s scarves. It was just a bog standard 2 colour bar type scarf with your team colours. Red and white. Green and white or whatever. If you were very lucky you might get a pin type lapel badge or rosette of your team. If your team got to a Cup Final you might get one of those crepe paper hats. If it rained the colour ran and that was the end of the hat! Advance ticket sales for games were a rarity in those times. In fact 99% of the time people just turned up and paid cash at the gate. Unless of course you were a schoolboy and “got in with a man”. “Getting in with a man” was a long standing tradition at League of Ireland games in Cork which lasted I’d say up until City’s move to Bishopstown. It basically involved going in for free with a paying adult. This was all very well if you had an adult to get in with. But if you weren’t with your father, uncle or maybe an older brother you had to scan the queue at the turnstile and ask someone to get you in. An alternative plan was just stand near the gate looking forlorn and hope that some adult would take pity on you and bring you in. Once inside the ground the facilities were limited. There was no seating or cover in Turners Cross. Just grassy banks that passed for terracing on the four sides. Flower Lodge was a little better with a small covered stand on one side and of course the clubhouse. This was a 2 story building behind the goal on the Blackrock end of the ground with a full bar. Both grounds had little huts that passed for shops selling crisps and sweets. Sometimes during the winter they’d also sell soup there were of course no programmes or fanzines in those days. Some of the Dublin sides had programmes for every game but here in Cork programmes were only issued for big games like FAI Cup, European games or important league games. For other games a team sheet was handed out but this was not always the case. Here in Cork both Hibs and Celtic had active supporters clubs and they both organised buses and even trains to away games. In those days CIE seemed to have a lot more rolling stock and it was fairly easy to hire a train for a game. I remember going on trains from Cork direct to both Drogheda and Dundalk. I’m not 100% sure but I think that trains were organised for a game in Sligo on one occasion. If your team were playing away and you weren’t travelling the only way to keep up with what was happening was by the radio. No mobile phone, teletext or internet updates in those days! This wasn’t too bad if your team were playing on Sunday afternoon as RTE Radio gave good coverage to League of Ireland in those days. Charlie Mulqueen, Tony Sheehan, Bill George and of course Philip Greene would report on what was happening around the country. However if it was a midweek game there would be no updates. The first you’d hear was at 10 o’clock in the radio sports news. Manys the night I sat looking at the radio waiting to hear how Hibs had got on up in Dalymount, Milltown or wherever. One time in particular stands out above all the others. Hibs were playing Linfield in Windsor in the 1st leg of the final of the Blaxnit Cup. (The Blaxnit Cup was an All Ireland tournament, which was played between the top 4? Sides from the LOI and the Irish League. It was played over 2 weeks at the end of the season). Anyway 10 o’clock comes around and the RTE sports announcer says Linfield 1, Cork Hibernians 0. My heart sank. Over to Philip Greene for the report. “A great night for Cork Hibernians here in Windsor Park tonight where they withstood log periods of pressure… .. The winning goal came after 20mins when a deep cross into the Linfield area was met by Hibs Scottish midfielder Sonny Sweeney who slid home the only goal of the game to give Hibs a 1•0 lead going into next weeks second leg”. The RTE announcer had given the wrong score!! In the early 70’s the head men in RTE got an idea that to save a few bob they’d axe the Sunday afternoon sports programme for the winter months. This meant that the first results you’d hear on the Radio were at 6.40pm at the end of the 6.30 Radio news. So if you came out of the Lodge or the Cross you’d obviously know how your team got on but you’d have to wait until 6.40pm to find out about everyone else. Unless of course you called up to the Examiner office where they would have the results phoned in from around the country by various reporters. If you arrived at the Examiner early all the other results mightn’t yet be in so you’d have to wait around until they were phoned through. Much better of course you could go for a pint or in my case a glass of razza and a bag of crisps and call to Academy Street a few hours later by which the results of all the games played that day would be displayed on the door of the Examiner Office. When I began to write this article I thought of all the things that had changed with the game here over the decades. Of course lots of things haven’t changed. Referees are still crap, as is RTE’s coverage, and biased and from Dublin and of course Tom the Gom is still around! Tom was a regular attendee at both the Lodge and the Cross. And before you ask yes he was still spouting rubbish and people were still avoiding him! PS : You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned the football and the quality of it. Well every game was a sell out, high scoring, and rip•roaring roller coaster end to end spectacular! If you believe that… … … … … … (yiddo).