Ole Ole Ole June 1990

Ole Ole Ole June 1990

By Paul McCann .

 

It was June 1990 and  Ireland

had made it to the finals in Italy

playing in  the World cup.

 

Tommy moved in with me to my bedsit flat

on the Cliftonville Road

with  his dog Leemah, a Rottweiler pup . 

 

Leemah ate tripe ,

Tommy drank as much as he liked

and I had a second hand Hitachi colour TV set .

 

The first game Ireland played England .

Linekar scored first then Sheedy

stuck one into the back of the England net .

 

The game ended in a draw

and crowds gathered from all over the place

 and it was party time .

Ole Ole Ole .

 

Next game Ireland played Egypt m

and it ended in a draw .

It was party time and Ireland were doing ok .

 

We had people knocking at the door

asking to come in to watch the games .

Maybe they heard we had  beer on tap .

 

Ireland reached the  knock out stage

and every night there were crowds chanting

ole ole ole and doing a victory lap . 

 

Tommy and I went out to join them. 

Leemah stayed home to guard  the keg .

Everybody was walking on sunshine 

 

Ireland had to play and beat  the host country Italy

to reach the semi  finals for the very first time .

 

The bedsit became an open house

and half of them I’d never seen before 

but they were welcome anyway .

 

Ireland’s run came to an end

with a one nil defeat to Italy .

There will come a time

and we’ll have our day .

 

.