This Drinking Life

Dropped in by accident…..was actually on my way to an Irish bar, and my eyes were distracted by the harp of Guinness on display on the outside of this establishment………

A Scottish bar, interesting, has Guinness, but more importantly it had Smithwicks on tap………respect right there.

Once I got settled in, and after my pint of Smithwicks (was just ok!), ordered some food………..cheesy chips (the healthy option) , and a pint of Brew Dog Punk IPA, one of my favorites, poured lovely and cold………….with my dinner, it went down very well.

Since I was in a Scottish bar, I decided I might as well finally try their infamous Irn-Bru, “Scotland’s other national drink”, some sort of fizzy pop. It was , well interesting, full of sugar for sure……..not one I’d drink regularly I’d have to say.

Since I was in a hurry I had to go, but enjoyed my short time here…….food was good, drinks fine, bar man, with the obligatory kilt, was very friendly….

Good bar……..respect to my Celtic cousins….

Molly Malone Irish Pub Winterthur

Address: Oberer Deutweg 4, 8400 Winterthur

www.mollymalone.ch/

Bit out of the town, and the outside doesn’t look much but inside its not too bad, decent decor and plenty of space to sit down.

Was quiet for the time I was there, mid day Saturday, a few knocking around. Sat at bar, and the first positive was the beer menu…..it was massive and had a very, very good selection of beers on tap and in bottle. Top beers from Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Germany and local beers from Switzerland, and good ciders too…..excellent selection of beers.

Ordered a Guinness, as you do, and a cheese burger for something to eat. Served with a smile, and the food came quick enough. Food served quick is always a bad sign, and to be honest the burger wasn’t the best, looked good but was a bit soggy and wasn’t as filling as it should have been. The Guinness was not the best too, but I’m not going to take marks off for that…..outside of Dublin its generally hit and miss….. I also ordered a Spitfire ale and it was fine.

The bar man was friendly, and I liked the effort made to turn this into a real bar…..I hope it works out for them……as that beer menu is top quality. Would love to return and sample more of their beers, especially the Gose beers, ha.

Paddy O’Brien’s Old Irish Pub

Address: Merkurstrasse 25, 8400 Winterthur

www.paddyobriens.ch/

Only here for a quick pit stop, great to see they had Newcastle Brown Ale on tap, lovely….

Staff working hard, especially one Irish man who I assumed was the bar owner, but later found out he was just part of the staff, but boy was it impressive to see him work the tables, pull the pints, and generally work his ass off…..all with a smile and some good Swiss German to boot. Workers like that are diamonds…….

Loved the Dubliners album on the wall, what a great touch……..

Must return next time I am in town………

FC Winterthur

Arena/Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese

Location: Winterthur, Switzerland

Capacity: 8,550

Manager: Bruno Berner

Founded: 1896

League: Swiss Super League

Honours:

Swiss Super League: Winners (3): 1905-06, 1907-08, 1916-17

Challenge League (2nd div title): Winners (4): 1965-66, 1967-68, 1981-82, 2021-22

info@fcwinterthur.ch

FC Winterthur is the main local football team. They play in the Swiss Super League, the first tier of Swiss football, and appeared regularly in the Nationalliga A during the 20th century. Their home is the Stadion Schützenwiese.

The club was founded in 1896 by students of the local school of engineering and following a fusion with two local teams, it was called Vereinigte Fussballclubs Winterthur between 1929 and 1946. They enjoyed their best success in the early part of the 20th century winning the Swiss Championship three times (in 1906, 1908 and 1917), before consecutive relegations in 1931 and 1934. They played in the lower leagues until regaining promotion to the Nationalliga B in 1950. They have since stayed in the second division for most of their history.

They famously lost to West Auckland F.C., an English amateur team in what is thought to be the first international football club competition, the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. The club have also reached the final of the Swiss Cup in 1968 and 1975, losing both games.

In the 2021-22 season, Winterthur were able to achieve a last round championship victory in the Swiss Challenge League, to gain their first promotion to the Swiss Super League, their first time at the top table of Swiss football since 1982. Following their promotion, coach Alex Frei, who led the team during this successful season, departed the team to join FC Basel. He was replaced by Bruno Berner.

The club play at Stadion Schützenwiese, a short walk from the centre of Winterthur, since 1896. In the 1980s the ownership was transferred to Winterthur council as the club faced financial problems. The council are responsible for any maintenance and upkeep of the ground. While once boasting a capacity of 14,987 before 2009, the stadium now holds 8,550 seats, 1,900 of which are seated. The more hardcore supporters of the club stand at one end, which is known as the Bierkurve. Away supporters are housed at the opposite end of the stadium to the Bierkurve.

To the game

FC Winterthur 4 – 2 FC Vaduz

16.04.2022 • Stadion Schützenwiese, Winterthur

• M. Di Giusto (16′) FC Vaduz

• S. Ltaief Rrudhani (29′) FC Win

• M. Sutter (54′) FC Vaduz

• G. Lekaj (57′) FC Win

• R. Buess (66′) FC Win

• S. Ballet (92′) FC Win

Attendance: 8,200

The atmosphere was electric with the home support sensing that another victory today would edge the team closer to promotion and back in the big league for the first time in years

Pre-match and in the sun, the crowd were buzzing, it was a great feeling. Ground was packed, and everyone in a good mood.
Long queues for beer and food so ventured in the art gallery, yes what modern football ground doesn’t have an art gallery, had some wine and gawked at some art! Bit silly to be honest.

Finally managed to get some beers and took my place in the main stand, at the back……………..good views of ground, but I have to be honest, with all the supporters packed in, it was way overfull, and with supporters spilling onto the walk ways and exits it was potentially very dangerous as everyone was on top of each other on a steep stand…….
To be honest I hope they have this sorted for next season when they play teams with bigger travelling support. Very dangerous IMHO. Never-mind the pretentious art bollix, get your safety checked first! tsk.

At half time, made my way to the area behind the goals where all the ultra fans hung out……….again packed, but not as steep or hazardous, and more fun as the songs were going and atmosphere a plenty.

Home team won 4-2, in a very entertaining game. Good game, good atmosphere, but too many queues and issues with crowd safety………………

Overall

Enjoyed the day, nice hike in the morning and lovely few hours spent in the pubs of Winterthur. Oh yeah, the football game was fun too!

Here is the video of my hike and visit to FC Winterhur

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Schaffhausen, Swiss football away days 11

With Covid reeking havoc on my football schedule in the year 2021, I could only get to do one Swiss football groundhop for my blog. I managed to get a game in the scenic town of Schaffhausen to see the local team play against FC Aarau.

Schaffhausen, a German speaking town of about 36,000 inhabitants, is in Northern Switzerland and capital of the canton of the same name. It is located on the banks of the Rhine and not far from the popular tourist destination Neuhausen am Rheinfall, where one can see the amazing Rhine falls, Europe’s largest waterfall.

The town is first mentioned in 1045 as Villa Scafhusun, so it is a town with a long history. The old portion of the Schaffhausen has many fine Renaissance and Mediaeval era buildings decorated with exterior frescos and sculpture, as well as the old canton fortress, the imposing Munot. It is a nice enough town to walk around, and for the day that was in it, a lazy Saturday afternoon, it was very quiet with not a whole lot going on.

The name of the town derives from Scafhusun which comes from Schaf (a sheep), as a ram (now a sheep) formed the ancient arms (traceable to 1049) of the town, derived from those of its founders, the Counts of Nellenburg. Todays coat of arms for the town still has a representation of a ram and a castle.

The town was heavily damaged during the Thirty Years’ War by the passage of Swedish (Protestant) and Bavarian (Roman Catholic) troops and the very important bridge was burnt down. It was not until the early 19th century that the arrested industrial development of the town made a fresh start. On 1 April 1944 Schaffhausen suffered a bombing raid by United States Army Air Forces aircraft which strayed from German airspace into neutral Switzerland due to navigation errors. Air raid sirens had often sounded in the past, without an actual attack, so many residents ignored the sirens that day. A total of 40 civilians were killed in the raid. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent a personal letter of apology to the mayor of Schaffhausen and the United States quickly offered four million US dollars in reparations.

Getting to Schaffhausen can be a little complicated, as it is served by two railway stations, jointly owned by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and Deutsche Bahn (DB), and is served by trains of both nation’s networks. The station is served by long distance passenger trains running between Frankfurt and Zurich and between Basel and Ulm. The Herblingen railway station is called at by local trains linking Schaffhausen station and Singen. It can be a bit confusing at times, as getting the German train means cheaper tickets, but a slightly longer trip, and one can sometimes get caught out by sitting on the wrong train with the wrong ticket!

I have on many occasions ventured from Schaffhausen to the Rhine Falls in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, and why not. It really is the only reason people visit Schaffhausen, lets be honest. You can get a direct link there via train, or by bus from the town. You can actually hop on a self driving bus to the falls, if you dare!
A favourite of tourists for centuries, even the great Mary Shelley and J. M. W. Turner made a trip here to marvel at the wonder of the falls. The Rhine Falls is a waterfall and the largest of its kind in Europe. The falls are located on the High Rhine on the border between the cantons of Schaffhausen and Zürich, between the municipalities of Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Laufen-Uhwiesen/Dachsen, next to the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland. They are 150 metres wide and 23 metres high.

There is plenty to see and do in the falls, can visit the Wörth Castle and Laufen Castle both of which are nice to look at, can venture around the whole Falls itself, going on a loop and crisscrossing via a bridge, can get near via an observation deck or the numerous viewing platforms dotted about, or, if brave, can even take a tourist boat near the falls itself, a choppy enough endeavor. Some people even get off the boat to climb the standing stack in the midst of the Falls…… Of course if you prefer there a few restaurants on the promenade, to have a nice meal and/or beer and look at the falls from afar.

Tit bit of information for the football obsessed, i.e. people like me! Roberto Di Matteo, ex Italian and Chelsea player and coach, comes from the town of Schaffhausen. Yes Italian, both his parents were from the old country so that’s how he played for the Azzurri. Karl Jäge, is also a native son to the town, but the Swiss-born German mid-ranking official in the SS of Nazi Germany and Einsatzkommando leader who perpetrated acts of genocide during the Holocaust is better forgotten and the less said about him the better, ha!

Pub watch

Restaurant CM Brauhaus

Address: Zentralstrasse 1 8212 Neuhausen am Rheinfall

www.cmbrauhaus.ch/

Knowing I could walk from Schaffhausen to Neuhausen am Rheinfall, I decided to make a trip to the family run Restaurant CM Brauhaus as I read they brew their own beer, and felt it might be an interesting place to see.

I kind of messed up as the walk, which I had done many times before, was longer than I had remembered. So in actual fact I only made it to one bar for the trip due to this excessive trip.

But it was worth it as the bar/restaurant is a treasure. Within the centre of the restaurant there are two bigger copper kettles where the house beer and seasonal beers are regularly brewed. The vaulted cellar is where most of the magic happens, located directly below the restaurant, where all the brews are fermented and stored until served cold at the bar.

The CM Brauhaus restaurant opened its doors for the first time as a Brauhaus restaurant in 2016. The interior has a very modern feel to it yet their is also a nod to its vintage location as there are some artifacts to brewery and local history dotted around. Its a nice place to sit down and relax. I ventured in to see the copper tanks, but many people were seated outside enjoying their food and beers with the lovely day that it was. A nice atmosphere at the brewhouse, everyone enjoying themselves. A definite touristy kind of feel going on, happy to be out and about.

I didn’t go for any food, which looked damn good on what I saw coming out of the kitchen, I probably should have, but decided to have the house beer, which was a pale ale, nourishment enough I guessed. Service was fast and very friendly, they also charged my phone on request which was kind of them. The beer was served cold and was FANTASTIC, well worth the long walk. You know the beer was good as I ordered another one, breaking my one beer one pub rule. Liked it here a lot, has a very homely and relaxing feel to the place, and one where I could have happily spent longer. And the beers were to die for. Often these places can be very pretentious but this brew house was brilliant, and I hope I can return in the near future.

FC Schaffhausen

Arena/Stadium: LIPO Park

Location: 8207 Schaffhausen

Capacity: 8,200

Manager: Murat Yakın

Founded: 1896

League: Swiss Challenge League

Honours:
Challenge League (2nd div title): 2 (2004 and 1963)

Swiss Cup: Runners up 1988 and 1994

info@fcschaffhausen.ch

FC Schaffhausen is a Swiss football team from the town of Schaffhausen. They participate in the Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football. Founded in 1896 as “football club Viktoria”, they are one of the oldest teams in the country.

The team usually sticks around the second division, for about 54 seasons in fact, with only very brief forays at the top table, the top league, in the 50’s, 60’s and from 2004 to 2007, and the odd occasion even dropping to the 3rd league. Must be great to be a FC Schaffhausen fan. Wonder have any jumped off the Falls after a particularly boring season, or are they well used to it by now?

As for honours, they won the third division titles in 1945 and 1984, and in 1963 and 2004 second division titles, and qualified for the final in the Swiss Cup in 1988 and 1994. Not a whole lot for the old club to be fair.

FC Schaffhausen used to play in the Breite Stadium which had a capacity of just over 7000, but with only about a 1000 seats so in early 2017 they moved to the LIPO Park Schaffhausen, which has a capacity of 8,000 seats albeit the players play on an artificial turf, yuck. They also tog out at home in yellow, to add to their woes!

Well know ex players were, local boy, Roberto Di Matteo and Joachim Löw, present German National Manager.

To the game

FC Schaffhausen 2 – 4 FC Aarau

08.02.2020 • LIPO Park Stadium , Schaffhausen

• Spadanuda (26′) FC A

• Rrudhani (51′) FCA

• Qollaku (60′) FC Schaff.

• Del Toro (67′) FC Schaff.

• Schneuwly (Pen 71′) FCA

• Hammerich (89′) FCA

Attendance: 561

Had to fill in a Covid tracing form to enter ground, no worries.

But first issue is that the stand I was in didn’t take card, I wanted to get a beer and something to eat. No card, can you believe it? So much for the cashless society. But the lady behind the bar was kind enough to give me a beer, on the house, which was extremely nice of her.

(At half time I managed to go out of the stand area and get some cash from an inhouse cash machine, with the help of one kind official, so was able to buy some more beer, and pay for the free beer, afterwards)

Was pissing down with rain and was cold, but thankfully was well covered under the main stand. Plastic pitch, in the rain…….. expect lots of goals then.

Home team had a few chances at the start of game, but the FC Aarau goalie was pretty alert and pulled off a few good saves.

Spadanuda scored a nice goal from the 26th minute, capitalizing on the slow reactions of the home team in clearing the ball from their own defence, to put FC Aarau one nil up.

After that nothing really happened until the second half. Rrudhani for the away team, livened things up when he scored a nice goal from the edge of the penalty box, nice, 2-0.

That was the kick up the backside the home team needed, as less than ten minutes later they managed to scramble the ball home, Qollaku shooting home from close range, albeit it looked well offside to me, but there you go, the fightback was on.

And then a mix up from a FC Aarau throw in, in their own half, the Italian, Del Toro quickly pounced on the error to slot home a lovely equaliser. Game on now………. great stuff.

But then the referee had a brain fart and sent off the defender, Kaiser in the 71st minute, for the most gentlest of tug backs, and also award a penalty to FC Aarau, the bastard! Never a penalty. Slotted home expertly, right hand top corner, by Schneuwly, who came on as a substitute and was involved in everything in the latter stages for the away team. A good player to spring from the bench.

To makes things worse for the home team, Hammerich scored a well worked team effort, to make it 4-2 for FC Aarau, and a very comfortable performance for the away team. Home team tried their best but they just were not at the same skill level as FC AAarau, who just had that bit more quality.

Good game. No real atmosphere but I could put that down to the awful weather, virtually played out under a downpour, and also the home team letting in four goals. The stadium is nice and dinky, and has four similar stands all around. I can imagine when its full, it might be fun. Food and beer, usual rubbish one can expect this side of the world inside a stadium. They don’t do burgers or pies too well over here!!

Highlights of the game here.

Overall

Cant say I enjoyed the day. I wankered myself out with my mad walk to the beer house, and the walk back. That and the awful weather, raining throughout the game, making it cold and miserable. Not too much to see in the town, bit dead, and although the game was good, there was no atmosphere…….

Schaffhausen is a nice town, but might be better to visit during the summer!

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St Pats, football away days

https://www.facebook.com/StreetsTours/

My football day trip this time was to be a little different. Rather than head straight to the pub for a day of drinking and having the craic and then finish it off with some football, this time I was to shake the day up a bit by including some more cultural and creative pursuits. Some might argue isn’t football high art in itself, but anyway this time round I was to take a nice walking tour in Phibsborough, then head across the city to Darndale to take in some great art, and then to finish it off with some football at Richmond Park, the stadium of light, home of St Patrick’s Athletic, not before I had a chat with local musician and keyboard wizard, Tommy Keyes. Art, music, storytelling, football and the odd pint, who says my life is boring!

St Patrick’s Athletic Football Club are based in the Dublin suburb of Inchicore (Irish: Inse Chór, meaning “Island of Sheep”), located about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) west of the city centre, easily accessible by the Luas from O’Connell street.

Inchicore, by the Grand Canal, grew from a small village evolving in time as a gateway for trade into Dublin city, then as a significant industrial and residential suburb, with the Irish railway network having a hub here always providing opportunities.

Inchicore, with a population of about 2400, still has a small village atmosphere. The area includes a variety of local stores including a butcher/deli, hardware, ethnic stores, and two mid-size supermarkets, not to forget there are several pubs, including the ancient Black Lion Inn, and several restaurants and takeaways. A brewery has also opened in the area. Add in the main Church and you have everything you might need in an Irish town! (Oh yeah, the football club too!!)

My Streets Dublin

While I was thinking of what I could do for the day out in Dublin I came across a new walking tour that was been introduced in the city, called My Streets, Ireland. What was different about this tour was that it was done by people who have lived on the streets of the capital, homeless people giving tours and telling their unique stories. So I signed up and on the day I was lucky to get a tour off Eddie who was showing a few of us around the streets of Phibsboro, North Dublin. I also got chatting to Austin Campbell, one of the people behind the exciting new venture.

Phibsboro, is a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood in North Dublin hugging the The Royal Canal. A typical red-brick terrace area, with the odd Victorian style looking pub and the always busy Doyle’s Corner thoroughfare. Easily reachable by the new Luas Cross City Line network, or if you are mad, one could, of course, walk from O’Connell Street which can take you about 30 minutes or less.

It would be amiss of me not to mention, just about now, my football away days trip to local Phibsboro football club, Bohemians F.C. Read all about it here

I was well impressed with Eddie, a nice young man who has turned his life around and the tour was very informative. This was a tour that didn’t so much concentrate on the sights of the city but more on the personal stories of its people. Eddie talked about his rough upbringing, why he was on the streets, and the ins and outs of life as a homeless person. It was really a great way to spend an hour and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something a little different in a tour. It certainly brought me into a world I don’t often think about, which was good.

I think what Austin and My Streets Ireland are doing is great, giving homeless people opportunities and also it’s a way of them contributing to the community. I will definitely be back on one of their tours the next time I am in Dublin as Austin mentioned they have plans for a Brendan Behan tour and a tour on Dublin’s street markets (a la Moore street for example), which both sound interesting, on top of the other tours they offer, Eddies one which I took ( ‘Eddie’s Experiences of Homelessness’ ) and a Viking special.

Anyway so here is my quick chat with eddie, Enjoy!

My Streets Ireland: Tours are offered 7 days a week and can be booked by private messaging on the My Streets facebook page, by emailing or by phone.
Tours are charged at a price of €10 per person.

http://www.mystreetsireland.com/

Dublin artist Immanuel Godson

The second part of my big adventure on my day out in Dublin was to head over the famous, Darndale, the edge of nowhere as they say, to meet the one and only Immanuel godson, an amazing Northside artist and painter who creates works in a classic and realistic style spruced up with a good healthy dose of modern day humour and satire. It was actually good to see that, like Eddies homeless tour in the morning, Immanuel has also been integrated into his community, an artist of the people for the people.

Darndale (Irish: Darndál meaning ”daffodil”) is an area on the Northside of Dublin, featuring a high concentration of social housing. It is located in the north of the sprawling suburb of Coolock. Got the bus from Busaras, takes about 40 minutes.

Immanuel was kind enough to show me round his gallery and explain some of the ideas behind his art. I also had a great chat with Immanuel about his work, and some of his opinions on the modern day art scene.

Would also like to mention how cool the Darndale Belcamp Village Centre is, it really is one tranquil place where anyone from the community can go in, embrace all the great art on display and relax in their thoughts and moods. And it isn’t just Immanuel’s art that is exhibited, a good few other local talents have their work highlighted and laid out around the building. An excellent resource for the local people, hats off to whoever keeps it going.

Check out Immanuel’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwBlnaHTmRrWbp_sFsYOSYQ

And his Gab Account

https://gab.com/immanuel1974

Anyway so here is my video with immanuel, Enjoy!

Pub watch

Doyles Corner

Address: 160/161 Phibsborough Rd, Phibsborough, Dublin 7

Website

After Eddies great tour we needed a quick pint and a quick rest of the old legs before we embarked on our journey across town. Plenty of good boozers in Phibsboro, but we decided to head to Doyles Corner, an iconic landmark in this part of town.

Here for over a 100 years, it is a pub steeped in the fabric of the local community. I have drank in this place before, as it is a stone’s throw from Bohemians FC ground, Dalymount Park, and it is also not too far from Croke Park, the Gah ground. So on match day, be it football, bogball, or stick fighting (ancient Irish sports), it is always busy.

Well to say we were amazed is an understatement. We actually had to check if we were in the right bar, I say this as the whole place got a total revamp inside, and looks totally different. It has got a very stylish and fancy new makeover. It really is a great design, and who ever is the interior decorator deserves a big cheer. There is a bit of everything in it really, some art deco, has nice wooden snugs, cool peasants on displays, dead and stuffed of course, the visit to the bogs bring you on an old disco style journey with big pop art in the toilets. Now I know this all sounds like a bit of a mess but somehow it all works perfectly together. Of course for me the best bit is behind the bar, looking at all the various whiskeys and liquor on display,

We were the only two at the bar early morning, so still quiet. They have a good selection of beers on tap but went for Franciscan Well’s Rebel Red Ale, from Cork. Bar lady was friendly and served the beer perfectly in no time. Also got some Keoghs mature Irish crisps, very nice too, so good went back for another bag! As we were looking at all the beers, booze and alcohol on display Pogues Irish Whiskey caught our eye, and sure we just had to have a taste of this! Got a shot of it, was smooth enough, and gave us that little kick we need to continue on our journey across Dublin.

Doyles is looking fantastic and will be here again no doubt about it the next time I’m this side of Dublin, so much to see, so many interesting beers to try out, great setting, friendly staff, and a good effort all round. Next time I should try some of their food as I’d guess they have a great menu too!

Graingers Bar

Address: 51 Talbot Street, Dublin, Ireland

Back again in Graingers Bar. We got a taxi back from Darndale to the city, and rather than try out a new bar we went with what we know, Graingers. We were hungry and in need of some good grub, so we knew what we would get in this bar………delicious food at a decent price, with a good pint too boot.

Near both the national bus and train Station this bar always has good food on offer. Great friendly service and a good way to recharge the batteries and fill the belly. Ordered a new beer, a Cute Hoor, an Irish pale ale, from Cork I think, but operated by Heineken, was pretty good though, very nice. Also the fish and chips ordered did the business.

One of my favourite bars for a quiet pint and some food. Recommended, as always!

Mcdowells Pub

Address: 139 Emmet Rd, Inchicore, Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland

Arrived in Inchicore, and really there is only one pub to go for a quick pre match scoop and that is Mcdowells Pub, smack bang wallop right beside the football ground! The club actually own this pub, they bought it to reassure fans who were worried that the club might up sticks and move. It’s a nod to the fans that the club is determined to stay in the area, and it’s also a good money making venture too! Having a pint in this pub is not only a pleasurable experience as you mingle with the fans, but it’s good to know you are also helping the coffers of the club with your purchase.

Place was busy, as to be expected with a pre match crowd, ordered a Heineken, and a packet of Tayto Salt and Vinegar, that’s the lunch sorted. Pint served fast and efficiently from the friendly bar man.

Good bar as there is a good bit of Pats football memorabilia dotted around, and the atmosphere was building up. Love this bar, it’s only a pity though that they can not somehow have it set up that punters can return at half time for a few more pints. Perhaps knock down a wall out the back???

Quick pint, and even quicker walk, straight out the door and right down the short alley to the turnstile to the game. As easy as that. One, two, three……..

Beresford Hotel

Address: 21 Store St, North Dock, Dublin

Website

Had one final pint just before we got the last bus home. Right across from Connolly Train Station, and near the Luas stop and Busaras bus terminal, is the Beresford Hotel with a bar on show. Looks like it was open for business and had a few souls inside, so we ventured in.

The Beresford is a 3 star hotel, with a top restaurant with an Italian menu but also offering Irish style breakfasts, anad a cafe bar with a top notch bar and lounge offering a wide array of drinks.

Seen that this new lager called Rockshore was popular so I decided to try it out. And boy was that a good decision as it was lovely, cold and crisp, what a fine pint to finish the day with. Lovely.

Barman was friendly and efficient, the interior was good, nice and comfy sitting at the bar, and the place was quiet enough to have the chat and digest the day we had. A very good place to have a quick pint before getting the train or bus home.

St Patrick’s Athletic F.C.

Founded: 1929

Arena/Stadium: Richmond Park,

Location: 125 Emmet Road, Inchicore, Dublin 8

Capacity: 5,340 (2,800 seated)

Manager: Harry Kenny

Leagues: League of Ireland Premier Division

Honours
League of Ireland/Premier Division: 8 (Last 2013)
FAI Cup: 3 (Last 2014)

info@stpatsfc.com

Nicknames: Pats, The Saints, The Super Saints

St Patrick’s Athletic F.C. is a football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they originally played in the Phoenix Park but now play in Richmond Park since 1930.

Currently managed by Harry Kenny, the club play in red and white, and have won nine (or eight depending who you talk to!) league titles, and three FAI Cups. The club’s glory years came in the 1950s and 1990s when they won 7 of their 9 league titles. The club also have the record for never having been relegated from the Premier Division. Rivals could be said to be any of the other Dublin teams with the likes of Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians to choose from.

The club started off playing in the Leinster Senior League before taking their place in the League of Ireland in 1951, winning the Championship at their first attempt, with striker Shay Gibbons banging in the goals (LOI top scorer for three seasons in the 50’s). They had won the Leinster Senior league on numerous occasions, so perhaps winning the national league wasn’t such a big surprise. Two more league championship successes followed in 1954–55 and 1955–56, while in 1959 they achieved their first Cup success, beating Waterford 2-1 in a replay. Another Cup win came in 1961, beating Drumcondra 2-1, in an all Dublin final. Who would have guessed it would have taken 53 years for their next FAI Cup win! (2014).

The next few decades, from the swinging ’60s right upto the drab 80’s, were pretty forgetful years for Pats fans. No trophies in a long barren spell for the club. Paul McGrath did appear though, earning the PFAI Players player of the year in 1982, for his very brief time at the club, before been whisked off to Manchester United. Even shorter, much shorter in fact, was the one appearance for St Pats, by World Cup legend Gordon Banks! At the time British stars used to come over to Ireland for play for pay games. Invaraibly they were always shite as they were well at the end of their careers. Terry Venables was another who came over, in the 80’s.

Fortunes began to change when Brian Kerr took control of the managerial reigns in 1986. Working on a tight budget the manager got the team to win the LOI Championship title in the 1989-1990 season, their first for 34 years! He did unearth a few gems, Paul Osam, Curtis Fleming, Pat Fenlon, John McDonnell, and things looked rosy for the club.

But as so often in Irish football, the highs are always followed closely by the lows. The club was thrown into chaos when a takeover bid failed badly, leaving the club hours away from extinction before a group of local investors raised £82,000 to save the club. Phew!

Brian Kerr, wearing the club badge on his sleeve, as always, stepped up to help his club out when they needed him most for the gigantic task of rebuilding a winning team that was shot to pieces in months, with so many players leaving in the havoc surrounding the survival of the club. But as so often with Keer, he worked the oracle and once again created a winning championship team at St Pats with the league trophy returning to Richmond Park in 1996. The winning squad made up of such Pats legends as Eddie Gormley, Paul Osam and Ricky O’Flaherty together with exciting young stars such as Colin Hawkins and Trevor Molloy.

When Kerr resigned to take up the Director of Coaching job with the FAI, the good work was continued by Pat Dolan and then Liam Buckley installed as manager, with further championships in 1998 and 1999. The less said about the 10–0 aggregate loss to Zimbru Chişinău in the CL the better, the only real blight on Buckleys time at Pats!

In 2002 there was a League Championship title win that was not valid. The tile was given to Shelbourne as St Pats were given a 15 points deduction for playing an unregistered player for the first 5 games of the season. Some Pats fans count this in their title wins and you might see 9 instead of 8 Championships, so be warned!

In 2005 there were talks of a ground share plan in Tallaght with Dublin rivals, Shamrock Rovers. Obviously this was anathema to the supporters who fiercely resisted the move. In july 2006, the fans helped pressure the club to buy the Richmond House pub (also known as McDowell’s) for use as an official clubhouse, to show that they listened to the fans concerns and show their grounding in the local community.

Fast forward to 2012 and the return of Liam Buckley, former player and manager, for another stint in the hot seat. A clearout of the old team and bringing in 14 new players, Buckley was showing his serious ambitions on rebuilding a team to compete for the championship again. he did bring in some real star quality to the club, Chris Forrester, Christy Fagan, and Ger O’Brien, all becoming fans favourites in no time at all. Buckley’s side finished 3rd in the league, 6 points off champions Sligo Rovers. and he also guided his side to the 2012 FAI Cup Final, but they lost out 3–2 in extra-time to Derry City further extending the Saints’ FAI Cup winning drought to 52 years. Improvements were seen and the fans were happy, safe in the knowledge that good days were just around the corner. Killian Brennan and Conan Byrne arrived, further strengthening an already very decent side, and sure enough in 2013 they clinched the League of Ireland title on after a 2–0 win against holders Sligo Rovers with two games to spare. Brennan getting PFAI player of the year for his efforts.

In 2013 they finally got the monkey off their back and won the cup for the first time in 53 long years. beating Derry City 2–0 with Christy Fagan immortalising himself with the club’s fans by scoring twice. He was also the clubs top scorer that season in the league and also voted PFAI player of the year. Not a bad season by all accounts!

Upto the present day, they have got Harry Kenny managing them, an ex assistant manager now taking the number one role, having showed some promise as a manager when in charge of Bray Wanderers. Started the season with a cracker, beating Cork City at home, but since then the team have had a stop start season, winning games they were not expected to do so well and losing or drawing games they should have won. Some rumblings from the fans but I think a new man in charge needs at least a season to bed in his football philosophy. So let’s see…..

Pats have always put on a bit of a show in European football though. They have had some misadventures for sure (as mentioned), but on a few occasions they have got through numerous rounds in the Europa League, beating some decent teams along the way. In 2008–09 St. Pat’s progressed through two rounds of the UEFA Cup by beating JFK Olimps Riga and Elfsborg before losing to Hertha BSC, 0-2 on agg, in the First Round proper. In 2009, they did the same, two rounds of progression, Pat’s this time won games against Valletta FC and Russian Premier League side Krylia Sovetov to reach the play-off round where they were defeated by FC Steaua București, 1-5 on agg.. In 2011, again the same, knocking out Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja from Iceland and FC Shakhter Karagandy from Kazakhstan before eventually being knocked out in the third qualifying round by Ukrainian side FC Karpaty Lviv, 1-5 on agg..

In 2012 Buckley took the reins of the club knowing of the European expectations at the club and once again didn’t disappoint, knocking both Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja of iceland (a game I was at!) and NK Široki Brijeg out after extra-time, to earn a tie with German powerhouse Hannover 96, who knocked the Saints out in the third qualifying round. In 2016 the Saints knocked Jeunesse Esch of Luxembourg out of the UEFA Europa League on away goals before being narrowly beaten 2–1 on aggregate to Dinamo Minsk of Belarus in the second qualifying round, in a game truth be told they should have really won. Overall, generally Pats perform decent enough in Europe, and are one of the few LOI teams where fans can regal newcomers about “glory European adventures down Richmond way”, always when it’s raining though!!

Notable ex-players who have donned the Pats shirt in the past include Ireland internationals Keith Fahey, Curtis Fleming, and “The Black Pearl of Inchicore”, the legend that is Paul Mcgrath, one of the best defenders I have ever seen, no doubt about it. Other top players include Joseph N’Do, Ryan Guy, Charles Mbabazi Livingstone, Gordon Banks, Eddie Gormley, and Paul Osam who hold the all time appearances record for the club (308).

The club play out of Richmond Park in the suburb of Inchicore. The area where the ground now stands was formerly used as a recreational area by the British Army, who were stationed at the nearby Richmond Barracks, named after Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond hence the name Richmond Park. Getting to Richmond is dead easy. One can take a bus, bus numbers 68, 68a, 69 and 79 all can take you near or near enough to the ground from the city centre, but the best and easiest way to Richmond is by taking the tram. Get on the Red Luas line to Saggart/Tallaght from the city centre, getting off at Goldenbridge stop. From there, cross the canal, veer left and continue down Connolly Avenue towards Emmet Road. Simples!

St Pats, although a small club they do have a strong link up with their surroundings and the local south west Dublin community. When visiting Richmond one can definitely feel a close bond from the supporters towards the club. The Shed End Invincibles are the “ultra” group associated with the team. They no doubt bring a great atmosphere to the ground, always having some sort of fan display on show, sing throughout and are one of the better fan groups in the LOI. They really play a big part in making a trip to Richmond a highlight, for me at least.

To the game

St Patrick’s Athletic 1 – Dundalk 0

05.04.2019 Richmond Park

45’ Own goal

Attendance: 1878

Despite it piddling down for most, if not all, of the game, I barely noticed that I was totally drenched, such was the excitement on offer at Richmond Park. Ok parts of the game were a little pedestrian, but for what St Pats lacked in skill they more than made up for it with steely determination and heart.

Dundalk, the Champions, looked a bit lively at the start and one was thinking it was only a matter of time before they would score. But then as the game went on, the Pats players became more confident, with Rhys McCabe working his socks off, popping up all over the pitch, harrying players for the ball, pinning passes left to right, and generally been a pain in the ass for the Dundalk back four. An excellent performance from Rhys McCabe, what a pleasure to see such skill on show in our league.

Was right in view of the penalty box when the Pats had a clear penalty shout waved away by the ref, but it no doubt hit the Dundalk defender and God only knows what the hell the linesman was doing as he also had a clear view of the incident. He took a good bit of ribbing from the Pats fans after that terrible error. I dont know, refs and linesmen…..a different breed! Ha.

Sure enough the goal came via McCabe, who floated a swinging cross into the box only for Daniel Cleary to somehow slide it into his own goal, one nil to the home team just before half time.

In the second half both teams had chances to score, but it seemed that the Pats midfield were bossing it, with the team home totally neutralising the Dundalk threat. That was until the last 10 minutes or so, with about 5 minutes of added time, when the Pats players naturally whilted with all the effort they put in, Dundalk put the foot on the gas and there was a lot of last man defending as Dundalk kept plugging away for the equaliser.

Hoban had a glorious chance to level in the end, but the Gods were looking down on Pats, as he shot wide. The divine would only support the Saints, surely! The whole ground let out a collective sigh of relief at the final whistle, and then the cheers began, beating the champions at home, great.

It would be totally unfair of me not to mention that the Pats back four were immense. It was them and their stout heroic defending that made Dundalk look so flat. They played as a coherent unit at the back and for most of the game had everything in control, playing with confidence from the back. Great performance form the Pats defence.

I dont quite know how Pats have been losing before and after this game, consistently dropping points every few games, as on this performance they have a great team and should really be doing slightly better than mid table where they are at the moment. Would give the benefit of doubt to the manager, Harry Kenny, as sometimes it takes a while to stamp your authority and game plan on a squad in your first year as the gaffer. But let’s see, as I feel pats have the makings of a good team here. (But I am a bit biased to be honest as I always love visiting Richmond and so have a soft spot for Pats)

Highlights of the game here

Interview

Had the pleasure of having a short chat with long time Super Saints fan, Tommy Keyes.

Tommy is a Singer-Songwriter. In between a long stint as a top civil servant with the government, Tommy was a member of Irish rock band Sidewinder in the 1970s, and is now back, after a “break” of 40 years, in the profession he loves the most, wannabe rock star and keyboard extraordinaire, writing songs, making albums and performing on stage with his new band.

He has released four albums to date, all recorded in Sun Studios at Temple Lane, with some of Ireland’s top session musicians. The albums are An Irish Life, The Sad Pursuit, Some of These Stories are True, and his most recent offering, his fourth album, Temptation Once Again. An Irish life was very well received by both the critics and the public, while the song “Christmas Eve in Dublin”, a track off his latest album reached the top of the Irish singer/songwriter charts on iTunes, with the album overall getting a very healthy score of 8/10 from the Irish music mag, Hot Press, an Irish version of Rolling Stone.

I’m Tommy Keyes, singer songwriter, recording artist and given Rob’s (me!) particular interest in football as well, I’m also very heavily involved in St. Patrick’s athletic football club and that’s where we are tonight doing this interview.

With the song Richmond nights, the start of the song……….”Hand in hand, the boy and man walk to the terraced shed, find some space and take their place among the sea of red” so……….

Yeah that song is about 3 generations. I mean my dad first brought me here, we are in Richmond park, my dad first brought me here maybe when we were 11 or 12 and then I brought my kids as soon as they were old enough to turn them into League of Ireland supporters as well. I don’t have any grandchildren yet but the song is kind of looking ahead to when you know and it’s most likely be my daughter, as my eldest daughter is very heavily involved now in the club as well, when she will have someone to bring along, and it’s the way the love of a football club, and the love of supporting the club, gets passed on from generation to generation, it’s a very, very special thing.

I think St.Pats is, I don’t know like I have seen a few of the other teams in Dublin, but I think St Pats are slightly different to maybe Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians, is more rooted within its area, its family, it’s more community based I think?

Its very rooted in the community here in Inchicore, about 10 or 12 years ago, when, 13 years ago, when the new owner Garrett Kelleher bought the club, a lot of people were telling him that the sensible thing was to, to sell up the ground here, move out to Tallaght which was been developed at that stage, share the ground with Shamrock Rovers, and he very quickly realized that if you did that you would kill the club because the club is absolutely rooted in the community here. Not just Inchicore but the areas around it, West Dublin, its of this place and we couldn’t move so he quickly said no the club is never moving from here.

And is it hard to get people out these days to follow the League of Ireland?

It’s very hard because any night of the week…..I mean we are here Friday night and we are playing Dundalk, who are the best team in the country so this should be a massive match but Liverpool are on television tonight so we are definitely going to lose supporters to that but the one thing I will say is that there seems to be a bit of a resurgence since the start of this season, we have had very good gates for home matches, Bohemians, our last away match was in Bohemians away last week, they sold out. We sold out for our last match here against Shamrock Rovers, we had to turn people away …….you know we are talking here about you know……4,300, 4,400, we are not talking about massive gates, but you know things are improving, but I mean the quality of the football is extremely good and you can shout at the television as much as you like it’s not the same as shouting at players who can hear you………….and referees who can hear you…..

Attendances are up this season……….

Definitely

Is there a reason for that, I mean for this season especially…….?

A lot of the clubs including ourselves did some very, very good promotion videos that went viral on YouTube and all that type of thing, maybe people have a bit more money in their pocket, the quality of the football is very good, I mean a lot of the time what we are trying to do is to get people to bring their friends to a match or two, because we know that if they see how good the product is, the entertainment is, they will come again.

And since you have been following them what was the highlight season for you?

Well….I have been following them 50 years, we have won the league 6 times in that period, but I think nothing really can beat winning the FAI cup in 2014, in the Aviva because that was the hoodoo that was hanging over this club, you know, 7 cup finals, we won the cup back in I think about 61, and after that we were in 7 cup finals and we lost every single one of them. And like some of them were so close, Shelbourne went to a replay, Derry went to extra time, we lost, 7 in a row we lost, so there was this jinx hanging over us, we are never going to win the cup, even though we won 6 leagues in the same period, and we beat Derry 2-0 in the Aviva in 2014 and that was really, really special.
https://youtu.be/YLwzH42S2tQ

Did you drink for a week after that!?

Ah, no comment on that!
And there has been some special European nights here as well. Once we get beyond a certain stage in Europe we have to move to Tallaght or whatever, and it’s never as good, but when this place is packed for a European night you know, we played Elfsborg from Sweden and we were losing on aggregate with about 5 minutes to go, we just needed a goal to win on away goals, we got the goal and then we got another goal, and that was just a massive, massive night.
https://youtu.be/rgcAHb4dhw8

Well cult heroes I mean then, its Paul McGrath……..

Every generation brings it cults heroes, I mean we have a lad at the club at the moment Ian Birmingham, the captain, it’s his testimonial year this year, 10^th successive season, and that’s 10 seasons always been in the first team, you rarely get that in League of Ireland football now.
But you know, people like Paul Osam, Eddie Gormley, Curtis Fleming, and people older than me will talk about people like Ginger O’Rourke, and Timber Cummins and people like these fellas back in the 50’s so its generation to generation.
There is a kid here at the moment called Jamie Lennon, you will see him tonight, he is a defensive midfielder, came on as a sub for the Ireland under 21’s in tallaght there last Sunday week, you know he is a star of the future.
Chris Forrester is back, Chris has had a disastrous year, he was doing really well at Peterborough and then it kind of went off the boil, they sold him to Aberdeen and that didn’t work out at all, so he is home now, and he hasn’t played very much football in the last year so he is only finding his feet again, when he finds his feet he is going to be massive, he was one of the legends here……….

So what should I expect tonight in terms of atmosphere…?

The atmosphere will be good, we are on a bad roll because the team hasn’t quite gelled with the new signings, Dundalk are the best team in the country, notwithstanding that Shamrock Rovers might be top of the table at the moment, so we are very much up against it, if we get anything out of the game tonight that would be good.

Then with regards music Tommy, so how is the music going for you these days?

The music is going very well, I was working in a completely different….I was working away from music for nearly 40 years because in the 70s I had been in bands, and so on, and I was the main songwriter in the bands that I was in, and then I was away from music for 40 years because I had a different career and it just didn’t leave any room for music, but I retired from that in 2015 and went straight into the studio and recorded stuff, started doing albums, getting back gigging, looking around for singer songwriter sessions…….I’m not really interested in going into pubs doing covers,

You do your own songs…

I do my own stuff and there are, particularly around Dublin, there are places where you can go and play your own material and I ended up landing on my feet really, because I got involved with a pub in Dublin called Darkie Kelly’s, which has singer songwriter night on Tuesdays, and I started playing that and then they asked me to host it and then they asked me to run it and so I run that session now, and I get to do quite a few original songs, and every Tuesday night and we usually have 9 or 10 other singer songwriters who all perform and then we have a big jam at the end, and I do a thing then in the same place, an idea came up with myself last year called the Sunday Song Brunch where twice a month we have half 12 until 3 o’clock sessions on a Sunday where we have much the same thing. And the nice thing about that is our musicians because during the day, musicians who have young kids, the kids maybe never seen daddy or mammy play so they can bring them in, so that’s nice as well.
I’m very content, 4^th album, Temptation Once Again, came out in November, has done really well, got really nice reviews for it, getting a good bit of radio play, I’m never going to make money out of this but it doesn’t matter I just want my original songs out there

But you get your own audience online……..

That’s exactly it, that’s exactly it.

Does the football feed off it, when you are standing on the terraces on a cold wet night, does inspiration hit you………

Well I don’t know about that. but the first thing is I look around the ground as you will do this evening and behind each goal I will see a big billboard Tommy Keyes, that I decided I was going to put a little bit of money into promotion so St pats might as well have it…….so every time that Soccer Republic (TV Show) is on or whatever it is called now, if they are showing any goals from Richmond Park, just a quick little subliminal add that catches everyone for Tommy Keyes, which is good.

Which would be better, the buzz from a live performance, you are playing in front of people, or a goal tonight, is there…………

They are both brilliant……. that’s like saying you can only keep one of your kids……..which one would you give up, you couldn’t really choose between those………….

You said you were with Sidewinder back in the day…..

In the 70’s………….

Yeah, is there much of a difference between then and these times?

Yeah well first of all, big difference personally because I was just the keyboard player in the band I was never the front man, now it’s me, I’m Tommy Keyes, sometimes I play with a band, but it would be the band I put together myself and so on…………so it is different……
And the other big difference is now, and this is why I said I feel very sorry for young musicians now, in those days you could actually make money doing it, you know….the gigs all paid, there were big crowds and all that type of thing, and if you brought out an album or single people would buy it, now the venues generally don’t pay, or pay very, very little, and everyone downloads the albums, singles, or streams them whatever, I mean if you hear everything you want to hear on Spotify, why are you going to buy things, and that’s the problem. So, in terms of it been a money-making proposition it is very difficult.

But you are more catered to your audience I think due to YouTube and social media; you can go direct to your audience.

Absolutely, you can target them in that way.

Ok Tommy, just with regards to tonight’s game, any predictions on the game ………….

Mmmm………my head says we will lose, and my heart says a one all draw.

I think they lost in the cup there (To Dundalk) ……….

We played them in the League Cup on Monday, 2-1 defeat, yeah

But that was the second team maybe?

Well yeah both teams were under strength for the game you know.
Our problem this season is scoring goals, and our striker, Mikey Drennan is the only player who has scored so far this season and unfortunately, he got sent off against Bohemians last week so he is suspended so that doesn’t help. Gary Shaw is playing up front

Ok so it might be a one nil then, a narrow one nil then

I will take that now

Ninetieth minute

I will take that now.

Ok thanks very much……………….

(Game ended one nil to St Pats!)

Follow Tommy Keyes

http://www.tommykeyes.com/

I did a short and brief review of two of Tommy’s albums. I am not a great music reviewer, maybe not even a good beer reviewer, but I gave it a try.

An Irish Life: Tommy Keyes (2016)

This album is Tommy reminiscing about the olden days, the time he was growing up as a wee lad, the teenage years of angst and rock music, gigging around the country, the monotony of a working stiff, and the equal pleasures and sadness of seeing his daughters grow up and then leave home. Basically it’s the story of Tommy’s life in music, and in poetic form sang with passion and feeling. The soundtrack to his life in all its glory and wonder, just like the lives of his fellow compatriots, a life not too separated from what so many were going through in Ireland at the time, an Irish life we all know so well.

The album is cleverly set up into 4 parts: Spring, Summer, Autumn and, finishing with, Christmas. Showing the various stages of life in music form, hot stepping it as a young nipper in spring, football in the summer, sad reflections in autumn, and get togethers around the family tree at Christmas.

From the beginning we are brought into the life of a dreamer, “I was there” is the first track, taking us back to the days of late night clubs and old gigs, the craic was great and the fun Tommy had………..”Those were crazy days, I know cause I was there”, all played out to the beat of an old style light rock tempo just like what was heard back in the day. Great start, sets us up nicely, gets us in the mood…………

“Happy days” is another cracker of a tune, love it. This time Tommy goes back even further, to the excitement he had as a young nipper acting out make believe scenes as a cowboy, football superstar, or 007, like we all did when we were kids. Happy days indeed. “In our field of dreams we’ll be football teams, we’ll take to the pitch in the green shirt of Ireland, win every match on the way to the final”. Great, makes me wonder do the young ones these days, what with their Iphone and Ipads, have the same amount of fun we had when we were young, somehow I doubt it. The backing vocals on this track provided by Ellen and Cian O’Mahoney are excellent, and what makes the song stand out. There is also a nice guitar solo, from Dick Farrelly, midway through the track, just to remind you of Tommy’s rock credentials!

The soft rock and easy listening continues with the next tune, “Landscape Park”, again about childhood memories, again about football in the park, “Kick a football until dark”. Something tells me Tommy, was a keen footballer and perhaps music was not his first love!

“SmallTown Superstars”, track 4, goes off on a little tangent, more of a country twang to this song, pretty upbeat and chirpy, and another guitar solo from Mr Dick Farrelly, perhaps highlighting the mix of the showband and the new music coming from across the water, “We were children of the 50’s, we grow up with rock n roll”, before Tommy and his mates had a band themselves and while making all the local newspapers, they “were small town superstars”, for a while at least living the dream.

After the upbeat start Tommy slows it down a bit for the next few songs, a more soulful, more soothing collection of memories. “In Dublin” is about emigration, a subject I think most Irish people are only too well aware of, “We’re climbing slowly in the sky, never look behind, leaving on our own, America, Australia, we’re never coming home!”, while “Long Distance Call” is another reminder of the ways things were pre internet or pre skype when calling from afar. A call home, to loved ones, “On Bondi Beach on Christmas day the sky is clear, I just called to say I’m fine”. The backing vocals create an air of sadness and shows how distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder.

Tommy’s life has settled down as shown in the next few tracks, as a working man in “Sleep She Said“, a “cog in the wheel in a lifetime of service, when morning comes I do it all again!”, all played out with a lovely melody on the guitar. He has grown up and now has a young child, “My Little Girl“, it is a “Slowdown world for me and my girl”. track 8, mid life, mid album.

We then move onto my favourite track of the album and the song that got me into Tommy’s music, “Richmond Nights”, an ode to time spent watching St Patrick’s Athletic as a young lad, “Hand in hand, the boy and man walk to the terraced shed, find some space and take their place among the sea of red”, excellently setting out the scene of footballing seeds taking root. Tommy later sings about continuing this family tradition with his daughter, “in years to come, one will hold tight to his hand, when she’s allowed to join the crowd”. I love the way Tommy expertly shows through this song, what football is all about, the love of the game passed down, generation to generation. This is what it’s all about, the passion of the beautiful game, all highlighted perfectly in “Richmond Nights”.

More beautiful poetry in the next track, song 10, “Bloom”, another slow number, this time a song to his daughter, the memories of her growing up, and now she is in adulthood, “The rose is in bloom”. “Souvenirs” follows in the same vein, “A baby tooth, a tattered teddy bear, a lock of golden hair”. By the time we get to “Dust In My Eye”, we see his daughter has grown up, “I am standing in terminal two, handing your suitcase to you”, as she prepares to travel abroad. In “Shooting Stars”, he hopes she will return, “near or far, please be here for Christmas. All these songs are slow numbers, one follows the other, a father showing his love for his children in music form. Anyone that is a parent can empathise with this passion from the heart.

“An old Irish song” is a number with some traditional music included, there is a bodhran, the tin whistle, a fiddle, even some As Gaeilge sung beautifully by Ellen O’Mahoney and Carla Ryan. One of my favourite tracks, as it is hard to get an original traditional tune right, but Tommy does it just fine. The song is about where his mother taught.

The last track, “New Years Eve”, highlights the ending of the year, a time when we are all together as a family, and the album comes full circle, a pleasant conclusion to the life and times of Tommy Keyes. It starts like it will be a version of Auld Lang Syne but with a touch of Dublin soul. “Here we are again in New Years Eve around the family tree”. A fitting end to a great album.

I enjoyed this album a lot and in some sense it is good that Tommy has returned to music but this time without the pressures of trying to “make it” or the endless hassle of meeting album deadlines and doing gigs for self promotion. Now that Tommy has lived, his music shows a more soulful reflective mood, easy going and with a wonderful poetic style of writing easy for the listener to follow and partake in. It is a good album and one to listen to again and again.

Temptation Once Again: Tommy Keyes (2018)

Two years after “An Irish Life” Tommy returns with “Temptation Once Again”, another easy listening collection of songs, but this time the topic is love, the good and the bad of it all. The “mainstays of the live set”, were brought to life in the studio with a team of the best session singers and musicians one can find!

On the cover we see temptation…………..women, beer, the party lifestyle…………the story of my life! (yeah right!)

“Just A Simple Love Song”, kicks off the album, and what an excellent track to start with, brilliant, we get the the drums, piano, the backing vocals, violin, cello, sax, all coming together nicely, music that has a bit of everything, but “it’s just a simple love song for you”. “Snakes and Ladders”, seamlessly into song two, a similar song and mood, love is in the air…………..”feels like we’re playing a game of snakes and ladders, and we’re always falling down”, the turbulence of a rocky relationship but feels like it will all work out in the end. In both songs backing singer Ellen O’Mahoney and Tommy on lead vocals guide the songs expertly to their destination.

Track three, “By My Side” is a kind of Randy Newman style number, I half expect to hear it on the new Toy Story movie, a contemplative song, “I was searching far and wide for an answer that was right there by my side” true love was found.

“Superman”, the next track, sounds like an ode to Tommy’s parents, working the piano, while singing some soul, “little fingers wipe away the tears, pull the blanket tight around my ears”.

Track five, “It Wouldn’t Be Me”, and we are back to the Randy Newman crispy voiced pop sounds. Works well and easy to listen to. This time we see some problems from the lovers, “I can change if you want me to, I can be anyone you’d like me to be, but it wouldn’t be me!”. Richie Buckley on sax is heavy on this one. Nice tune.

We get to see the reality of life as a young musician, on “Brimful In My Soul”, “I’m empty in my pockets but I’m brimful in my soul”, the harsh life as a musician with promises of stardom, “I was playing a open mic to a crowd of nine or ten”. Temptation here, perhaps, is to pack it in, give up on your first love……………….music? A very good song, love the story in it, from the heart and a nice slow number with Tommy perhaps giving us a glimpse of the struggles he, like a lot of musicians, went through for his craft.

Track seven, “Something’s Broken”, like the previous song, is another mellow piano sound that lingers in the mind. “Lean on me and I’ll guide you home” perhaps a song showing his love towards his children? “I promise you, you’ll never be alone”

Tommy on the piano once again shining in the next number, “The Moon and the Stars”. Gerrard Farrelly softly on the drums, while the chorus “you light up the night like the moon and the stars” sang beautifully by Ellen and Cian o’Mahoney, Paul o’Toole, and Padraig MacMahon, easy going and upbeat, the couple are back in love again. And “Everyday I Fall In Love Again” an enduring love song, Tommy’s upbeat tones declaring “everyday I fall in love again with you, with you, everyday I fall in love with you”, undying love.

But is the love undying since we move onto track ten and we get “Temptation Once Again”, an easy going soul/pop number, where an older man encounters a younger woman, “she’s walks in your direction flashes you a smile”, “experience is best”, tempting for the old man. Another song where the musicians and the session band come together as one, with a great sax again by Richie Buckley, and Gerrard Farrelly on the drums again smooching it up, with, I am guessing his brother, Dick Farrelly on bass strumming out those heavy moods, all in unison, excellent track.

“Valentine” brings the pace down a bit, a slow love song with the excellent pairing of Aisling Bridgeman and Aine Gallagher on their violins in the background, a lovely song of “two lovers growing old, bring(ing) back those memories, bring(ing) back that smile”

Track 12, “Christmas Eve in Dublin”, did very well in the ITunes charts, and it’s not hard to see why, as it’s a lovely seasonal song perfect for the time of year that’s in it, meeting in the pub over pints, seeing “Just the same old faces, just the same old show Christmas Eve on Dublin, they say it looks like snow”, slow number with a lovely guitar melody running through. Pubs, pints and Dublin, what’s not to love there?

Perhaps track 13 shows what can happen if you indulge too much in the old beer drinking, as “I Was Joking”, Tommy sings about acting the maggot, playing the joker, but it got out of hand, “I never meant to hurt you, I was joking that was all”. A break up on the cards?, “Now I know the jokes on me”

Perhaps the break up has happened as in “Drunk Lullaby”, it certainly looks like lost love and someone has hit the drink, “A bottle of rye and a drunk lullaby and an old faded picture of you”, Clare Kinsella on the cello the stand out here, very good.

Bu the last track, “Land’s End”, Tommy looks back on life again, “memories, nothing more, lands end, lands end, land end” a song that reminds me of Tom Waits with his gravelly voice, contemplative and reflecting the short time we have on this little old planet we have”awaiting the last ship, to the other side, lands end, lands end, lands end”. A great song to finish a very good album, an album where time spent perfecting the songs in the studio was well worth it all with the musicians in their own unique ways come together to produce a well crafted love album. I was thinking that Tommy could be the Irish version of Louis Armstrong, Randy Newman or at times Tom Waits. take your pick! Yes it is that good!

Overall

Dublin was great, as always, the pints were and are always fantastic, and it is not hard to have a good time in the big city.

Loved meeting the guys, Eddie, Immanuel and Tommy, was really special to chat to three very talented individuals, and I wish them great success in the future. Just goes to show you the talent that one can find in this little wee country of ours.

Also must mention the fast food in Richmond, a tiny bit expensive, but the burgers were so, so tasty……………and I see I am down to be home and back in Ireland during the first few weeks of July. I notice Pats are pencilled down for a Euro tie with Norrkoping from Sweden during that time……………..mmmm………………….VERY TEMPTING…………..

Full video of interview with Tommy here

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Seans Bar, the World’s Oldest Bar

Pub watch

Sean’s Bar

Address: 13 Main Street, Athlone

Website

Well there could only be one bar that I could start the day of fun in and that would have to be Sean’s bar, just around the corner from Athlone Castle on the banks of the River Shannon.

The oldest pub on the island of Ireland, and also even in the whole wide world, with a history dating back to AD 900! Yes you read that correctly, nine hundred AD! But this isn’t just an Irish tale, the Guinness World Records have confirmed this amazing fact to be true, no fake news here!

I was lucky enough to get chatting to Timmy O Donovan who works in Seans Bar and who was kind enough to sit down with me for a small talk about the history behind the pub.

Was well impressed with Timmy’s vast knowledge of the olden times and it is quite clear that the bar does have an old, old history.

The bar itself looks very quaint from the outside, looks a bit small, but once inside you can wander around and see that it is quite big actually, a few floors too. A lot of history with many ancient artifacts on display, and the front bar is a nice and cosy place for a quiet pint. They do have a lot of space out the back and they have a large beer garden to cater for bigger crowds and to help ease the congestion from the nightly music sessions they like to have here.

When I was there early in the day there were a good few tourists in the bar, but also a nice mix of locals too, a good atmosphere was building, and the pints were a flowing. They do have a good selection of beers on tap and I tried their own stout and the red ale, both very good particularly the stout, excellent. Also had a wee drop of their whiskey. Now not a whiskey drinker, yeah I know as an Irishman that’s a mortal sin, but it tasted ok to me, least it was smooth enough! Sat at the bar and took in all the atmosphere and the mystique of the place. Loved it and would have been quite happy to have stayed here all day, but alas I had to continue on my trip around the town. Ancient Irish history, in the settings of a cozy relaxed bar, drinking great pints. If only history class in school was as interesting as this!!!

Great bar, and even if it had none of the history it still would be a top spot. Recommended, and I will be back!!!!!

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Bern, Swiss football away days 9

www.bern.com/de/detail/burgunder-bar

For my next Swiss football groundhop, I would be doing my usual bar crawl thing but this time taking in not the one, but two football games. FC Breitenrain the first game, and the famous Young Boys of Bern (German), or Berne (French), the second. Football, beer, and fun, all in Switzerland’s capital city.

Bern, a German speaking city and capital of the canton of Bern, with a population of about 140,000, is the de facto capital of Switzerland. Technically the Swiss Confederation, with its many Canton’s, has no capital but since Bern has so many governmental institutions within its walls, such as the Swiss parliament and the Supreme court to name but two, it is referred to by the Swiss as their “federal city“. It is the political HQ of the country.

The name Bern came from the time, according to local legend and folktales, of Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, the founder of the city, who vowed to name the city after the first animal he met on the hunt, and this turned out to be a bear. Thus the bear is the heraldic animal of the seal and coat of arms of the city from at least the 1220s. Since the 16th century, the city has had a bear pit, the Bärengraben, to house its heraldic animals. Currently there are four bears, now kept in an open-air enclosure nearby, and two other young bears, a present by the Russian president, are kept in Dählhölzli zoo.

The city has some early Celtic history, having had a fortified town in the north of Bern early second century BC. Then Romans came along, some Burgundy rulers, the Romans again but this time under the Holy Roman Empire, after that in 1353, Bern joined the Swiss Confederacy, becoming one of the eight cantons of the formative period from 1353 to 1481. It was also occupied by French troops in 1798 during the French Revolutionary Wars but the local citizens regained control of their city again in 1802.

Enough with the history, let’s look at a bit of geography! Bern lies on the Swiss plateau in the canton of Bern, slightly west of the centre of Switzerland and just north of the Bernese Alps. The city was originally built on a hilly peninsula surrounded by the river Aare, but over time, grew out towards the west of the boundaries and, due to immigration, expanded. From the hills you can get great views of the Old Town and the Aare river which loops around the city.

It is definitely a city rich in ancient architecture and lots of lovely sights to see. A very pleasurable experience walking round the streets, while looking for some bars to pop into, cough! The historic old medieval town (“Altstadt“) in the centre of Bern became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, and includes an elaborate medieval clock tower with moving puppets and a covered shopping promenade, all along a beautifully cobbled street.

Some notable people who have lived in this great city include clever clogs Albert Einstein, working in a patent office while thinking up the theory of relativity, Vladimir Lenin working on his revolutionary thoughts, Mikhail Bakunin the father of anarchy, Rodolphe Lindt chocolate maker, and Johann David Wyss who is best remembered for the famous The Swiss Family Robinson book.

Getting to the city is easy enough as it is fairly central in the country and the train station connects to all the major cities of Switzerland and beyond. It is the country’s second busiest train station. Bern is also well connected to other cities by several motorways.

Pub watch

Burgundy Bar

Address: Speichergasse 15, 3011 Bern

First bar of the day was this little place in the heart of the city called the Burgundy Bar. Small but cozy, at that time of the day, which was midday, it was quiet. Easy to pass by as the frontage looks more like a discreet bookshop rather than a bar.

Had a regular lager, tasted fine. Served with no fuss, all A.O.K

Drank up and went. Not much to say really as it was so quiet and not much happening this time of the morning.

Altes Tramdepot Brauerei & Restaurant

Address: Grosser Muristalden 6, Bern 3006

www.altestramdepot.ch/de/home

Crossed the famous bridge to venture over to Altes Tramdepot Brauerei & Restaurant (Old Tram Depot Brewery Restaurant), which was highlighted in all the guide books. It didn’t disappoint as the place looked brilliant, beer flowing everywhere, big copper vats on sight, Swiss style food served hot from the kitchen and the place was heaving with excitement.

Sat down and asked the friendly bar man (Alex) for some advice on what to order. Alex was kind enough to give me the low down on a few of the house specials. All beers are unfiltered, natural and are made without chemical additives. I opted for their Canadian Red Ale, which sure enough tasted fantastic. Even though the place was very crowded it was very easy to get a seat and also service was fast and efficient. I’d say you might have to wait if ordering food, didn’t look to be much spare room in the restaurant side of the place. It is a big place though so you never know!

Good vibe to the place, very friendly staff, and a great setting looking out the window at the River Aare that runs through the city. Has an outdoor terrace but it was a bit nippy the day I went, better leave that for the summer time.

They do offer tours of the brewery and explain how they make the beers, but unfortunately it’s only available in German. Hopefully they will offer an English tour in the future.

Was stuck for time so didn’t grab another pint (probably should have!) but was well impressed with this place and if back in the city for a football day out will be sure to reconnect. Recommended!

The Old City Irish Pub

Address: Kramgasse 28 – 3011 Bern

https://www.oldcity.ch/

https://www.goalfussballbar.ch/

Made my way to the “Altstadt“, along the cobbled streets in search of an Irish bar. On the phone it got me the exact location but I just couldn’t spot it, until I noticed that there are some shops and the like doing business at below street level, down cellars. So looking closely I managed to find the small Irish bar, at ground level, and down some steep stairs, so be careful!

Was a small bar for sure, but very cozy, and all set out in the typical style one might expect for an Irish bar. Was happy to see they had Smithwicks, my go to beer when back home in the old country, so naturally went for a pint of Kilkenny’s finest, even though they also had Guinness and Murphys, so it was a tough choice!

Got chatting to the bar man, Mark, who was very friendly, chatting about football and the bar. I was surprised when he told me that the bar does live music. I couldn’t quite picture where exactly they would play in such a small bar, but then it is an Irish bar so I guess those considerations never really matter! Even musicians from as far as Ireland itself were due to play in the place over the next few weeks! Nice one.

Got a quick chat with two friendly lassies that walked in for a quick drink. They were telling me how much they loved Ireland and were eager to get back. I dont know, the rain can be a pain!

Nice bar which is small and cosy in the heart of the old city, good pint, friendly service, will be back for sure if ever back in Bern for a football day out. Recommended.

GOAL, Die Berner Fussball Bar

Address: Junkerngasse 1, 3011 Bern

http://www.barbiere-bern.ch/

Not far away from the Irish bar, just down the street and at the corner is a football bar called Die Berner Fussball Bar. Another bar in a cellar where you have to step down into.

But what a nice man cave of football and beer. Brilliant set up, with a lot of football memorabilia displayed all around the place, a decent little bar, and has live football on the box (Spurs V Arsenal while I was there). Brilliant.

Sat at the bar and ordered a Felsenau lager, a local brew. Bar was busy enough, a few Young Boy fans having their beers. Funnily enough I seemed to be the only one drinking from a large beer glass, while the young boys were all sipping beer from small glasses, typical Swiss style! Can never understand that kind of thinking, if you have a chance to drink beer, ALWAYS GO LARGE!!!!

Not much banter as everyone was concentrating on the football, but the bar man was friendly enough, had a nice demeanor. I spent the time just looking at all the scarves and shirts behind the bar. Boy I love stuff like this!

Beer was fine, atmosphere was good, quiet for a football bar but it was early enough I guess, pre match tension in the air perhaps.

A sofa at the back in front of a big screen, a pool table, table football, and a nice cozy bar, all the boxes ticked for those who like the comforts of live football on the box and free flowing beer. If you are a fan of the beautiful game then this is a must see on your itinerary to Berne. Recommended!

Barbière

Address: Breitenrainplatz 40, 3014, Bern

Just before I ventured off to see Young Boys of Bern I toddled into Barbière, a hipster “trendy” cunty place. Ordered their own home brewed beer, a pale ale of some type, which wasn’t too bad at all it has to be said. Place was busy, interior was the usual minimalist, modern, design-oriented look, and the vibe was relaxed. Also have a decent outside seating area set up for those who like to chill in the cool Bern Spring air.

Have to say the three young women working behind the bar were pretty hard working, handling all sorts of interesting orders and all with good grace, excellent to see such good work in a bar. Was really good to see such friendly staff that care for the work they do providing good beer to the thirsty masses, take a bow the bar ladies of Barbière.

Not a bad place if you like your hipster joints, friendly enough place, good pint, served fast and with a smile. Can’t complain!

FC Breitenrain

Arena/Stadium: Sports field Spitalacker

Location: Spitalackerstrasse 34, 3013 Bern

Capacity: 1,500

Manager: Martin Lengen

Founded: 1994

League: 1. Liga Promotion

info@fcbreitenrain.ch

FC Breitenrain Bern are a football team from Bern, Switzerland, who currently play in in the 1. Liga Promotion, the third tier of Swiss football.
The club, who play in red and white, were founded in 1994 as a merger of the clubs FC Minerva Bern and FC Zähringia, two rather small but old Bern clubs. The current logo of FC Breitenrain consists of the two logos of both merged teams.

The club plays out of the Spitalacker Sports Ground (“Spitz”). A small ground with a wooden stand, but which was originally the old ground of BSC Young Boys, who in 1931 moved to the their new stadium Wankdorf! Originally both FC Minerva Bern and FC Zähringia ground shared for many a year, but with little real success for both teams, so a merger was always the best option in a small ground with little support.

A team where some well established top league players like to “wind down” their career, and with some plucky management, has seen the club get promotion again and again since its merger to where it lies now, a well established team in the Swiss third tier. Not bad for a smallish team with a rickety old ground, albeit with a plastic pitch!

To the game

FC Breitenrain 1 – 1 FC Basel II

02.03.2019 • Spitalacker, Bern

Attendance: 372

• Robin Huser (79′ Basel)

• Enes Ciftci (85′)

Good enough game from two teams who are mid table in their league. Possibly Basel could have shaded it in terms of play and style, but FC Breitenrain battled hard all game and deserved the draw in the end.

Ciftci scoring a crafty goal near the end of the game to equalize for the home team, after Basel scored from a rebound in the 79th minute.

Was hanging out with the few Basel fans at the game, having the chat and the banter.

Also the staff manning the little bar in the clubhouse were well friendly and nice enough to chat to me in English and inquire about my visit.

Basic ground that could do with a small upgrade but kept going with a good dedicated team of volunteers and the locals who come out to support when called upon.

Enjoyed my few hours here. Beer, the chat, football and another ground ticked off the box. Love it.

Goals here.

BSC Young Boys

Arena/Stadium: Suisse Wankdorf Bern

Location: Papiermühlestrasse 71, 3014 Bern

Capacity: 32,000

Manager: Gerardo Seoane

Founded: 1898

League: Swiss Super League

Honours:
Swiss Championships: 16 (Last 2019)
Swiss Cup: 13 (Last 1987)

info@bscyb.ch

Founded in 1898, BSC Young Boys, or Berner Sport Club Young Boys to give its full official title, is a Swiss professional football club based in Bern, Switzerland, that plays in the Swiss Super League, the top tier in Swiss football. It is widely referred to as Young Boys, and the club’s colors are yellow and black. They are one of the longest-established and most successful clubs in Switzerland, with 12 Championship and 6 Swiss Cup titles. They play out of the the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf since 2005, the second biggest stadium in the country, an all seater stadium with a capacity of 32,000 people.

University of Bern students, brothers Max and Oscar Schwab, Hermann Bauer and Franz Kehrli founded the Fussballclub Young Boys on 14 March 1898. The four of them chose yellow and black to be the club colours and the name Young Boys was created in reference to the then very popular Basel club Old Boys. They first started out playing from FC Bern’s grounds, before moving to the city centre in the sports grounds in Schwellenmätteli. Admitted into the Swiss Football Association in 1901, it didn’t take them long to get their first Swiss Championship beating FC Neuchâtel 5-0 to clinch the title in 1903. Not bad for a team of only 5 years existence and coming from out of the shadows of FC Bern. From 1909 to 1911, they won a hat trick of Championships, while at the time playing out of Spitalacker-Platz.

After WW1 the team moved to Kirchfeld, winning another league in 1920. In 1925 the club moved again, but this time to the new stadium called the Wankdorf, with a capacity at the time of over 20,000. YB now had a nice spanking new stadium, which annoyed their city rivals FC Bern no end, because the older association continued to play at the small and outdated Neufeldplatz. A championship win came in the new stadium when Young Boys once again won the title in 1929, and a first Cup title came in 1930 in front of a home crowd of 30,000 (Capacity expanded in time, upto 60,000 for the 1954 World Cup!) crowding Wankdorf as the YB beat FC Aarau 1–0. And that was to be it for a good long while, 15 years in fact until the next league title or cup victory!

After WW2, in 1945, came the next success for YB winning their second Cup against FC St. Gallen with a 2–0 victory at Espenmoos. But within two seasons the unthinkable happened, the club were relegated for the first time in their history, down to the National League B. It would be three seasons until they returned to the highest league where they would then remain for over 50 years.

The golden times for the club were in the 1950’s. Under the German player-coach Albert Sing, who was a relative novice at the time, the Young Boys were four times in a row Swiss champions (1957 to 1960) and brought in 1953 (3-1 V FC Zurich) and 1958 (4-1 V Grasshoppers) the Cup title to Bern for the 3rd and 4th time. During this time (1958–59 season.) YB reached the semi-finals of the European Cup, eventually going out of the competition 3-1 on aggregate to French team Stade de Reims. Winning the first leg 1-0 with 60,000 home fans was not enough for them to advance, but it is still the best that any Swiss team have ever done in the European Cup, and probably will never be matched in all honesty! Albert Sing left BSC Young Boys in 1964 and is still the most successful coach in the history of the club.

In the late 1960s and ’70s, little success was to be found at the club. It wasn’t until 1977 that another Cup was won, the 5th under coach Kurt Linder, beating St Gallen one nil.

But the Championship remained elusive, that is until the early 80’s when success came under manager Alexander Mandziara and his brand of attacking football that brought a title win in 1986, the first in 26 years, and 11th overall. Another Cup victory, the 6th came in 1987, when Young Boys defeated Servette FC 4–2. Beating Real madrid one nil at home in the European Cup, albeit losing the tie 5-1, another rare highlight in the 80’s.

Young Boys developed financial difficulties in 1997 and so, for the first time since the 1946–47 season, the club were relegated to the National League B (today’s Challenge League). Things turned worse as the club were found to be over 1.7 million Swiss francs (€1.08 million) in debt. They were even starting another relegation in the face as many of the team left. But a drive for more money, through an increased share option in the club, helped the club to stay afloat and build a strong enough team for promotion, which they achieved in 2001.

In 2005 the club moved into the new premises in the new Wankdorf stadium, the Stade de Suisse.

In 2018, after a break of 32 years, the BSC Young Boys, following a 2-1 home win over Luzern, became Swiss Champion for the 12th time. They followed up that success when in August 2018, they qualified for the UEFA Champions League Group Stage for the first time in their history, after defeating Dinamo Zagreb with a 3-2 aggregate score in play-off round. The coach with the midas touch, Adi Hütter, leaves YB after nearly three years to take up the reigns with Eintracht Frankfurt, already making an impact there, going for an CL place!

As I write this (15/04/2019) they just added another title, their 13th after taking the Swiss Championship again for 2019, plowing ahead by about 20 points to cap off another memorable season. A great season where as I mentioned they qualified for the CL group stage and while not doing very well, they did cap it off by beating Juventus 2-1 at home, and yes Ronnie and all their stars were playing too!!! (had a nice bet on that one too!)

I like watching Young Boys, they were definitely a team of unbeatables under Adi Hütter. Winning back to back Championships is some feat, but they did it in style, taking total control of the league and losing games at a rare rate. Watching Kevin Mbabu bombing down the wings is a treat, its a shame that the Swiss national manager, Vladimir Petković, takes the piss and continues to ignore his celar skills and ability. No wonder the Swiss national team are dull and dour. Other players that stand out to me are the Goalie, Marco Wölfli, defenders,
Mohamed Ali Camara and the captain Steve von Bergen, a midfielder, and upfront, Christian Fassnacht, another player that should get more game time with the national squad. Young Boys are not just a winning team at the moment, but a team that also play good football, which is sometimes difficult to get in Switzerland!

The Stade de Suisse is certainly a nice modern style ground, easy to get to from the city centre (Tram no. 9) and no problems with general access. Costing 350 million Swiss francs, it was built on the grounds of the legendary Wankdorf Stadium, legendary for its rather interesting name, which was demolished in 2001. The new stadium is an all seater, solar powered and has a plastic pitch (disappointedly). The stadium was one of the playing venues of the Euro 2008 championships, during which it hosted three group matches. It has also hosted the Swiss national team and the Swiss Cup finals on numerous occasions but as it has a plastic pitch these types of games are severely limited (Reverted to grass in the Euros). When the football is not on the stadia can be used to host conferences and business and social functions, while the main area can be used for concerts where the attendance can expand to 45,000. The likes of Robbie Williams, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Pink, Muse, Depeche Mode, AC / DC, One Direction, The Foo Fighters and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have all played here. The stadium is also home to one of the largest shopping centers in Switzerland!

The old ground was site of the 1954 World Cup final where Hungary were beaten 3–2 by West Germany in front of 62,500 excited fans, at that time a huge upset as the “Magnificent Magyars”, with the legendary Ferenc Puskás in their team, were the Brazil of their time. But that’s the Germans for you, grinding out a win no matter.

Tickets for a YB game can be bought online (through Ticketcorner), or at the Fan Shop at the stadium. It is easy enough to get tickets as YB games dont tend to sell out. General admission tickets are CHF 25.00.

To the game

Young Boys 1 – 0 FC Sion

02.03.2019 • Stade de Suisse

• Ulisses Garcia (90’+1′)

Attendance: 25,365

Young Boys left it very late in a game they, more or less, dominated. Garcia scoring the crucial goal for the Young Boys in the 91st minute against FC Sion.

Pretty much the whole game was Young boys attacking, especially down the wings and mostly with Kevin Mbabu whipping in perfect crosses for the YB forwards to hash it up again and again. Love watching Mbabu, easily my favourite player in this league. I do wonder when, and not if, he will leave to better pastures.

Although the YB forwards really should have put some of their early chances away with ease, it also has to be said that the Sion goalie, K. Fickentscher, was pretty immense, pulling off a few one handed saves that kept his team in it right to the end.

In the end the goal came, Garcia kind of fluking a shot that bounced off the ground and sailed into the net, very fortuitous I think. But they deserved the win and Young Boys again look like they will steam roll this league.

Decent game, in a nice ground with all the mod cons, supporters were fine showing a nice bit of colour and the odd chant at times. Had a few expensive beers in plastic cups and fast food that I could have otherwise done without but heh that’s par for the course in these modern day stadiums.

Highlights of the game here.

Overall

Loved the city of Bern, loved the cobbled Medieval streets, loved the underground bunker style shops, restaurants and bars, loved the views from above of the red tiled buildings of the Old Town and the bendy river. Many good bars with plenty of good beer. Yeah this is truly a great place to come for a footballing groundhop.

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A chat with Tom the Beer Whisperer

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A chat with Tom the Beer Whisperer, take two! As explained at start of video this was the second effort at this chat, as the previous day we had too much of an echo in the video.

Also my first effort at Goggle Hangout so be kind!!

Thanks to Tom for his patience and for sharing his beer thoughts and experiences

Check out Tom’s stuff:

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“Drugs Tour Amsterdam”

http://www.drugstour.com/

“Drugs Tour Amsterdam”

So we were lucky enough to have a 2 hour private tour with Marco from “Drugs Tour Amsterdam”, a tour group who are trying to give the low down on Amsterdam’s drug culture, both the myths and the reality. In fact I think they are the first, if only, tour group that offers this insight into the hot spots of the city including the Red Light District, and where topics include the history of Coffeeshops, what are the purpose of Heroin Users Rooms, how the police and other instutions help in the quality control and testing of illegal drugs, the religion of the Ayahuasca Church, a look at Absinthe and Van Gogh, and basic information of all the rest! Participants will also learn about the positive social implications and effective results in decreasing cannabis and hard drugs consumption of the Dutch drugs policy. The tour is informative, educational and fun. Marco, our guide, showed us around the centre of Amsterdam pointing out key landmarks and cultural reference points with regards drugs/alcohol/and the sex trade.

BOOK YOUR FREE TOUR TODAY, EMAIL: booking@drugstour.com

The History of the Red Light Zone

Amsterdam was born as a city as an international port, actually there was, with London actually with the British Empire, was one of the big empire that was going back and forth. Was born as a crossing ways and actually of course there are Sailors, with money started with prostitution.
You remember the church where we found where we met, this is called the Oude Kerk that means Old church and it has been built there in order to stop prostitution
It didn’t work!

(So prostitution was there first!)

Yes, yes the prostitute was here first and they try to make this church in order to bring some decent life and they failed totally

(So they had lots of randy priests running around the place?)

Now is came the best, on the 13^th century they decided to make it legal and the prostitutes or the tenants had to go to the priest in order to have the extension from the sin for a certain period for example. You will be free of sin for one week, so for the week they could do everything because they were very catholic and of course they had to pay, yes we are talking about the Catholic Church.

(You kind of have to respect them for that, don’t you really!)

Actually I’m Italian so I have Catholicism in my vein and I hate it! Italy is a wonderful place with a big cancer inside that is called the city of Vatican. I love the pope but the church by itself is not good

(We understand. We are from Ireland so you don’t have to tell us, you don’t have to tell us!)

That’s true, actually I think that we are spoiled as well like you
Ok, ah yes, 13^th century it become legal and actually this bring a new wave of using prostitution
First of all its not so bad the scene as in other countries
Here it’s normal, in fact here you can find during the Saturday morning, and the Sunday, and the Friday Saturday morning you can see even school that is passing by in the red-light because they have to spend one lesson about sexual stuff and so they check out the red lights, this within the cities, and they have to spend one lesson talking about drugs in the schools. So you can see sometimes the school
The fact that now its so clean and everything is perfect is because they started to show everything.
All these girls are self-employed, they pay about from 50 to 150 of rent for one day, 8 hours of window, and normally you pay from 50 to 70 euro for what they call Suck and fuck, I mean 15 minutes because they are very good in 15 minutes they are done!
Blowjob and a fuck normally with a brown (?). you have always to contract the price when you get in.
Suck and fuck maybe they are totally covered and you can not take pictures and there is a very intense security system. You see all these windows , at the back of the window there is a corridor that connects with other rooms. If they hear some scream, or she hit a hidden button, arise immediately Two or three giant men, they send you out.
In fact if you pay for the night sometimes you are yahh (drunk and angry), people like that and If they are sent out from here normally they finish in the canal!

(So do they have to pay a tax to the government?)

Yes of course. They pay taxes and actually taxes of marijuana, and taxes of prostitution are two big revenues, especially the Amsterdam city and that’s why these places are not closed. Because they makes a lot of money
There are girls that come here for making 6 to 8 months of prostitution and then they pay 5 years of university because if you think 50 minutes, lets have 3 clients per hour, 8 hours is 150 per 8 hours is already 1000 in a day

(And there is tax on this?)

Yes of course, but even taxes, because as you have costs. Ok you can say I have done ten customers, inside you have 30. Its like the coffee shop, the coffee shop as well, they pay taxes but there is no registry. And I will explain you later how it works. But in the register they can say I just sold one kilos of weed, in fact they sold 3 kilos. Because there is no register of whose coming they can sell whatever they want. But since its working good for the society….

(What do the ordinary Amsterdam people think of all this?)

Actually Its normal, its like a a sign on the corner, because its perfectly normal and its normal for example to have a neighbour that is a hooker
Here in fact, this thing I was telling you about that a drug user is not seen as a criminal. It works even for prostitutes. They are making maybe an uncomfortable job, but not a dirty job , like in all the other places. And With the systems, ok you have people who of course here there is lots of noise, people yahha, horny and back, but this way I don’t know how it is on your places but In Italy prostitution is not legal but you find hookers on the road. People who stop on the verge of the road have accident, have public disturbance and everything and this absolutely brings more criminality.
This way of course I think there are some of them are spoiled or exploited by some other people but almost 70% of the prostitutes here are here for their will not because they have been imported and forced to prostitution

(It’s the best of what you can do, I guess)

(What percentage are from the Netherlands?)

Actually from this point of view don’t really know because there is no registry, they have the guilds….but they give you no information
Some ideas in your country, Here are totally normal

(I guess with this kind of system, like with the shops closing, the situation can change very quickly, all the time?)

Yes, even the windows are under the supervision of the major that can reduce or enlarge the Red light district on his will, just enough that he just when a window finishes a license he doesn’t renew it. So in fact there was a lot more windows around here. Now if you go later will make a round when you come back one of my favourite spots because there are models

(Yeah, yeah, will I stop recording will I?)

You are married??????

Coffeeshops

Meanwhile I smoke a cigarette?

(Only cigarettes, those things will kill you, tobacco, that’s the worst!)

Yes I know but its one of the things I cannot quit, tobacco, weed and girls
Ok coffeeshops, I told you in 1976 the Netherlands decided to make this division
Hard drugs and Soft drugs and for the soft drugs they created these places that are called coffeeshops, you can in these places was and is allowed to consume and sell weed
While outside in the city is not absolutely allowed or permitted to sell or consume weed
Here In the centre of Amsterdam if you go around with a joint in the street they don’t tell you nothing because you are in the centre of duke
Just go in another place or just outside Amsterdam with a joint, if you cross the cops they stop you, they give you a fine because you are not a criminal you are doing something bad because it is for public nuisance but you are not a criminal they just give you a fine and adjourn
The coffeeshop, since they work outside the law, since cannabis is illegal and this is absolutely true, they work in this so called grey zone, that it means, grey zone, is a grey zone that is between legal and illegal , the police knows but don’t care.
There is a backdoor policy, I mean that of course they cannot buy weed from anybody because growing weed for selling is an offence and is a very big offence. If you can grow by yourself until upto 5 plants in your apartment and the 6th plant you could be arrested. Usually they take you away the plants and they let you go because anyway it is low priority
Weed and hashish seem not to make real damage to society, to other people they are not taking care
If you are talking about hard drugs they find you with a personal dose of hard drugs they take it away and they let you go. Hard dose, about 2 or 3 grams of cocaine or heroin they give you a fine, if you have more they can give you dealing charges
And actually how it works the coffeeshop
There are growers that actually usually connected to the hell angels or to smugglers that grow in apartment a huge number of plants and they sell it to the coffeeshop from the so called back door, this is the famous back door when they call they speak about the back door of a coffee shop it is this system. From the back door arrive a guy, that is called a runner with his bag full of weed, half a kilo of this, half a kilo of this and half a kilo of this
If you are a private you can go around the city with 5 grams of weed, top, without any problem
The coffeeshop can have a maximum of 500 grams in the place and the place related so even the place where the coffeeshop owner is living. So in fact sometimes when they want to close a coffeeshop they make a raid in the coffeeshop in the place of the guy and everything is related and if they find even one gram more, they’re done
Now in many cities outside Amsterdam they are required to be a resident In order to enter into a coffee shop

(Oh, Really?)

Yes, especially in the south because this is intended as a measure in order to stop the smuggling to Belgium, Germany and France

(So we couldn’t enter that place?)

No, no here in Amsterdam they don’t ask you. The minimum that you must be of legal age of 18
The coffeeshop runs with 5 golden rules. No hard drugs. No people under 18
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh

(Ha. No more than 500 grams)

No more than 500 grams in total. No weapons, no I already told that
I’m certainly tired!

(Its ok, No alcohol)

No alcohol
There is a bar.There is the trick for example. There is a bar that has near a coffeeshop, together with the coffeeshop you are going into your bar and have your joint. Your beer, you Jägermeister or..
Actually there is a bar that I have seen that you can have joints as well
This is actually an exception to the rule because they can get a fine, if they come in and we still adhere to the European law that all the places are actually no smoking and you have to have a place for smoking area
There are some bars that don’t give a shit. Sometimes you have to chip in 10 cents in order so when they come they get the fine they already have the ……
And If they fail in any of these 5 rules, the premises is closed immediately. No mercy about that
In fact this is another thing that makes this thing work, you have boundaries in which you can do whatever you want
Just step outside these boundaries they are going to beat you very hard

(Kind of like self-policing then, they know…)

Exactly, but for example even for drug addicts, junkies of heroin some people that are in a certain state that they are really very addicted, old, this kind of stuff. They have no money they (the government) normally give house, and some money for living and the drug and the Heroin for the daily dose. If they are caught in doing something illegal but even if they, I don’t know, sleeping on the street or this kind of stuff, they lose all their privileges
This way they are actually motivated, motivating them in order to behave

(A set of rules, follow them!)

So in this way many of the junkies actually have an active social life, they have a job, they pay the taxes, and some people that they meet, they are kind and normal people and from a point of view this is incredible, its quite a miracle because really heroin is one of the most destructive drugs ever seen, well now there is even worse but………..

Treatment centres for heroin users AND Ayahuasca

And this place is are the first source for help and treatment for heroin user. They have a very high percentage of people that are recovering without falling back

(Are people sleeping up there?)

There are rest room, they cannot sleep overnight because it’s not a hostel, but there are hostels all around the city even for junkies that they have to go here in order for their stuff and then for sleeping they have to go, for example, near the central station

(If something bad happens, I mean, there is medical help?)

There is residence of medical, there is, actually the lady on the first floor that is the one that is handling and sending the people to this room was an ex addict.That After 25 years of addiction She give up and she recovered completely, went to a community in the south of the Netherlands, and came back and she started to volunteer here, and now is 5 years.

(Can I bring that back to the first, eh The church of Acahuasca (Ayahuasca!))

Ayahuasca!

(Sorry I am …)

Ayahuasca, it was difficult for me, its an Inca word!

(So many people say that it’s a pretty good way of getting off heroin and hard drugs, because it’s a shock to the system, I mean I don’t know…..)

Absolutely, there are many people use it but this is not related to the religion because the religion is one thing you do all this kind of stuff

(Yeah I’m just wondering if that idea has been…)

No not yet, they are using a methadone programme in order to escalate it but lately they…

(Because some countries are thinking of that, I know Brazil and America…)

Yes but there is the problem of mental state, usually an addict is not mentally free, in order to have this kind of psychedelic experience you must have an inner balance that is powerful, this is why actually they don’t, ok I want to do Ayahuasca and you are making the rite of two month. It’s the priest that decides when you are ready because he sees you, about yeah, now you are ready, even if you have a problem because many people really they solve the problem during this trip
Actually it’s a sort of very similar to the Rite of the coming of age of the Indians of the Incas of America, that you do this very intense experience that makes you know yourself very well, and actually I think this is the real trick in the Ayahuasca, I mean that you have self-knowledge, and actually I can tell you……….

(A self-humility maybe is it?)

More than humility, you know more, you can except your limits, and honestly everybody takes drugs , me as the first person that has smoked and I did lots of ecstasy , amphetamine, and lot of things in the past because I was not comfortable with my limits , with my, that part of myself I didn’t like it. And the trip, sometimes if its done in a proper way can help you like that
The Ayahuasca treatment that you are talking about is actually is more shocking, and this is why it’s still controversial because it really like if your ice bucket in the face of ……….

(It is a kind of shock thing)

Yes exactly but there is a risk that ok, he give up with heroin, but he give even with social life
In fact psychedelics, some class of psychedelics, LSD, morning glory or Hawaiian baby woodrose that are hallucinogenic seeds and Ayahuasca must be treated very, very carefully
Because if you do the wrong steps you are fucked. Totally!

Be Careful!

They was conning you in an incredible way, even now if you go around there back and forth you will hear someone with their lips…..coke, and this kind of stuff. My suggestion is never take this kind of stuff because they always con you. You can get for coke a lidocaine that actually is an aesthetic, very similar, the same. If you try that, the cocaine is an aesthetic, you do like this (rub into your gums, etc) your mouth will disappear. The same with lidocaine but it doesn’t do nothing.
And there is, I’m going to show you, (rummages through his bag)
Ok, These are one of the most famous pills sold for ecstasy, you see there is an S. They are triangle, they are fake because they are, this one (aspirin) and they are sold even now.
For doing that, you see that because these (the aspirin) are giving by the police, so I can show you the lidocaine as well
This is lidocaine, its used by dentists, for anesthetising your mouth, and is sold as coke. If you are lucky, because if you are lucky you just get this stuff it doesn’t really harms you too much.
If you are unlucky you can……………

(So how much would one of those (lidocaine) be then, if they were selling them?)

10 euro, 12 euro

(ok, wow, for tourists they can have a field day)

1.5 euro expense euro and there are 15 pills inside, so let’s make a calculation. Yeah, there are people here who make a living just coning the tourists

(That would be an easy kind of thing to do, I suppose!)

(Sure everyone is out of their mind!)

(Lot of tourists coming here, I would feel, I mean I see a lot of people walking around completely spaced out!)

(Like do people fall into the canal, on a regular basis?)

Yes, Mostly Tourist and because they are doing psychedelics
I work in a smart shop during the day, and we sell Truffles, psychedelic truffles, these one gives you a lot of hallucination and believe me, and i that strongly believe that 80% of the people who fall in the canal because of these mushrooms

(And do a lot of people die in the canal?)

Not dying but getting bad diseases because actually its not clean this water, you can have from Rats, leptospirosis. Surely for skin disease you can have liver hepatitis. You come inside healthy you came out very, very ill!

(So that stats are good obviously, you are going to show us some impressive stats)

Yes exactly, because checkout, this is In the USA and in the Netherlands
People that used Once or more cannabis or cocaine once in their life
(for cannabis) In the US 14% in the Netherlands 22%
This is half and we are talking about residents that tried at least once
For cocaine 13% against 3 .4
This at least means that this policy keeps away the people that are not really intending to making drugs, starting with the drugs because here you have so many opportunities and alternatives you dont want to take the ecstasy. There are many alternatives that can boost you up, you don’t want to take the heroin. There is a a crouton (?) that has the same affects and is totally legal. And it is Not addictive
This policy gives the people the choice and actually they are making an even a big education in schools about the dangers of drugs. It is very unlikely that someone goes on cocaine, on ecstasy
As you can see even that its working
Check this out. In Europe.This is the number of problematics of drug users in the EU
Actually, The uk are on top

Safety

Here (junkies) have places where to go, you cannot see it. Walk around freely, you are not scared about someone comes up with a Syringe. Besides that, check out everywhere you look there is a camera. For one camera that you see, there is three that you don’t see So here this is the safest place in Europe, After London……………….

Absinthe

(What is Thujone, you mentioned that before ?)

Thujone, yes, Is a active component Of absinthe

(Is it the name of the molecule or something …?)

It’s the name of the substance. Taken out from the worm wood plant that is distilled and it’s a psychoactive component that open your mind, and in high quantities, gives you hallucination.
When he was doing absinthe, whoever was doing absinthe, in the old times, I mean the 17^thcentury, 18^th century the distillation was not perfect and was producing another elements that was connecting with your brain cells and was making the stopping with each other, stopping the connection with each other, and stopping the synapses
These are some of the paintings that has been Inspired by absinthe. This is one of the most famous, called the Muse
In fact I make electronic music, when I was making a bottle of absinthe I was making an album in one night. Maybe it was shit but I loved it!

(Yeah, yeah, you had a Lot of energy)

What do the Dutch think?

This is how the Dutch think about the period of danger of drug. They make a scale of 9 points for personal damage and 7 points for damage to society
As we can see Alcohol is the worst, it’s very wide, it’s used by everybody. There is no emphasising and no education about that.
And check out the less problematic is the mushrooms, but that is 6 scale for the society problem because When you are eating mushrooms, the trouffles, you make noise.
Alcohol is the first, heroin and cocaine, and then you have methadone,
Cocaine, tobacco, and these things I don’t know antidepressant stuff

(It kind of makes sense, I think that list makes sense)

Lsd, and this one no personal harm

(Really I would have though,LSD you’d get a bad trip and…)

Mental
This is to show this is working, and this is why these are legal here and while in all over Europe they are not legal and the alcohol which is the worst is legal everywhere.
Its actually Bullshit from my point of view. If the countries just put some more alcohol education, because alcohol is wonderful like any kind of substance it is done in a certain way and the right way it’s a great thing. But if you abuse it then have lots of problems and actually there are lots of deaths for alcohol, not a single death for weed, not directly related. There are Some accidents, car accidents and this kind of stuff, some people, for example, fall into the canal, people here during the winter they got stoned they fall asleep, freeze to death. And these are related, but not directly related, and this is why its free, and that’s all………..

(Can I ask is there any negatives. Anybody rallying against this in Holland, in the Netherlands, is there any groups that are against all this…..?)

Yes because there are always people that wont like the fact that you have the freedom to do whatever you want. But they are shot down by the results because believe me when they started to apply this policy and did a social study on it. Because its not enough that you divide the market, you have to take care of the people that will anyway will do hard drugs no matter what because they will do it anyway. You can put them in jail and they are going to get the drugs in the jail. You can make them fine and they are going to steal, and besides that with all this kind of stuff there is more crime

(But what about the Local residents?)

The local residents in the area are mostly tourists, not tourists, mostly expats
For the locals actually they have no problem, and besides Amsterdam is one city
The Netherlands is totally different, they are in the south more open, in the north, closed, and very racist, and in fact there is no coffeeshop in every city. Because If the major doesn’t want it, the people doesn’t want it, no coffee shop in the cit.y
But the majority of the Dutch doesn’t give a shit about weed because they are so used (to it)
Everyone smoking, drunk and having a party, and this is strange but it works
In fact, there are for example, In the bars where they sell alcohol there are about 1000 calls a of the police a month, we are about 2 calls a month in the coffeeshops because anyway cannabis can is a drug that makes you more relaxed while alcohol makes you urgh!
Talking about governments, UK and the United States are against and criticising this kind of policy a lot
But here in Europe they are starting to be a change of thinking I mean they are starting to get used to the idea that weed and hashish are not so dangerous as they can think.
That they really are the First steps to the hard drugs If you don’t separate the market
In the US, Colorado, Florida and California and Washington now they can sell weed. Colorado made in one month of Selling weed as many taxes as doing taxes in the city for commercial premises. One month AND they went to the school,I mean just think about that!
The market. The legal market there are some kind of substances that are not harmful so its stupid that they are illegal but not from a point of view from an objective point of view, because if you make the alcohol legal that is very dangerous, you make….Why the weed that is not so dangerous

The Tour

(How long have you been doing this tour?)

This now 6 months, and im doing research for 3 months because now we are expanding.
And they give me some materials and I started to expand it and in fact even now its still a growing creature. We are asking for permission from the police and the government In order to have access to more information and to some person, for example we would like to make an interview and make it on paper in order to make it available to our tours, for the drug users Injection room people for example or somebody from the ayahuasca, but in order to do that we need some permission because actually as we really want to do the stuff in the correct way
We have a private tour that as you can see you can ask everything and we can make a different and we have on Friday a fixed tour that is free on a tip basis
We have a group that is just more casual we talk about the coffee shop
A group that is just drinkers, we talk about the absinthes, the hangover information and so on
Actually I can tell you I am very proud of this small creature that is growing
We are telling people how is the real stuff here

(The reality)

Because believe me there are lots of myths about this city, and some are true!

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Sleaford Mods n Drugs Tour of Amsterdam

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Bohemians, football away days

So off on another League of Ireland ground-hop, into Dublin this time to see Bohemians in Phibsboro, and make it 7 out of the 20 completed, to tick off on the LOI list!

Phibsborough, or Phibsboro, is a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood in North Dublin hugging the The Royal Canal. A typical red-brick terrace area, with the odd Victorian style looking pub and the always busy Doyle’s Corner thoroughfare.

A good key land mark is St Peter’s Church, a nice church that dates back to 1862, the National Botanic Gardens are situated in nearby Glasnevin, and the vast Phoenix park with Dublin zoo not far off too. And if you fancy some Gaelic sports, then Croke Park is also within walking distance.

The area is a nice mix of locals, people working in the city, and students who attend the DIT or are training in the Mater Hospital. As a result the area is well built up, has all the amenities you would expect from a smallish town, and is served by a good supply of decent pubs.

Notable residents include actor Michael Gambon, of Harry Potter fame or Shakespearean thespian, depends on your age I guess, Éamon de Valera, former Taoiseach and President of Ireland and also James Joyce spent a while here in his early formative years.

Easily reachable by a whole swathe of Dublin Buses, the area will also soon be linked to the city centre via the Luas Cross City Line network, of course one could walk from O Connell Street which could take you about 30 minutes or less.

Pub watch (and Cafe’s!)

Seventy Four Talbot bar

Address: 74 Talbot St, Dublin 1

http://c11407968.wixsite.com/ryan

First bar of the day, just off the train and thirsty, hopped in to Seventy Four Talbot Bar, on ……surprise surprise….Talbot Street. Up until very recently this used to be Mother Kellys bar, a decent bar that was always quite popular and always busy, so I was interested to see what the new guys had done. They have done a good refurbishment, and it looks the part alright, but I wonder does it have any character as now it looks like an identikit Dublin bar with all the wooden floors and polished furniture. As it was still early there weren’t many customers, ordered a Smithwicks, which went down well, then quickly left as I went off to get my hair cut, as I so often do when I’m home (its really expensive to do in Switzerland!)

Pint was decent, staff friendly, place looks smart, clean and good. Will return when busier to get a better feel for the new place, but looks promising.

The Confession Box

Address: 88 Marlborough Street, Dublin,

Next up was the Confession Box, a pub that the brother recommended, and is considered one of the best pubs in the Northside. A lovely looking frontage, while inside it had a pretty decent early afternoon crowd in, a bit packed in a smallish intimate bar, I guess that’s why they call it the confession box, that and also cause its not too far from St. Mary’s Pro- Cathedral! Horse racing on, boisterous enough crowd, pints a flowing, doing some good trade.

Apparently it was Irish revolutionary, Micheal Collins, favourite watering hole. And this also ties in with the name, as many of Collins men during the War of Independence would receive confession here from the priests of “The Pro”, after some of their heroic deeds in the fight for independence, but I do wonder was Collins much of a drinker. I am a drinker and so ordered a Smithwicks, but I probably should have ordered a Guinness as I read later they do one of the best pints in Dublin, but truth be told I wasn’t in the mood for the black stuff on the day.

Established in 1795, as it says on one of its doors, it is an old pub with a variety of different names and owners since then. The bar is quite tiny, and we were lucky we got seats, but there is an upstairs as well.

There is a great deal of memorabilia and old photos adorning the walls of the pub featuring a lot from the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence, and Dublin in the rare old times, amongst other stuff. They do sell T Shirts and key rings, which to be honest is a little naff and don’t look worth getting, I mean its an ordinary pub at the end of the day, not Disneyland!

I liked this bar, was small and comfy. The pub had a nice mix of locals and tourists, and I am sure if we had stayed longer we would have got into conversation with some of its clientele. The service was fine, and the pint good. Will be back for sure and hopefully next time will try to catch some of the live music that they are renowned for putting on, all for my sins!

Fusciardi’s Cafe

Address: 27 Marlborough Street, Dublin 1

Was pretty hungry at this stage as we had skipped breakfast so we decided to have some fish n chips in Fusciardi’s Cafe just up the road from the Confession Box.

An Italian chipper where you can sit down, they serve food fast and the place is well known for serving great food, especially the fish n chips, for over 80 years now to Dubs and people hoping to get a quick bite as they head up to catch their bus/train home to the country! It has a very relaxed setting and people eat away minding to their own business.

Was busy enough, service friendly, the fish n chips were fine as expected, got well fed, stomach lined and ready for more beer. Like most Irish people, we LOVE our little Italian chippers. Result.

The Metro Bar

Address: 155 Parnell St, Dublin D1

Popped in to the Metro for a pint, and it was a very fast pint, as I had to start making a move on to Dalymount. Nice interior, ordered a Tennent’s Lager which was fine.

Is a sports bar so had a lot of sporting memorabilia dotted around the place.

Small midday crowd, good service, decent pint and that was that.

Bang Bang Cafe

Address: 59A Leinster St North,
Phibsborough,Dublin 7

http://bangbang.ie/

I was due to meet Daniel who is a Strategic Planner for Bohemians, and meet him at his place of work which was his Bang Bang Cafe and Delicatessen not too far off from Dalymount itself.

After a few twists and turns we eventually found it tucked away at the end of a side street. We were surprised to see such a cafe hidden away from the main street in a quiet residential area.

Daniel set up the place with his sister in 2015, looking to open something new in an off street location where people could come and go, enjoy their coffee and food with chill out tunes and friendly vibes all in a relaxing environment. Also important was that any products on sale should be, if possible, local.

Bang Bang Cafe takes its name from a well known Dublin character. During the 1950’s and 60’s, Thomas Dudley, acted out the life of a cowboy on the streets of Dublin. “Bang Bang” he went at bus and tram passengers, playing with his gun, ie a big church key that he used to carry round with him. It was all fun and games as many used to actively participate in the high jinks and return fire and play dead on the city streets. What great craic it must have been to see a whole street turned into the Wild West all due to the imagination and humour of one eccentric, Bang Bang.

He was immortalised in The Dubliner’s song The Mero which included the line “Bang Bang shoots the buses with his golden key”.

Despite given so much joy to ordinary Dubs, Bang Bang himself had not the best start in life. Both parents died when he was young so he spent a lot of his early life in an orphanage.

He passed away in 1981, aged 74, in a Home for the Blind run by the Rosminian Fathers in Drumcondra and was buried in an unmarked grave in the grounds of St Joseph’s Cemetery.

The fact he was buried in an unmarked grave troubled Daniel, so much so that he decided to set up a GoFundMe account to get a decent burial place for one of Dublin’s characters. With the help of the cafe, over a hundred ordinary Dubliners donated to the cause and raised enough money to erect a plaque at the grave of Bang Bang. On the 28th of August 2017, the plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mícheál Mac Donncha, on the site of Bang Bang’s unmarked grave. A fitting tribute to Thomas Dudley and hats off to the Bang Bang Cafe for the lovely gesture and for keeping the story alive.

(on a side note: wonder do people remember the Diceman who entertained my generation on the streets of Dublin, wonder has he got a memorial?)

Was great to chat to Daniel about Bohs, and his cafe. Only had a coffee but can definitely say that the place was buzzing and I must say it had a better atmosphere going on than a lot of the bars I had visited that day, excellent.There are also many books on art, politics and football available to have a gander, and they also sell retro clothes and all sorts of nick nacks.

Will definitely like to check it out again, even if I am not a big coffee drinker, but I must try their Brunch Burgers as I have read that they are legendary, and I do like me burgers!

Long Island Bar (Joxer Daly’s)

Address: 103 Dorset Street Upper, Dublin 1

http://glynnswellingtonhouse.com/

Ventured up to Dorset street to check out two pubs, Glynns and the Long Island Bar.

Not a bad crowd in, nice enough bar, settled down to try a new beer, ordered a Dublin Blue Lager from the Beer Factory, who ever they are. Bar man did a great job on the pint and it looked fantastic. Good news is it also tasted great, definitely a beer to check out again in the future. They should do a Mayo version just for the laugh!

Good pub, good service, and nice pints. Simples.

Glynns pub (The Wellington House)

Address: 100 Dorset Street, Dublin 1

At the corner we went into Glynns and this time I went back to the old reliable, a pint of Smithwicks. This bar had a good friendly and relaxed atmosphere going on, also interesting to watch some Polish fellas play pool very badly, and the pints were great and served well.

Lovely decor inside with a lot of famous pictures and photos of Irish musicians of the present and the past. Another good pub to add to the long list of decent Dublin boozers.

The Hut (Mohan’s)

Address: 159 Phibsborough Road, Dublin 7

http://www.thehutbar.ie/

http://bohemianfc.com/?page_id=83

We decided to have one last pint in a new pub for us, just before we headed into the ground. Having already been in Doyles before, on the corner, which is a great pre match boozer, we decided to try somewhere new, so to The Hut with its inviting exterior. The Hut is a family owned traditional Victorian bar on Dublin’s North side.

Also decided to try for the first time the Hop House 13 Lager which wasn’t anything extraordinary from Guinness.

Apparently The Hut got its name from the hut-style dwellings the locals lived in when the bar opened its doors way back about 150 years ago. Not sure about that but what I do know is that it is a nice pub, with a lovely traditional interior, has good service and decent pints, all well and good…

The Members Bar/the Phoenix Bar

Address: Bohemians F.C, Dalymount Park, Phibsborough,
Dublin 7

The beauty of Dalymount is that it has not one, not two, but three bars for supporters to wet their whistle, the Members’ Bar, the Phoenix Bar and the Jackie Jameson Bar. Not a lot of LOI clubs can even manage the one so thats a great venture for the club to offer fans on matchdays, top notch stuff there!

The main bar – the Members’ Bar – is open every Friday and Saturday evening, as well as every Sunday from 12pm. It also open early on Bohs match-nights and for other televised sporting events.
The Phoenix Bar and Jackie Jameson Bar are open on match-nights and available to hire as function rooms.

Even though its called a Members bar it seems anyone can walk between it and the Phoenix bar with ease. Not much difference between the two, as they were both packed to the rafters with supporters having the beer and the craic. Good atmosphere brewing in both bars for the game.

Didn’t get into the Jackie Jameson bar but then I am not that important as it is mainly for VIP’s and Guests of Honour.

Ordered the Bohemian craft beer, which was rank, disgusting. But then went for the Five Lamps Dublin Lager which was excellent, a nice find. The Five lamps was so good I will definitely be checking it on next time I am home.

Tickets into the ground cost €15.00, and that includes the game, least you dont manage to actually leave the goddamn bar!!!

Bohemians

Arena/Stadium: Dalymount Park

Location: Phibsborough,
Dublin 7

Capacity: 4,300

Manager: Keith Long

Founded: 1890

Leagues: League of Ireland Premier Division

Honours
• League of Ireland/Premier Division: 11 (Last 2009)
• FAI Cup: 7 (Last 2008)

lynn@bohemians.ie

Nicknames: Bohs, The Gypsies, The People’s Club

Bohemian Football Club, the Bohs, is a professional football club from the Northside of Dublin. They were founded by a bunch of students, way back in 1890 at the Phoenix Park Gate Lodge beside the North Circular Road entrance.

One of the founding members of the League of Ireland in 1921, Bohemians are the oldest League of Ireland club in continuous existence, and are also only one of two clubs (St Pats) that have never been relegated from the top flight.

It didn’t take long for the club to win its first title, winning its first league title in 1924. And more early success followed as the club won four more titles and two FAI cups by the 1930’s. But that was in the good old days of amateur football, and so with the advent of professionalism and the club unable to sign players as an amateur club, they went 34 seasons without anything at all. They finally went professional in 1969, and broke their barren spell in 1975 winning their sixth title, and another one in 1978 with two FAI Cup wins thrown in for good measure. Another trophy-less spell came until the noughties when they won four league titles and two more FAI Cups, making Bohs the third most successful club in League of Ireland football history, having won the League of Ireland title 11 times and the FAI Cup 7 times.

European wise they have had not much success, but they did eliminate Aberdeen from the UEFA Cup in August 2000. In the next round they came up against Kaiserslautern of Germany and although they lost the tie, they did beat their more illustrious opponent away. Its not often that a LOI team can beat both a German and British team in one season. They also beat Rangers 3-2 at home in 1984 in the Uefa Cup, in a very bad tempered game both on and off the pitch. Of course they also got a 4-0 away hammering from the mighty Total Network Solutions to lose the tie 4-1, which was pretty embarrassing at the time. A game I was at, and am still in shock about.

Bohemians played their first games in the Phoenix Park’s Polo Grounds, after that they played in numerous different locations, in Jones Road, Old Belvedere, Glasnevin, but it wasnt until 1901 that they decided on Dalymount Park, in the neighbourhood of Phibsborough, where they have stayed ever since. It has been said that this is how they got their name….Bohemians and the nickname of the “Gypsies”….with all the wandering around looking for a ground to call home.

A lot of Irish international games were played there before the national team moved to Landsdowne Road in the early 1990’s. Many memorable Irish games were played out to a packed Dalymount, 45,000 people cheering on. A 3-0 thrashing of the Soviet Union in 1974 one famous night where “The Dalymount Roar” was in full effect. Pelé, Beckenbauer, Zidane, Van Basten, Charlton and Best, all the greats have lined out here in what many people call the “spiritual home of Irish football”

Dodgy land deals done during the era of the Celtic Tiger put the club in debt and on the brink of collapse, with its members selling the ground not once but twice to developers but with nothing to show for it. But in March 2015 Dublin City Council announced that it would purchase Dalymount park for €3.8 million, thus wiping out the clubs debt.The Council plans to demolish and rebuild the old ground on a phased basis at a cost of €20 million, into a new modern ground with a total capacity of about 8000, and to groundshare it with local rivals Shelbourne. This all comes at a good time as the stadium, loved by the Irish footballing community and all, is in terrible disrepair at the moment, as on big match days only two of the stands are used, making a lot of the ground look bare. The Jodi Stand is the main stand in Dalymount, and this is where the Bohs singing section are located at the far left of the stand.

Their club colours are red and black, which they adopted at the 4th AGM in October 1893.

As Bohs’ fan base is mainly drawn from the northside of Dublin their supporters share a bitter rivalry with Southside club, Shamrock Rovers.

To the game

Bohemians 3-2 St Pats

22.09.2017 Dalymount

2 ‘Ismahil Akinade (Bohs)
3’ Christy Fagan (Pats)
16’Daniel Corcoran (Bohs)
52 ‘Daniel Corcoran (Bohs)
65’ Conan Byrne (Pats)

Attendance: 2,543

Barely had time to settle in my seat when Bohs went one nil up, In just the second minute, Paddy Kavanagh down the left, passed across to Ismahil Akinade who headed home at the back post. A well worked goal and a great start to the game.

But if you thought that was quick, then the equaliser was even quicker, Pats were right back in the contest, just one minute later when a long ball from Barker on the right was latched onto by Christy Fagan who with great effort slid the ball under the Bohs keeper to equalise.

Fagan was getting a lot of luck down the right, in the first half especially, while at the other end Akinade was causing the Pats defence all sorts of problems what with his lanky frame and decent ball control for a tall fella!

The game turned on its head when in the 15 minute Gavin Peers got tangled up with Akinade’s big legs and gave away a penalty. Was it a penalty? I am not so sure but Dinny Corcoran converted to give the home side a deserving 2-1 lead. And to makes matters worse for Pats, Peers was also sent off with a straight red card. A huge amount of excitement in a jam packed first twenty minutes, scintillating stuff.

Keith Ward was a lively wire too who went close on a number of occasions, a nice free just over from 25 yards out, and long rage effort that was oh so close but for a finger tip save from the Pats keeper.

Not long into the second half, Dinny Corcoran scored again. This time he slotted home from a loose ball to give the Bohs a two goal lead. It was a pity I missed it as I was still making my way from the bar, damn it.

On the 65 minute Conan Byrne got himself some space on the right (where it was happening all the time for Pats), cut inside and scored a decent goal, to give pats some hope.

Pats had one more chance when Conan Byrne, that man again, had a great chance to get an equaliser when his stretching shot came off the crossbar, unlucky, but I don’t think Bohs deserved to lose this game.

Was impressed, very impressed, with Keith Ward who was pretty awesome in the central of midfield, creating opportunities any chance he had and also linking up well with the front two. he was also very unlucky not to score with some fantastic shots that were close. Along side him in midfield, Fuad Sule also caught the eye. A really small compact player who can pass well, and gets himself about the park, excellent. I really hope Bohs keep onto these two for next season, as with the front two of Dinny Corcoran and Ismahil Akinade they have the making of a serious team. I guess that’s what Keith Long is doing. He is a manager I have rated in the past and I guess it is taking him time to get things to gel with Bohs. But he would really want to push on for next season, now that he is in his third and a bit season…..but I expect good things for next season……roll on 2018!

As for Pats, well they are a two person team, Conan Byrne and Christy Fagan, and that’s about it for them.

Interview

Short chat with Daniel Lambert, a Strategic Planner with Bohemian Football Club Limited (and also co-owner of the Bang Bang Cafe)

email: daniel@bohemians.ie

Daniel Lambert is my name and I look after a lot of the strategic planning for bohemian football club.

They call Bohemians, I see on the advertisement, the peoples club, can you explain that please?

Yeah, basically I suppose soccer has been, in recent years, football or soccer has been associated with owners, individuals, corporations and Bohs is the complete opposite of that. For 127 nearly 128 years we have been owned by a couple of hundred ordinary men and women, in Dublin, so it’s the peoples club in the true sense. Someone like Everton used the phrase when it actually doesn’t hold true, the club is literally owned by ordinary people, and its ran for their enjoyment and to be passed onto another group of people.

And what ways have the club reached out to the ordinary people?

Oh we do a whole litany of things, you may have seen earlier this week we were selected, 12 LOI clubs applied for youth funding in a project called More than a Club and that’s a reflection on how good clubs are integrating into the local community. Ourselves and cork were selected, yesterday is was announced
We do walk in football with mentally challenged people, walk in football with older people, we do a programme in Mountjoy prison to try and help people refrain from reoffending when they emerge from prison, there is actually a group, our club president, is over a prison in the Netherlands right now, tonight, a group of ex-prisoners in Mountjoy are playing with a group of bohs players over there
We do a whole range of things, we have a project for school completion and….

So what about yourself, how long have you been supporting Bohs….?

I was brought since I was a baby….so 30 years.

so you had no choice then

No, no choice at all!

Best season all those years?

For me actually the best season was probably last season! As a fan I suppose I was unusual in that I was on the board for a lot of the years, we had severe trouble and I actually realised in retrospect that the Fenlon years and the other years where we won a lot of trophies behind the scenes were the worst years the club had ever had. And id hand them all back if I could and not have almost destroyed the club.
I think that last year there really was a sense of togetherness, Dalymount was saved, we had a group of honest players on the pitch and we didn’t win anything but for me the feeling around the club is better than its ever been.

So was that serious then, really?

Absolutely. The club blew a serious amount of money in a very short space of time for trophies that really don’t mean anything if you talk about preserving your club that was passed down, that was put in severe jeopardy for trophies over a very short space of time.

then I guess the general consensus is that Keith Long is doing a good job?

Amazing job, yeah, in fairness, Keith’s done a great job and I suppose for Keith he has come to Bohs at a time everyone is fully aware of the situation and what we are trying to do and he has been giving an awful lot of leeway that perhaps other managers weren’t in the past and that’s a good thing. People are realistic about where we are, what our budget is and they know we are not going to win the league, and when you put a group of players on the pitch like Keith has who just have effort and honesty about them, it’s hard not to applaud them
(so this season so far, your more or less mid table, your safe aren’t you?)
Yes, I think we are more or less safe. It would be nice to win tonight, you know Pats were one of the clubs that wanted to go for the ten team league, so id love to see pats go down, and we weren’t in favour of it obviously, yeah so I hope we win tonight and I think we will finish mid table.

your cult hero of the club, all those years?

Tony O’Connell

for what reason then?

Well he built the Jodi stand, he is the honorary life president, played for the club, and he stuck around. Tony will be here tonight, and Tony, in those years we were stuck for money, the first person up to write a check or to try to get people together was Tony. And that’s a man in his late seventies. So fair play to him.

so tonight’s game then, st pats, shud be a good game, their real pressing teams

Id say both teams to score

a draw maybe

I think so, one all, or two all either way, pats usually come to Dalymount looking to not concede first so they can’t do that tonight, and our home form has been atrocious, so I think both teams will score and then 2-1, two all or one all.

any players to look out for tonight that maybe general fans wouldn’t know about, under the radar

For us, Fuad, I mean Fuad will be going to England by the looks of things, he is a phenomenon player, he came from Pats under 19’s

definitely then going to score tonight so!

I think he is our best player

its worth a fiver

And of course, wardy after the hat trick up in Drogheda.

and the atmosphere tonight, what should we expect?

The atmosphere will be good. Dalymount is difficult in that , you know we are fully aware that the ground has two sides realistically, so you are creating noise on two sides which isn’t ideal, but Bohs n Pats its one of the better atmospheres, I think you will be pleasantly surprised, obviously us and rovers isn’t comparable to any other game we play, so this ranks up there with one of the better atmospheres

is it difficult to get punters in all the time?

Not anymore no, we turned a huge corner, that the perception of bohs, and its something we have worked on very hard, the perception of bohs has changed massively, when you go in there tonight, you will see there will be quite a lot of tourists, quite a lot of girls, and the kind of demographic at bohs games has shifted quite a lot in the last few years. we haven’t lost anyone, we have just added on a new group of people.

I see you are linking up with other teams as well, you have FC United…

Fc United, we have good links with st pauli in hamburg

really, wow

yeah its something we have really tried to press home

will there be a sparkling of German and……

yeah you will see it here, there will be german, French, Spanish, they will be drinking the bohs craft ale, there will be hipsters everywhere

you have three bars

So The one in the middle is the members bar, generally older demographic in there, mainly bohs members, the bar on the far left is the phoenix walking in that’s generally our singing section, there is a jukebox in there, lots of pictures of past gigs in Dalymount, the one on the far right isn’t open to the public that’s our sponsors bar, it opens up after the game.

will I see Johnny Logan tonight?

You might!

brush shiels?

You will see brush shiels,
You will see, who else will be here….
James Kavanagh is coming tonight, im picking james up in the jeep, you know james kavanagh, the snap chat celebrity

No, sorry

John Kavanaghs brother, McGregor’s coach. So james is coming to tonight and he is snapchatting the whole night

im just after realising the name of the bar (café)…..bang bang , you were in the news recently…

Yeah we got a gravestone made for bang bang, on rte news

bang bang?

Used to shoot a key around Dublin

it was only recently, what 2 or 3 weeks

2 weeks ago
I know you cant see this now obviously as we are speaking, but the idea behind this and its something we have tried to say to other clubs, happening more and more is with this picture obviously its red and black but beside that its everything you wouldn’t expect to see on a football poster, no crest, no footballer, and there is a woman in it and that’s done on purpose as very often the FAI try to market the league and they miss the point, they put up a player in a jersey and a kit, that only appeals to existing fans….
But you see this, first of all you are thinking what’s it about……..but it kind of draws you in….

questions, questions

Yeah and that’s something we have tried to bring across all our engagements with the public…

so what about shamrock rovers then? Ha ha

In what way

you get excited when they come this side of the city

yeah both of us do, like…..there are some good things going on about shamrock rovers, I think they miss the point in that we try to celebrate the fact that what they did in terms of a club is getting themselves a ground and coming out from that period of absolute madness that they were in, should be commended as a club. Id have nothing against them as a football club
When we play them I want to beat them, do I like them…..no I don’t.
But I do think for us, been able to stay in Dalymount is massive.
Tallaght is a nice stadium, but there is no soul to it, it’s a sterile place, its on the periphery of the city

(its very windy, jesus right up the middle

I don’t like it. I met a guy here recently and he was a Spanish fella and he had come over, and he came to see us and rover in Dalymount, and he arrived on the Thursday and he got a Dublin bike and cycled out to Tallaght stadium to see it, and he said “I had left the city”

so what’s this place you have going on here the, it seems like a pretty cool place

It… what do we do,,,, we do food, records and clothes and coffee and

are you long open here?

Nearly two years

yeah, seems pretty busy, buzzing in there

A lot of it is football stuff. Me and my sister did it, her rule at the start was no politics, no football, so ….its full of bohs stuff…. And I climbed on top of that building last week and put a Palestinian flag on top last week

So that’s pretty much it, thanks very much …..and a prediction for tonight

Id go 2-1 bohs

And who is going to score the last goal

Dinny, to score

Dinny Corcoran, thanks very much

Overall

Overall, enjoyed my visit to Dalymount, as I always do. Its a smashing old style ground that can create a special kind of atmosphere in the Dublin air.

Was great to meet Daniel and get the low down on the club. He was right about Fuad, he is some player alright.

Enjoyed the bars in and around Phibsboro, was good to find some new decent boozers and some new beers to try out next time i am back in Dublin…..Five Lamps n Dublin Blue….

Dublin still the place for the craic….good pubs, great beers, football and the Liffey!!

Anyway, here is my day out in video form

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FC Basel, Swiss football away days

Basel: Some history and culture, a bit of football and a good amount of beer!

Basel is a Swiss German speaking city in the northwest of Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel has been a commercial hub and important cultural centre since the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, and it has emerged over time as an important centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries of the world with major companies such as Roche, Novartis, Bayer, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Abbot, etc all situated in the city.

There are settlement traces on the Rhine from the early La Tène period (5th century BC), but it wasn’t until the Romans established a centre here and built a castle that the city began to develop. The name of Basel is itself derived from the Roman word Basilius, meaning emperor. Basel was incorporated into Germania Superior in AD 83, and over time became a centre for trade, study and printing.

Basel is Switzerland’s third-most-populous city (after Zürich and Geneva) with about 175,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet.

Basel has a population of about 175,000, where about 35.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals, a lot who work in the many chemical and pharmaceutical industries dotted around the city. Also factor in that due to the close borders with both France and Germany, you can add another 120,000 commuters moving into the city for their daily work. All in all it is a busy city, but it has to be said most travel in this city and extended region is done via the excellent tram, train and bus network that is also well connected to France and Germany. Basel is also a very bicycle friendly city with many bike lanes and places to park a bike. You really dont notice much cars or trucks when walking around the city, which really is a great feeling.

Of course not far from the city centre (about 35 minutes by bus) is the EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg. The interesting thing about this airport is that there are two borders….one for France (where the airport actually lies on) and the other for Switzerland. In the old days before Schengen there was an immigration check point in the middle of the airport where one could border hop officially with stamps, etc if needed. But be careful, the border police can still do customs checks on its various borders, just in case you are trying to enter Switzerland with a van load of dodgy TV’s or mutton or whatever.

Basel calls itself the Cultural Capital of Switzerland which is a bold claim it has to be said. The reason for this claim is many fold. One reason is the massive amount of galleries and museums all over the city, well over 50 or more, the highest concentration in the country. You have the internationally renowned museums such as Basel Art Museum, the Beyeler Foundation, Natural History Museum of Basel and the Museum of Cultures Basel, Caricature & Cartoon Museum Basel, Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Sports Museum of Switzerland, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Basel (Art Museum Basel), amongst many more, too many to mention in fact, and a shit load of other museums dedicated to more contemporary “modern” art, as if you didn’t get enough, or otherwise known as horse shite to the man in the street!

The best thing about Basel for me is the sight of the river, the Rhine. The river cuts through the the city and its great on a hot summers day to hang out with a few friends having some cans of beers by the banks of the great river. Refreshing.

I also strongly recommend coming to the city for its annual carnival of the city (Basler Fasnacht), the biggest carnival in Switzerland and large crowds attend every year, but be aware its a four day event with the first day starting at 4 in the morning! It is on the Monday after Ash Wednesday and brings the city to a standstill celebrating on the streets of Basel in a big street parade that goes on forever, with music and costume and good fun.

Fun facts about Basel:

In 1938 Albert Hofmann, working for the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, was the first to synthesize the psychedelic drug LSD.

The Roche Tower, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is 41 floors and 178 metres (584 ft) high, opened in 2015 it has become the tallest building in Switzerland

Basel has Switzerland’s oldest university, the University of Basel, dating from 1460. Well known alumni and staff include Jacob Burckhardt, Friedrich Nietzsch, Erasmus,and Carl Gustav Jung.

Established in 1874, Zoo Basel, affectionaly called “Zolli” by the locals, is the oldest zoo in Switzerland, and with over 1.7 million visitors per year, it is the second most visited tourist attraction in Switzerland, and well worth a visit.

While FC Basel is well known to football fans across Europe, it is Roger Federer, a Basel native, who is the sporting darling of the city.

Pub watch

Paddy Reilly’s Irish Pub & Restaurant

Address: Steinentorstrasse 45, Basel 4051

http://www.paddys.ch/

Got off the tram near the centre of town and the best place really to start a beer crawl is in Paddy Reilly’s Irish pub.

This place does be heaving during Friday and Saturday nights, and can be more like a night club than a bar with a very young crowd, i.e a lot younger then me the old fella! But when its not packed to the rafters on a weekend night, it does normally have a very relaxed setting, always a good place to come in and have a good pint and chat with friends.

Typical decor you would expect from an Irish bar, a bit of traditional mixed in with the modern, all nice and respectable. A good long bar with plenty of space to sit at.

Friendly staff, chatty and efficient, and it seems all the staff are Irish as they do cater for a lot of British and Irish clientele.

Typical in an Irish bar, not a minute in the place and I’m already chatting to people, two strangers, but you know it really is true when they say that there are no strangers in an Irish pub, just friends you haven’t met yet, or something like that!

Good atmosphere in the place, a lot of sport on the various TV’s dotted around the pub, all relaxed and chilled…….just the way I like it

Apparently they do good food here, but feck that……..its the beer I am here for. Have the usual fare to drink, but some highlights on offer as well…..A Grimbergen was a surprise to see……but decided to go for a pint of Bodingtons as I had never tried it before. Pint was good, liked it and it went down well, if a little pricey, but heh this is Switzerland so….

So overall Paddy Reilly’s did the job and is recommended if you come to Basel.

Mr. Pickwick Pub

Address: Steinenvorstadt 13, Basel 4051

www.pickwick.ch

http://didioffensiv.ch/de/

Mr Pickwick is your quintessential British pub, with plenty of beer available on tap, wooden decor with carpet, football (or at times Cricket) on the box and a smattering of ex pats all around. Located in the Steinenvorstadt, a pedestrian street where you will find a lot of snazzy bars and restaurants in the centre of Basel, albeit the more upmarket ones, that is the more expensive ones!

Mr Pickwick is a fine pub though, and it has a pretty decent selection of British and Irish beer both on tap and in bottle.

In summer one can sit outside and do some people watching. Also they open the large front doors which is great for letting in some cool Rhine air throughout the bar.

The pub grub here is meant to be good (their nachos, and fish n chips are popular dishes) and certainly what came out of the kitchen while I was there looked good, but as this is Switzerland I preferred to keep my money for a more refined liquid lunch. I went for Fullers Jack Frost, an English bitter that was fine. Staff were efficient, albeit a bit cold, but heh this is an English pub right! Anyway I do like Pickwicks, its a decent place and its always easy to find a seat and have a nice pint while planning what you will get up to in the night, a good starting point……even if its best not to look too closely at your bill, ouch! (Yes, I know, its Switzerland!)

Didi Offensive

Address: Erasmusplatz. 12, 4057

https://www.barrouge.ch/en/

Didi Offensive is a football culture bar in Kleinbasel (little Basel) a little bit from the city centre. It is a great place to watch live football, as there are TV’s, big and small all over the place, twelve in fact. But its not only live football, the bar regularly organize events on football culture, have table quizzes, host photography exhibitions, and the decor itself is like a museum dedicated to all things got to do with the beautiful game.

The name, “Didi offensive”, is a nickname that refers to the defensive-oriented football that former FC Basel coach Claude “Didi” Andrey used, and where the FCB fans began to mockingly sing “Didi offensively, Shalalalala”

Anyway nice little bar, friendly bar man, loads of football on the tv, nearly overloaded with football didn’t know what game to watch……mostly German and Spanish league football for the time I was there. Had a local Ueli beer,a wheat beer which perfectly poured but just not my cup of tea actually. In fact they didn’t really have a good variety of beers on offer, just the two pumps if I remember correctly, but I do see they organise regular craft beer nights which is interesting.

Toilets were a double treat, do the business but also to marvel at all the cool old Pannini stickers stuck up around the gents, and to pee into a goals which gives a cheer when you finish, now that is cool. I also noticed John Aldridge staring at me when I was peeing!

I like this bar, had a good vibe and is definitely a great meeting place for football fans to hang out and watch the big game…………..cool bar.

The Fish Inn

Address: Clarastrasse 56, 4058

The Fish Inn is a traditional British style pub on Clarastrasse, a little bit out but really not that far from the city centre via the tram. It has the typical British style decor you’d expect and had a nice cozy atmosphere when I was there. A few people, but not to many were present, and the bar lady was friendly. The bar has a real homely atmosphere that I like, a good place to have a quiet pint and a good chat with a friend. Feels like a traditional “local” pub. I imagine in the winter this is a the perfect place to come to get out of the wind and the rain and have a hot whiskey and pint to warm the soul.

They do food, which is typical British food, and also offer takeaways, which is kind of cool, albeit looking at their menu it does all look a bit too pricey for me!

The owners have their dogs wandering around and there is a relaxed setting in the pub.

I was happy to see that they had Fullers London Pride, an English bitter that I really like. Less happy to report that the pint wasn’t great, a bad pint, which was a pity. Perhaps that was the luck of the draw, but anyhow I will check this place out again as its a good to get a pub where one can relax away from the hustle and bustle downtown.

Bar Rouge

Address: Messeplatz. 10, 4058

Went to this place if only because apparently its the highest bar in the whole of Switzerland, that’s what they advertise themselves, which is a load of bollix as I had a beer near the top of the Jungfrau, inside its mountain station, but there you go.

Entrance via lift to the top of the high rise building, to the 31st floor, Bar Rouge is a cocktail and lounge bar with a very modern and snazzy decor, looks good inside, very stylish, and can get a great panoramic view of the city, which looked pretty cool as day was turning to night. The bar itself looks fantastic, lots of activity going on from the bar staff making all varieties of cocktails, great chilled out ambiance inside everyone seems to be in good spirits. Except the bar manager who was having a bit of a row with one of his bar staff, a little bit unsavory to see, and he looked like a bit of a prick to be honest, all Gordon Ramsey. Looked like there was a mistake with a cocktail order, with the barman having to redo it again and also pay for the extra cost out of his own pocket, or at least that’s what it looked like. I didn’t see the big deal, sure its not like people really know what the fuck they are drinking in a cocktail anyway, and I know if he talked to me like that I’d tell him to do one. Anyway wasn’t nice to see…..

As for me, I played it safe and went for a regular local beer. The cocktails were a bit pricey for my small wallet. I was served quickly and efficiently and with a friendly smile by Shangi (I looked it up via their website!), who I have to say was very good. Always nice to get good service.

Pint was fine, and I was nice and comfy sitting at the bar admiring the views both outside and at the excellent selection of drinks behind the bar.

Even in the toilets you can get a view of Basel where they have a glassed window overlooking the city landscape, but you need not worry as no one is likely to see you do your business that high up off the ground!

I did like it here, very relaxing, nice tempo to the place, music not too loud but in the background so it can be appreciated, and the bar was well lit. I bet they studied how to get the right moods via the perfect lightning, music tempo, etc……..it seems to work anyway. If it wasn’t for the price I’d like to return, alas maybe if i get a big win on the gee gees! Next time I will try a cocktail!

L’Unique

Address: Gerbergässlein 20, 4051

http://www.lunique.ch/

L’Unique is one of the more hip bars in the town. Cool because its decor is completely made up of rock music memorabilia all around the bar. This American style bar has quite an extensive collection on display, from signed platinum albums, guitars, rock suits, and rock art, a veritable feast for anyone interested in rock music.

The bar is located right down an alley way not far off the city centre, and can be difficult to find. If so, all you need to do is ask for the directions to the graffiti with all the rock stars, as right across from the bar is a brilliant street painting of various rock legends. It is a Basel highlight to take a photo of it as it really is that good!

Sat at the bar, ordered a regular beer (a Feldschlösschen lager) which was fine and nice. Half the time you are just staring at all the stuff on the walls……I noted a signed Kiss drum set on the ceiling, some Nirvana albums beside me and also a cool looking gorilla with a guitar!

Had a very good chat with the bar lady, Eleni, who was super cool and friendly to boot, who agreed with me that the Nirvana stuff was probably the best thing in the rock collection.

Bar has great service, and always has a good friendly atmosphere in the place. Even though it can be busy it is always easy to find a seat and a place to relax. Good vibes always, and as I am a metal head so yes this is one of my favourite bars in the city. Recommended!

Rio Bar

Address: Barfüsserplatz 12, 4051 Basel

Rio Bar, is a nice little bar in the city centre, great for meeting people before heading onto somewhere else where all sorts from the young and the old, the well to do and the not so mix and chat on small tables, or at the small bar. The bar is run by a stern looking Swiss lady, but once you get to know her, she is good fun and has a good sense of humour.

Has a good selection of spirits and aperitif’s on show, and not such a great selection of beer, really just the local stuff. I ordered a large glass of Ziegel Hof, a beer from Liestal just up the road from Basel. Was fine, in fact I had about three of them. Not strong and went down well. One of my favourite bars in the city, small and comfy and really a great place to wind down and relax after a tough day.

Baragraph

Address: Kohlenberg 10, Basel 4051

http://www.baragraph.ch/

Baragraph is a small bar on a side street off the main square of Barfüsserplatz. Cosy bar with not a whole lot going on, but its good for a quick pint in quiet surroundings, more a chill out bar to relax and reflect. Has an interesting decor going on, all 70’s style or at least that’s what it looks to me on the untrained eye, all bright colours and lots of light, and the service is always friendly and chatty. I like this place, had a KonigPilsner, was fine in a bar that one can definitely while away a few hours. Also must add the beer is not as pricey here than in other establishments in the city.

Excalibar

Address: Kohlenberg 7, 4051

Topped the night off with a late pint in Excalibar, a late, very late, night bar that seems at least to me to have no closing time! Small bar, that can get crowded at times, but it really is the place to be to get that late night drink. Does have a juke box that bangs out the tunes, and the darts (the plastic version, not the real dart board) do keep punters amused over the hours. Had a quick pint, a Calanda lager, was fine.

Is an ok bar, with staff that could be friendlier, and not a great place to actually meet people as everyone tends to be pretty sloshed by the time they get here, but it does the business when one needs that late night drink and for that we should be thankful.

FC Basel

Stadium: St. Jakob-Park

Location: St. Jakobs-Strasse 395, 4052 Basel

Capacity: 38,512

Manager: Urs Fischer

Founded: 1893

Leagues: Swiss Super League

Honours:
Swiss Championships: 20 (Last 2017)
Swiss Cup: 13 (Last 2019)

info@fcb.ch

Nicknames: FCB, Bebbi, RotBlau

FC Basel 1893 (Fussball Club Basel 1893), are a Swiss football club based in Basel. They are one of the most successful clubs in Swiss football, having won the Swiss Super League 19 times, and well on their their way to winning their 20th, the second most for any Swiss club. (still a long way to go to catch the Grasshoppers with 27 titles!). Basel have also won the Swiss Cup 11 times.

On the 12th of November 1893 an advertisement appeared in the Basler newspaper requesting that anyone who wished to join a football team should meet up on the Wednesday at 8:15 in the Schuhmachern-Zunft restaurant. Roland Geldner placed the advert, later elected as the clubs first president. Eleven men attended the meeting and thus, Fussball Club Basel was founded on 15 November 1893. The club colours were decided from the first day on, red and blue, the “RotBlau”, taken from the local rowing club that a few of the early members were also involved with. Incidentally, Hans Gamper, an early club captain, went on to found FC Barcelona in Spain, while he was visiting his uncle in the Catalan city, and is the reason why both clubs share the same colours.

It took a while for the club to get going as they got their first trophy 40 years after their inauguration, winning the Swiss Cup in 1933 beating Grasshoppers 4-3, and in 1953 they finally won their first league title in 1953, beating Young Boys of Bern who came second.

It was really in the late 1960’s that FC Basel started to come into real prominence. Under the tutelage of Helmut Benthaus, winning the club’s first double in the 1966–67 season. From 1968 to 1970 they won the title two seasons in a row. At the early 70’s Basel again won two in a row back to back titles, 1971–72 and 1972 -73. Former player and Manager Helmut Benthaus stayed on with Basel as a boss for 17 years which is pretty amazing when you take into account modern day football and how sack happy chairman can be. In those years as manager he brought the title to Basel seven times and won two cups as well. Not bad from the German, who also won the Bundesliga in his home country with VfB Stuttgart in 1982.

In 1988 the unthinkable happened and Basel were relegated into the Nationalliga B, the second league. It took them a few years and several managers to get back to the top in 1994 under Claude Andrey (see “Didi Offensive” above!)

Christian Gross, yes THAT Christian Gross, ex Spurs manager and London Underground aficionado, became coach of Basel in July 1999 after a horrid time in London with Tottenham. Gross’ appointment happened at the same time as Basel started to get some serious financial backing. It was not long until Basel returned to the top. (At the moment, Pharma giant Novartis give the club roughly US$2.2 million a year to sponsor their shirt). Also a brand new spanking stadium, St. Jakob-Park, was built and finished in time for the 2001 season.

All these positive steps resulted in four Swiss championships, four Swiss Cups, and some very good runs in Europe under Gross. The championship win in 2001-2002 was their first for 22 years, also securing the cup, making it a nice double for the season. The good days were back!

One player that stood out at this time was Scott Chipperfield, the Aussie box to box player and all round terrier on the pitch. He is Basel’s all-time record holder of titles with the club, with seven Swiss Championships and six Swiss Cup honours. A player that probably could have had a stint with an English team but was loyal to Basel, and in my opinion a very much underrated player.

Basel have competed in European competition every season since 1999–2000, and had a bit of a voodoo over British teams, beating the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool, Celtic, Middlesbrough, Spurs and, em Glentoran, over the years, until this season where they got their arses spanked by Arsenal home and away in the CL.

They have been in the Champions League more times than any other Swiss club and are the only Swiss club to have ever qualified directly for the Champions League group stages. They also got to the last 16 in the CL three times, and got to a Europa League semi-finals in the 2012–13 season losing out 5-2 on aggregate to eventual winners Chelsea.

With all this European exposure it means that Basel is not only gaining invaluable experience but also doing nicely in revenue. Revenue that can improve the team and what we see is that Basel are clearly head and shoulders above every other team in Switzerland. This is borne out by the fact that FC Basel are currently looking to win their 8 league title in a row this season 2016-2017, flying ahead of the rest of the teams once again.

FC Basel play their home games at the 38,500 capacity St. Jakob-Park, the largest stadium in Switzerland and nicknamed “Joggeli” by the fans.The stadium has a restaurant and a sports bar, as well as a shopping centre and some apartments and office. It definitely doesnt look like a stadium when passing by, it is a bit drab to be honest. It is easy to get on match day via tram (Line 14) or bus (36, 37) from the city centre, or by train as the stadium also has its own stop. In 2016, the UEFA Europa League final was played at St. Jakob-Park between Liverpool and Seville, with many in the English press complaining of how small the attendance was for such a high profile game.

What you will see in St. Jakob-Park is plenty of loyal and passionate local fans who have made a name for themselves not just in Switzerland but abroad as well for their great banner displays and pyro parties from the stands. And if you are lucky you might just also see tennis star, and Basel native, Roger Federer, officially FC Basel’s most famous fan!

As for rivals, I would say it has to be the two Zurich clubs, Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Zürich, with FC Zürich the number one foe, mainly down to an incident in the last day of the 2005–06 season when FC Basel only needed a draw to clinch the title at home against FC Zürich, who had the cheek to spoil the party and score in the last minute to take the title. After the final whistle, players and fans from both teams started fighting on the pitch and in the stands. Since that day, fans from FC Zürich and FC Basel pretty much detest each other with a passion.

To the game

FC BASEL 4 – 0 FC LUGANO

04.02.2017 ST. JAKOB-PARK
2 ‘MOHAMED ELYOUNOUSSI
23’ MOHAMED ELYOUNOUSSI
36 ‘MOHAMED ELYOUNOUSSI
85’ MARC JANKO

Attendance: 23,439

Was pish easy for Basel.

Well taken hat trick from Mohamed Elyounoussi, the Norwegian (obviously!), who had scored all his three goals within 34 minutes! In fact I had just about taken my seat when he had scored the first goal in the second minute with a simple touch into an empty net. His second was a bit nicer on the eye, beating the defender and scoring from just inside the box. The third was a nice cross into the box, well met and headed past the goalkeeper.

It was always going to be an uphill struggle when Lugano got a man red carded, unfairly in my opinion, for a stray elbow that the Basel fairy made a meal off, but they are the breaks.

The veteran Marc Janko came on in the 78th minute and it wasn’t long before he scored, in the 85th minute, to make it 4-0 to Basel and wrap another dead easy win for the team.

Lugano had a few chances but the Basel goalkeeper, the Czech Vaclik, was alert to their rare forays. Truth be told they were muck and its easy to see why they are second from bottom of the league.

I was impressed by Steffen on the wing, always lively, and of course the hat-trick hero who took all his goals very well. Overall the game was boring as it really was so one-sided, even from the get go, and I hate looking at games that are a non contest. But Basel can only do whats put infront of them, so fair enough for them.

Have a look at the match highlights for yourself

https://youtu.be/zhtnAQYXG-U

Interview

Short chat with Dr. Daniele Ganser, a prominent Swiss historian, Journalist, energy and peace researcher and head of the Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research (SIPER), based in Basel. He teaches at the University of St. Gallen on the history and future of energy systems and at the University of Basel in the postgraduate study on conflict analysis on the global struggle for oil. His area of expertise is in the areas of global security, secret warfare, conflict analysis, peak oil and resource wars, economics and human rights and peace research. He has written many books covering his special topics, has appeared regularly on Russia Today and on Swiss TV, has given a TEDx lecture on “War and peace in the 21st century – the stories in our minds” in Budapest in 2016, and worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Switzerland.

Ganser certainly has some interesting points to make on 9/11 (the real reason for the war is the control of energy resources and has questions on that the third tower, WTC 7, that collapsed that day, and has some doubts that a plane had actually crashed into the Pentagon), on the need for oil (that the 2003 Iraq war a “classic resource war”) and false flag operations (Various activities of Operation Gladio)

Whatever you think of Ganser, just dont called him a conspiracy theorist. He doesn’t particularly like that! He had a fierce clash with Wikipedia over this issue when they more or less called him a conspiracy theorist while Ganser sees the word as a catch all term for the weird and the mad. This resulted in a mini edit war with supporters of Ganser dueling with the Wikipedia mafia on who decides whats what on Gansers page.

Instead, Ganser calls himself a peace researcher and historian who investigates covert warfare using scientific methods and basic historical questioning techniques.

Important Works

Illegal wars: How the NATO countries sabotage the UN. A chronicle from Cuba to Syria. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-280-05631-8.

The book recalls that the United Nations Charter forbids Wars, and shows current examples of how this ban is disregarded by the NATO countries.

NATO Geheimarmenn in Europa. Orell Füssli, Zurich, 2008 ISBN 978-3-280-06106-0 .

“NATO Intelligence in Europe” in English. Ganser shows how manipulated terror and covert warfare were used in the cold war to discredit political opponents and create a climate of fear.

NATO’s secret armies. Operation Gladio and terrorism in Western Europe. Routledge, 2005 ISBN 0-7146-5607-0

The book addresses secret armies run by NATO and the CIA across mainland Europe, especially concentrating on Operation Gladio in Italy.

Website: www.Danieleganser.ch
Twitter @DanieleGanser Facebook

So overall, Basel isn’t a bad city for a short visit, can get expensive but even with that you can always grab a few cans and sit by the Rhine in the evening to chill out. Seeing FC Basel play is good fun, in a decent stadium, where the fans do create a good atmosphere at times. Basel well worth a groundhop and beer crawl, just save for it beforehand!

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The View from Behind the Bar