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Who
Ya Calling Riff-Raff, Big Ears?
by Rodney Dullaghan
Every fan of the League of Ireland must have been slagged off at some stage over the years about one thing or the other, usually from fans of the Premiership in England…the standard of the football, the lack of facilities, no atmosphere, no crowds etc. We’ve heard it all before from football fans that prefer to support their team from the comfort of their bar stools. But in general the supporters of this league have one thing in common, a near fanatical loyalty to their own team and none more so than here at Finn Park.
As we all know it isn’t easy following The Harps as the only thing you are guaranteed, is to have your heart broken and up until a few weeks ago we hadn’t won a national trophy in 28 long years. We lost the league cup and the shield in the eighties (which as a kid I sold replica shirts outside Oriel Park), two playoffs in the mid nineties, followed by the highs and euphoria of promotion in ’96. But the last three years have been particularly hard to take with losing the Cup Final the way we did, getting relegated the way we did and then that playoff agony against Longford last season, which was probably the toughest of the lot. But the hardcore fans of Finn Harps never desert their team and the crowd of fans that stand behind the nets that Harps attack into are as loyal to the cause as anyone around Finn Park. Known as the From Behind the Nets Supporters Club and also more recently The Leather Hat Brigade we’ve been standing behind the nets down through the years, often in the rain and sometimes in the snow (Cup game 7-1 against Longford springs to mind).
We love our club and shouldn’t ever have to prove our loyalty to anyone so it was with great anger and regret to read a particular article in the Donegal Democrat on 12th September by a certain Ciaran O’Donnell. The aforementioned journalist wrote what he called a “Sports Comment” calling us “riff-raff” and “louts” and his article tried to convey the message that the only reason we were in Finn Park was to drink large quantities of alcohol and shout abuse at the opposing teams! Okay, we do ‘smuggle’ in a few cans but so what? Does this constitute an insulting write up in the local paper?
We never cause any trouble and you seem to think that this only happens in Finn Park. Get a grip mate! All around the league, from The Brandywell to Turner’s Cross fans bring alcohol into the ground, may it be a bottle of coke spiked with some vodka or a few cans under the coat. If you travelled to any away games Mr. O’Donnell you would know this and you would see that most clubs in the country have a bar in their ground and will let you take your drink out to pitch side if you put it in a plastic container. Tonight’s visitors Monaghan United are one such club and there are many throughout the league. Kildare County’s ground in Newbrigde will actually sell you cans from their bar to take out to the game with you so I don’t know how you can make a statement that it has ‘no place in modern sport’. Of course it bloody does whether we like it or not, from after match pints in the Donegal Saturday League through to the bars in Dalymount Park and Lansdowne Road.
There is a good atmosphere in Finn Park these days, something maybe this reporter can’t comprehend. Maybe if he spent more time watching the games instead of watching the different types of alcohol we were ‘consuming in large quantities’ he might get what Finn Harps and supporting Finn Harps is actually about. Believe me, but there are a lot better places to go drinking at 7.30 on a Saturday night than standing in the cold at Finn Park. We are there to support OUR team and are proud of our support. No other reason.
“These louts seem to think it very hip to spend most of the 90 minutes hurling abusive language at the opposing teams, and in particular, at the away goalkeeper” he claimed.
Now I really laughed hard at this one! Imagine the audacity of football fans to shout abuse at the opposition. I don’t think that there is a football ground (or sports ground) in the world where there will be a sizeable crowd that you won’t hear abuse, but I’ll tell you what you don’t hear from the From Behind the Nets SC and what you will in a lot of other football grounds worldwide. Abuse about religion, race, colour, creed, politics……and why? Because we don’t care, that’s not what we are about. We are there to support OUR team and okay, we do give keepers shit about their weight, size, hair etc but its normally good humoured.
Not many keepers have received more of a touch than Matthew Stokes of Cork side Leeds when we played them in the Cup recently. I don’t know if O’Donnell seen the game or if he was too busy watching what we were drinking but I’ll tell you that we won 1-0, after Tom Mohan scored a screamer with the game looking like it was heading to a replay in Cork. The Leeds net minder was rightly voted man of the match and we gave him a standing ovation at the final whistle. After the game he asked to meet us and we went for a few pints with him and a few other Leeds players in a couple of pubs around the town. Ask him if he thought we were ‘riff-raff’.
According to the dictionary riff-raff is defined as people with a bad reputation or of a low social class. Now, as far as I can see he is the one trying to give us a bad reputation by writing an article depicting us to be drunken yobs that have no place in Finn Park. I’ve been in Finn Park every season since around 1977 and it will take more than a badly researched article by a bitter journalist to stop us supporting our team and we will support them the way that WE see fit. The louts and the riff-raff he refers to are the supporters who pay into the ground (no press passes here), buy programs, club lotto’s, jerseys, scarves, hats etc and only for this ‘unwanted element’ the clubs financial situation could be just that little bit worse off.
Just two pages in, in the same paper Paddy Walsh praised us ‘smart alecs’ by saying "sport is still the opium of the masses and had the said despairing columnist only been present at Finn Park for the First Division Cup Final last week when Niall Bonner cracked home a stunning goal and raced to meet his supporters behind the goal all of them waving leather caps they acquired specially in Amsterdam for the Harps winger she would have seen what the whole thing is about. It did the heart good.”
Maybe if another despairing journalist had seen this and hadn’t spent the game counting how many cans we drank then his article in the same paper might have been a wee bit different and what the whole thing was really about - been pissed off that he didn’t get his free cup of tea at half-time. At the end of the day, he just used us to have a go at the stewards. The stewards are the friendly blokes you see around the ground with the fluorescent bibs, the volunteers who look after people’s safety in Finn Park and whom never have had any trouble with our supporters club. Can you say the same O’Donnell?
Rodney
Dullaghan
From Behind the Nets Supporters Club – Finn Harps FC
