RECESSION..WHAT RECESSION?  (Dalymount Park Launch  - Saturday October 8th)

“I signed for Bohs as a youngster after Drumcondra Chairman Sam Prole gave me my bus fare to travel over to Dalymount.... It’s probably the first case of a bung in World football!”

BRUSH SHIELS

Whether you knew it or not the charismatic Cabra man was once on the books of The Gypsies (he was a little shy at first in coming forward with the year he put pen to paper (your secrets safe with me Brush) but the likeable ex-Skid Row front man went down a storm at the Dalymount Launch of Just Follow The Floodlights in The Phoenix Bar last Saturday night.

The guitarist kept the crowd in his palm during his brief cameo “I can’t stay long Brian I’ve got to catch a 4am flight to Barcelona...obviously to play the Nou Camp!” and you can’t help but be swept up in his enthusiasm for life and his club.

These are challenging times for Bohemians. As delighted as I was to get a great welcome for the half time chat with the clubs MC Paul on the pitch, I couldn’t help but notice the crowd.

“There might be 600 here tonight, yet we took 700 to Rovers” remarked one fan as I chatted after the game. There may be a long standing rivalry between the North and Southsiders, but would Hoops fans actually want to see their biggest enemies go out of existence?

Hmm, maybe Rovers fans shouldn’t answer that!

Dalymount Park has always been the home of Irish football. As legendary as Milltown was to a generation of Rovers fans, or Flower Lodge to Leedsiders, “Dayler” has been generally regarded as the heartbeat of the beautiful game in the emerald isle.

Basically a vegetable patch was the humble origins for the ground as in 1901 the club turned it from a bed of carrots, potatoes and turnips at the back of the Dalymount terraced houses on North Circular Road into a place that’s seen countless memories and wonderful matches over the last 110 years.

Back inside the Phoenix Bar there was a momentary heart-attack when Mr Roderick Collins said he was in the stadium.....just the National one....on the other side of town, but after his momentary amnesia he made his excuses over there and got into The Phoenix just in time to start proceedings.

There may be a recession on in this country but you’d have never of guessed last Saturday night as books were flying off the publishers table to the back of the bar.

At the end of it all I think the words “Fuck me!” was enough to describe how well the book had sold on the night.

My old pal from Exeter, and Bohs midfielder Glen Cronin stopped by to sign a few books...he gave it his usual “hick from the sticks” and “Dublin is Ireland” bit to which I replied his car will be on bricks when he got home, and we shared a coffee when it was all over.

Credit the Bohs fans...they stayed, had a laugh and bought the book.

I wish them well for the future.

There is no education like adversity, but if Bohemians get up one more time then they fall they will succeed. And a season without Dalymount Park... well it wouldn’t be the league would it.