The Irish Fans Who Won Over Europe: The Fields of Athenry in Gdańsk and the Euro 2016 Lullaby

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Ireland have never won a major football tournament. But twice in the last 15 years, Irish supporters have been crowned the best fans in Europe, and both times it started with a video that went around the world.

Euro 2012: The Fields of Athenry in Gdańsk

On 14 June 2012, Ireland played Spain, the reigning world and European champions, in Gdańsk, Poland. It was a hammering. By the last ten minutes Ireland were 4-0 down and on their way out of the tournament.

And then, at around the 83rd minute, the Irish fans began to sing. Not a chant, not a protest, but “The Fields of Athenry”, the slow, sad ballad written by Pete St John in 1979 about a man from Galway transported to Australia during the Famine. Tens of thousands of voices kept singing through the final minutes and on past the final whistle.

It was so moving that broadcasters across Europe stopped talking. Arsène Wenger, working as a pundit on French TV, asked the commentators to be quiet so viewers could hear the Irish singing, and German TV did the same. The Irish players, used to being booed off after heavy defeats, were applauded off instead. Defender Sean St Ledger said those last minutes would live long in his memory.

UEFA’s president, Michel Platini, later travelled to Ireland to present an award to the fans for their behaviour throughout the tournament, and Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said the Irish fans “should be applauded”.

Euro 2016: the lullaby on the tram

Four years later, Irish fans went to France for Euro 2016, and the internet fell in love with them all over again.

On a crowded tram in Bordeaux, a group of Irish supporters noticed a baby trying to sleep. Instead of carrying on with the football songs, they started singing lullabies, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “Hush, Little Baby”, and shushed everyone around them. The video was shared millions of times.

It wasn’t a one-off. During the tournament, Irish fans were filmed changing a tyre for an elderly French couple, joining Swedish fans in a singalong of “Dancing Queen”. Some French locals even wrote open letters thanking them.

After the tournament, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, presented the city’s Grand Vermeil medal, its highest honour, to Irish supporters from both the Republic and Northern Ireland, in a ceremony at the Eiffel Tower fan zone.

Why the Irish are such good fans

Part of it is the Irish love of a sing-song, and part of it is that Irish fans travel to have the craic, not to cause trouble. But there’s something else too. For a small country with a huge diaspora, a tournament is a chance to show the world who the Irish are. And “The Fields of Athenry”, a song about loss, exile and love of home, says a lot about that.

Irish fans FAQ

What did Irish fans sing at Euro 2012 against Spain?

“The Fields of Athenry”, for the final minutes of the match and after the final whistle, while Ireland lost 4-0.

Who wrote The Fields of Athenry?

Pete St John, in 1979. It’s set during the Great Famine.

What award did Irish fans get at Euro 2016?

The Mayor of Paris awarded Irish supporters the city’s Grand Vermeil medal for their sportsmanship.

More viral Ireland

• The best viral Irish videos of all time
• Zombie: how a Cranberries song became Ireland’s rugby anthem
• The Spark: the Irish kids’ song with 2 billion views
• Irish songs to sing on St Patrick’s Day

Featured photo: Ireland fans at a fan zone, 2015, by Kolforn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Videos filmed and shared by fans.

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