It wasn’t difficult to find the Irish in the Fan Zone beneath the Eiffel Tower last night. They were wearing green and drinking beer, to a man.
Sean Blain (25), an Intel employee from Killybegs, came with 14 friends from Carlow, Donegal, Dublin and Wicklow.
They were not worried about transport strikes in France. "We got a ticket, and nothing was stopping the fact we were going to the Euros," Blain said.
Michel Cadot, the prefect of Paris police, had asked the interior minister to abandon plans for the Eiffel Tower Fan Zone because his men were “in a state of exhaustion” after continuous security alerts since jihadist attacks that killed 148 people in Paris last year. The minister refused and gave Cadot reinforcements.
An hour before kick-off, queues were short and the vast area was far from crowded.
Blain wasn't about to be deterred by the threat of terrorism. "From what I saw, the French deal with it really well," he said. "When I looked out the hotel window this morning, I saw six army guys searching cars. We went out for food and I saw more soldiers. I got searched several times coming in. I don't mind, given the fact of what's going on in Europe and the state of emergency."
‘We try to mingle’
Blain wore a blue beret and had a French tricolour draped over his green shirt. “It makes it easier to meet people,” he explained. “We try to mingle. Irish people – it’s just our culture. It’s normal.
“The guys behind me tend to segregate themselves,” Blain said, referring to a group of English fans who stood in puddles of beer, singing lewd songs.
"We've been interviewed by Ukrainian, Polish and German TV," said Pat O'Neill (27) a vet from Wicklow. "The Ukrainians said we were from Northern Ireland, so I started reading the Proclamation from the back of a T-shirt."
The Fan Zone is filled with fast food restaurants. Father and son Tomas and Jack Kavanagh, 52 and 23 respectively, a theatre director and insurance broker from New Ross, Co Wexford, stood in front of McDonalds. Jack was “more worried about the price of beer” than strikes or the terror threat.
“It’s always in the back of your mind,” Tomas admitted. “Especially here, because the Fan Zone you would imagine would be the number one target. You just have to forget that and enjoy yourself. You have the best backdrop,” he said, gesturing to the Eiffel Tower.
Only one person told me he was frightened. Pierrick (30), a French accountant sat outside the Fan Zone drinking whiskey and cola with friends, wearing a feathered headdress in French blue, white and red.
“I was drinking on the terrace of a cafe on the night of the attacks last November,” he explained. “I was a couple of kilometres away, but word went round that all the bars should pull down their metal curtains. We went inside and stayed there all night, drinking.”
It took Pierrick’s friend Jean-Luc (34), a sports journalist, several days to convince him to come to the Fan Zone last night. At first Pierrick said, “They won. I’m afraid.” Eventually he said: “I’m afraid but I’m going anyway. We can’t stop living.”
“I can’t think of a better way to die than drunk at a football match,” Jean-Luc says.
‘Allez les bleus’
A young mother with a baby in her arms and a little blonde girl, Mila (6), walks past. Mila wears blue, white and red stripes on her cheeks. "Allez les bleus!" she shouts, and the drinkers on the pavement cheer.
Back inside the Fan Zone, Owen Morris (20) and Martin Williamson (20), both students and childhood friends from Bangor, Co Down, say they “don’t mind” whether Ireland or Sweden wins on Monday night.
“We’re going to be too hungover after Poland-Northern Ireland in Nice on Sunday,” Williamson explains.
The northerners had no luck making friends with Irish fans. “They walk past us and give us dirty looks,” Morris complained. “This is the Euros. It doesn’t matter if you’re French, Romanian, Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland, Swedish, anything. As long as you love football, we love you.”
