Dublin's Muslim sporting fans settle for second best

There were loud cheers at the Shia Mosque in Milltown yesterday when Iran scored. But the cheers were even louder a minute later when the Republic of Ireland secured World Cup qualification. You could only be moved to see such sporting spirit among Dublin's Iranian community, until it finally emerged that there was nobody from Iran in the room.

The fact that we were watching the match on an Iranian satellite channel, that children sitting in front of the screen chanted "Iran,Iran" and predicted a 4-0 home victory until the last 15 minutes, and that an Iranian flag was being waved around, each tended to suggest this was a predominantly Iranian crowd.

But like the Breen-Staunton central defensive partnership, it was all a bit of a misunderstanding. Pressed at the end about how well they were taking Ireland's aggregate victory, one man after another revealed he was in fact from Saudi Arabia, or Iraq, or Azerbaijan. They were only cheering for Iran, Imam Ali Abdulla explained, because it would be nice to have a Shia country in the World Cup finals, along with the Sunnis, the dominant Islamic group.

If this was not possible, their adopted nation was next best, he said. This explained his earlier cryptic comment, at a point in the game where an overall Iranian win seemed impossible. "Our religious feeling has gone," he had said then, with a smile, "our national feeling has taken over".

For most of the game, it seemed as if everybody had just left normal soccer match fervour outside the door, along with our shoes. Then again, the featureless nature of the first half in Tehran did not lend itself to passion. Up to the half-hour mark, the most exciting move had been the Irish Times photographer's attempt to get behind the television set for a better angle.

Instead of RT╔'s half-time discussion with Giles and Dunphy, we watched the news on Al Jazeera television, further lowering the tension surrounding the make-or-break football match. Someone inquired politely if Roy and Robbie Keane were related. On the contrary, we explained, they were from Cork and Dublin, respectively, a bit like the difference between the Shia and Sunnis.

The second half was more eventful, and the room became gradually noisier. At the final whistle, Abdulhadi Mohsen came over to say he wanted to congratulate his Irish friends on qualification. "Beating Holland was a great achievement, and Ireland really deserves this," he said. Was he from Iran, by any chance? "No. Bahrain."