Ireland's World Cup cricket success has shifted a perception of the sport here as the sole preserve of aristocrats and west Brits, writes Peter Breen
The town of Swords, located minutes from Dublin Airport on the city's Northside, has never been that much of a cricketing Mecca. I know. I've lived there all my life. A bowler is a hat a 19th- century gentleman called Jeeves might wear. Balls are oval things that say O'Neill's on the side. A batsman? Isn't he Bruce Wayne? You get the picture.
So there you are in the Cock Tavern, in the heart of the town, on a bitterly cold Saturday night. It's St Patrick's night. You say to the barman leaning large and assertive on the counter "Sorry, do you mind if we stick on the cricket? Ireland are playing and . . . " The stare. The next words could well be your last. "We're 70 for 4 chasing 133," he says nodding in the direction of a large screen in the corner of the pub. There's a shriek of delight from the expectant crowd of customers as Niall O'Brien crashes another boundary. All of a sudden it's 113 for 7. The tension mounts.
It's all too much for one local: "What the f*** does 113 for 7 mean? Are Ireland winning or wha'?" Soon enough the shouts and applause tell him they have.
Cricket in Ireland dates back to the days of the English landowners. The first recorded game was played in the Phoenix Park in 1792. In north Co Dublin, where our story begins, clubs like Malahide, North County, The Hills, Balbriggan and Rush have strong traditions.
Malahide Cricket Club's John Pryor has been involved in the game for the guts of 40 years. He first joined as a player and later assisted in a coaching and administrative capacity for the Irish Cricket Union (ICU).
Pryor has worked tirelessly on the executive of the ICU for the last eight years and was in Jamaica last weekend.
"It was a last-minute decision and the trip was only finalised late on Thursday night, March 15th, with my son John. The whole experience was just incredible," he explains.
"Kevin O'Brien, Eoin Morgan, Boyd Rankin and William Porterfield have all come up through the underage ranks together with Ireland from Under-15, 17, 19 and 23 levels alongside John and from time to time they'd stay in our home coming back from tournaments. Believe me, you have to make special arrangement when someone like Boyd, who is 6'8", comes into your home!"
The ICU can look on the recent success coupled with successful underage teams at Under-13, 15, 17, 19 and 23 levels last year and know that the future of the game on this island is safe for the next 10 years and beyond. The development programmes are working. Praising youth, allowing it to flourish and embodying the desire to compete.
"On the morning of the match we visited the team hotel," Pryor continues, "incidentally where the Pakistan team were also staying, and the Irish guys seemed so confident and focused. We bid them good luck, moved on to Cuddyz bar (owned by West Indian legend Courtney Walsh) and watched Ireland's Six Nations game against Italy.
"We were in the bar from 8am, so you can imagine that that result set the Irish supporters up for the cricket later! The whole day was incredible. There were scores of Irish people to support the team, including a 40-strong group from the Cayman Islands Gaelic Club. At one stage I closed my eyes and you could have sworn you were in Lansdowne Road at a football international. The atmosphere was incredible."
VICTORIES OVER ZIMBABWE and the West Indies in recent years have boosted the squad's belief. Qualification for the Super Eights guarantees the team another four weeks of competitive cricket against the cream of the cricketing crop.
It's easy to get lost in the wave of hysteria, but this Ireland side are the embodiment of the new Ireland - post-Celtic Tiger. The players are placing more demands than ever on areas such as fitness, eye testing and equipment to give themselves an edge.
In no other discipline on these islands can Catholics, Protestants, Hindu or Muslim sportsmen and women so liberally interact, irrespective of their creed.
Full one-day status awarded from the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) now beckons. What a joy to think that surnames like Morgan, O'Brien, Joyce and Mooney are now sprinkled across the cricketing world landscape.
Aristocrats? West Brits? Maybe once, a long, long time ago. But that's just not cricket. Not in Ireland any more, anyway.