Community

Dave Morrissey

A lot can change in a week. In the last edition of The Saint I referenced the excitement of football being back at Richmond Park, albeit without many of the key components that make supporting a football club special.

While the team recorded a welcome win at home to Finn Harps, I sat in the Main Stand alone as Georgie Kelly netted his first goals in red and white. Normally when a new striker arrives at a club (amidst plenty of anticipation) and scores his first home goal, fervour and excitement follow in the stands and on the terraces. His goals last Friday were greeted with cheers on the pitch (and in the dugout) and some isolated roars from volunteers spread sporadically across the ground. While football fans love following the fortunes of our teams from near and far, the absence of the crowd as a collective, leads to the inability to share that special feeling after a goal is scored, in unison. Football brings people together like no other. Consider some of the online commentary surrounding our recent results and performances. While it is fantastic for football fans to interact online and discuss the highs and lows of the game, many of those discussions should and would normally be taking place walking out of the gates of Richmond Park, in the car coming home from Finn Park, or in the pubs in Inchicore and beyond.

Everybody at the club had hoped that we would be welcoming circa three hundred season ticket holders to tonight’s game. While that number represents a paltry amount of our match going fanbase, it would have been fantastic to have some supporters scattered around Richmond Park which would have gone some way towards recreating the passion involved in a Dublin derby, albeit on a smaller scale. From watching derby games abroad in a Covid-19 world, the passion and emotion that makes those games special sadly ceases to exist. In any other year, both sets of supporters would be fired up for tonight’s game as they come through the turnstiles. They would be right behind their teams from the off. Dublin derbies are special and what happens in the stands often has more impact on young people attending games than what happens on the pitch. I recall attending St Pat’s games against Shamrock Rovers, Shels and Bohs as a child and being completely mesmerised by the noise, colour, and excitement in the stands. The following days were spent repeating the songs from the terraces rather than attempting to recreate the winning goal. While many young fans will be watching at home with family and friends on the excellent Watch LOI, the future growth of the league is contingent on what is happening at the game and not purely the game itself.

It seems strange to be writing notes to a Dublin derby without pausing to consider who might be in the ground for the first time and to wonder how they feel as they approach and leave Richmond Park. It feels like an opportunity passed by, a non-existent chance for a young kid to follow my path (and the path of countless others) on the road to becoming a Saints supporter. No young people will be repeating the songs from the Shed End Invincibles for the first time this coming week.

While attending games cannot form part of community activities for the time being, we are beginning to resume programmes in Inchicore and the surrounding areas. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will have a two-day Youth Project football tournament at Richmond Park, bringing together teenagers from Inchicore, Drimnagh, Rialto and Ballyfermot. While next Thursday and Friday we will be running a two-day football community camp in Bluebell for 28 young people from the area.

Hopefully, those young people will have the opportunity to learn the songs from the terraces one day soon.