I grew up and was raised in Marlo, a small housing area in Kilmaine in the south of Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. That is where I’m really from. This year I have thought about my childhood a lot, probably too much. I liked some of it, but not all of it. I miss the Read more about Road Trip Part 9 – Flashback to my Childhood at Marlo[…]
In 2005 I had gone to Austria, Vienna to be exact with Northern Ireland fans to watch our last World Cup Qualifier with Austria. It was an away trip that I went on with my Dad and some of his mates. I knew a few of them, but not all of them. One of the lads Read more about Friday’s Featured Food: An Ulster Fry At North Lakes, Queensland, Australia[…]
I hadn’t seen Owen Millar for 3 years, well 2 and a half really. Since the SOENISC meeting in Weymouth in December 2007, I finally met up with my good old mate in June 2010. Both our lives had changed somewhat in the intervening years. Yet we both ended up in Australia somehow. Even in Read more about Road Trip Part 22: “Adrian” Bogan Logan – Owen Millar Reunion *[…]
I had never heard of the Carlyle Hotel, or even the district of Moonah, some kind of northern suburb of Hobart, I believe. It was time to hold the closest ever meeting to the South Pole for any Northern Ireland Supporters Club in history. And thanks to Hobart based, Andy Power, the venue was sorted, Read more about Closest Ever NISC Meeting To The South Pole[…]
Living in this land down under makes you think how the English language differs from country to country. In Northern Ireland for example there are many differences from England in speech. Check these out – Northern Irish word first Snib – Latch – the opening part of a door Hot Press – Airing Read more about AUSTRALIAN – NORTHERN IRISH – ENGLISH[…]
It’s truly kicking in – World Cup Fever. The passion that I first had back in June 1986 is back. I was too young to remember the 1982 World Cup sadly. Which is a shame because Northern Ireland won the group, and beat host nation Spain. However by 1986, I was a big Norman Whiteside Read more about World Cup Fever in the Land Down Under: Australia, June 2010[…]
My second time in Hobart was three months after my first time. And I’ll be back again next week to watch the World Cup with a Northern Irish mate. It’s a city that has grown on me, or what I mean is I didn’t like it much at the start and now I do. I Read more about Brunswick Hotel, Victoria Tavern, Glentoran v Dundee United, Bushmills and The Charlatans[…]
Not another Northern Ireland Supporters Club surely? And not just any old Northern Ireland Supporters Club! I just happened to form the world’s southernmost Northern Ireland Supporters Club. Or as we called it “Planet Earth’s Southernmost Norn Iron Buck Eejits,” so it is. There I was in March 2010, about to turn 30 years old Read more about TasmaNIan WilderNISC – The Green Devils – Planet Earth’s Southernmost Norn Iron Supporters Club[…]