I remember coming home from school to watch this one live, I think it was on BBC2 Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland had a really really decent side at the time (well in my opinion…). We boasted some World Cup stars such as Nigel Worthington, Alan McDonald, Colin Clarke and Mal Donaghy (who had a very…
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Imagine the surprise and disbelief of me driving through Hobart in Tasmania in May 2010 and seeing a van with the word “Tayto” on it!!! The Northern Irish crisp! And next to the sticker on this white van was another sticker with “Norn Iron” on it. I thought for once in life my eyes were…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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