Your best/worst experiences in the stands

[trileacman]

Close to the worst:-

All Ireland Final '08, was in the Hill for the first time of my life and had two younger cousins with me, no drinking done. Got in early for the minors and got stuck behind about 20 young (16-18 judging by the nicknames they had on the St Pat's fellas) skangers from Dungannon who were hammered. They had smuggled in a right amount of drink as well. Loud, obnoxious, bad representation of the county, wasn't a lot of fun being near them.

Best:-

All Ireland Final '08, stuck with the same lads as above, 63 minutes gone, a point up and Kerry are turning up the heat. Sheehan's wides/ McConnell's save has us all enthralled and I thought we weren't going to hold out to the end. Then Kevin Hughes comes on and starts hitting the corner flags, me and twenty others cursing him for all our might. All of a sudden McGinley scores and then Hub and we are three clear in the 69th minute and we all know that we're nearly home and dried!! Me and these Dungannon lads are going mental at the back of the Hill, screaming, hugging, roaring our guts out. There's just a mill of bodies in complete euphoria and I can't see or inclined to look at what's going on. By the time we settle down Tyrone are four up and me and everyone around me haven't a clue what's happened. I eventually come to the conclusion that the scoreboard is broken, after the match I hear people talk about Colm Cavanagh's point and I'm wrecking my brain trying to figure out when that happened. Eventually seen the point that night on the Sunday game but that doesn't matter. Those seconds after Hub splits the posts though were the best moment I ever had in a crowd. With a crowd of lads, I hadn't any time for 60 minutes before, going buck mad in celebration. Priceless.

[Hardy]

Worst: The only time I was ever scared in a crowd. A crush on the terrace at Lansdowne Road at a rugby international in the seventies. The crowd was a swaying wave; occasionally, your feet were off the ground and you were just flotsam in the sea of people. A kid of about eight, separated from whoever he was with, was crying and in danger of getting crushed. Somebody managed to pick him up and put him on their shoulders. Throughout the first half, we shifted him around from one to another's shoulders as there simply wasn't space anywhere to put him down. The whole experience made Hillsborough very real for me, clarified how a mass of people can be an uncontrollable force and put me firmly in the pro ultra safety camp when it comes to crowd control, pitch invasions, etc.

Best: Not just the best ever experience in the stands, but the best sporting moment I've experienced - Kevin Foley, a Saturday afternoon, July 1991.

[rrhf]

Hardy you definitely are from an era predating the spring chicken

[Captain Obvious]

clarified how a mass of people can be an uncontrollable force and put me firmly in the pro ultra safety camp when it comes to crowd control, pitch invasions, etc.

You would be one of those against outdoor concerts?

[brokencrossbar1]

Worst: The only time I was ever scared in a crowd. A crush on the terrace at Lansdowne Road at a rugby international in the seventies. The crowd was a swaying wave; occasionally, your feet were off the ground and you were just flotsam in the sea of people. A kid of about eight, separated from whoever he was with, was crying and in danger of getting crushed. Somebody managed to pick him up and put him on their shoulders. Throughout the first half, we shifted him around from one to another's shoulders as there simply wasn't space anywhere to put him down. The whole experience made Hillsborough very real for me, clarified how a mass of people can be an uncontrollable force and put me firmly in the pro ultra safety camp when it comes to crowd control, pitch invasions, etc.

Best: Not just the best ever experience in the stands, but the best sporting moment I've experienced - Kevin Foley, a Saturday  afternoon, July 1991.

Pure dung.

[JUst retired]

My worst experience was a few years ago in Clones. At a game I forget who Derry were playing,Joe Brolly was sitting right behind me.He never shut up the whole game. I swear to God if he put his false teeth in backwards he would eat himself to death.

[theticklemister]

Another great moment...........

Collie Devlin scoring the winning point against Armagh in the qualifiers.we were beat in Ulster just before and were giving no chance but I was part of the Clones '300' (the name giving to the derry supporters who made the trip there; there was f**k all of us there) and it was a joy to behold, us 4 supporters giving it lilty behind the standing goals at the oppositie side were Collie scored the point.

Worst....... During all-ireland victory of 93 we were in the Hill; meself me cousin and da and uncle.I was getting crushed so we had to leave (felt sorry for me da and uncle) I got carried mexican wave style by the fans out the entrance.we had to hit outside to find a bar which was open to watch the game as they were all closed.some kind hearted bar man opened the bar and we managed to see our victory.mind ye felt sorry for me da and uncle to miss our sole victory because of my height and age!! Some fecker on the Hill 16 turnstyle was taking backhanders.

[Hardy]

clarified how a mass of people can be an uncontrollable force and put me firmly in the pro ultra safety camp when it comes to crowd control, pitch invasions, etc.

You would be one of those against outdoor concerts?

What?

[Dinny Breen]

Best experience was been on Hill 16 when Brian Murphy scored that goal against Meath in the Leinster Final in 98, the place just went mental.

Most interesting was in the Meath Westmeath match in 2001 I think it was the one in which Dessie that free. I had to physically separate a Meath and a Westmeath supporter both in their late 50s swinging windmills at each other while both sets of supporters cheered them on.

I think this says more about me and my big mouth but I've had verbal run ins with supporters from Louth*2, Fermanagh, Cavan, Kerry and Down but the single most annoying was a female supporter from Sligo in 2005 in the qualifier who sitting directly behind me insisted on calling every Kildare player 'A Fairy' ad nauseam. 

[magpie seanie]

Best experience was been on Hill 16 when Brian Murphy scored that goal against Meath in the Leinster Final in 98, the place just went mental.

Most interesting was in the Meath Westmeath match in 2001 I think it was the one in which Dessie that free. I had to physically separate a Meath and a Westmeath supporter both in their late 50s swinging windmills at each other while both sets of supporters cheered them on.

I think this says more about me and my big mouth but I've had verbal run ins with supporters from Louth*2, Fermanagh, Cavan, Kerry and Down but the single most annoying was a female supporter from Sligo in 2005 in the qualifier who sitting directly behind me insisted on calling every Kildare player 'A Fairy' ad nauseam.

I have a short list of suspects for that - we must chat about it some day!

Like yourself my exhuberance has lead to manys the row at a game but sometimes the lads with you can let you down too. One such occasion was Navan in 2002 against Armagh. We were packed in fairly tight and I was on the outside of our group beside some raucous Armagh support. The banter was good natured at first but when a buck from the other side of our group started on about their "education from the Queen" I thought I was going to be killed. To be fair to the Armagh lads they were fuming but ignored it.

Enough of me being Mother Teresa though. At a Sligo v. Leitrim match a friend of mine and I met a couple of equally ignorant hoors. We traded wild abuse and when Sligo pulled away at the end it's fair to say we absolutely sowed it into them. Fast forward six months and I'm sitting in a Connacht training seminar for club officers and who sits in beside me? Yes. It was a little uncomforatable to say the least.

[ballinaman]

Double header League Semi in Croke park a few years back, it was Galway Mayo and Kildare V Donegal. 
After the final whistle in the first game, a fairly rotund (putting it mildly) Kildare supporter stood up 3 rows from the front of the Cusack and started shouting back up the stand as loud as he could...."Paddy.....Paddy....Paddy Hara"

This went on for what seemed an inordinate period of time, probably the guts of a minute. The whole stand went quiet with anticipation as to where this was going.....

Eventually, the Paddy in question stood up and went...."WHA???"

To which our Kildare lad replied....."You've a head like a chicken" and sat down with a delighted head on him.

Everybody then broke their shits laughing. Hilarious

[AZOffaly]

I wasn't in the stands, but this was a game we were playing against Wicklow down in Athy (nearly sure it was Athy). I'm sure it was a minor game, but it was only a challenge, or that minor league thing. Anyway, one of our bucks was getting a bit of abuse on the field, Wickla being Wickla, and his mother was in the crowd. She'd be renowned as an MGM anyway. (Mad GAA Mammy). As the physical stakes upped on the pitch, the vocal stakes also raised from the stand, and there was all sorts of abuse being heaped on the Wicklow lads, their parents, their grandparents and other family members, as well as the referee and all associated with him.

As the game neared the end, (a comfortable win), the MGM was unappeased. She continued to call on the demons of Hades to avenge her son's treatment, and myself and the lad I was marking were having a good laugh at it, seeing as how we were in the corner nearest where she was, but I dare say the fishing trawlers off Bray Head were able to hear her.

Anyhow, when the long whistle blew, and everyone was trudging off, MGM decided to exact retribution herself. She proceeded to try to climb the boundary wire, umbrella in hand. the last point was a bit of a giveaway in itself, and spoke to pre-meditation as it was the finest day of that young summer.

Anyhow, snarling and growling like a rabid dog, MGM tried to scale the fence, to no avail. Despite several attempts she was unable to master the 6 foot fence, and her umbrella went unused, and the Wicklow lads went, thankfully, unassaulted. Presumably the ref himself was happy not to have to face the 'Wrath of Mam'. By this stage, like the mad dog she had resembled up to this point, she was played out, and completely frustrated.

As she stood there panting at the side of the fence, we could see just how frustrated she was, as a large, unmistakable dark coloured wet patch began to spread around the front of her pleated grey skirt. A sight that no minor footballer should ever have to see!

To make matters worse, there was an open gate about 20 yards further down that she could have dandered out if she wasn't so out of her head with madness. MGM's you have to love them.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Double header League Semi in Croke park a few years back, think it was Kildare V Donegal in the first game and Galway Mayo in the 2nd.

After the final whistle in the first game, a fairly rotund (putting it mildly) Kildare supporter stood up 3 rows from the front of the Cusack and started shouting back up the stand as loud as he could...."Paddy.....Paddy....Paddy Hara"

This went on for what seemed an inordinate period of time, probably the guts of a minute. The whole stand went quiet with anticipation as to where this was going.....

Eventually, the Paddy in question stood up and went...."WHA???"

To which our Kildare lad replied....."You've a head like a chicken" and sat down with a delighted head on him.

Everybody then broke their shits laughing. Hilarious

Remember that well. Think our game was the second one though. The laughing had barely died down by the time the ball was thrown in for the second match.

[Captain Obvious]

clarified how a mass of people can be an uncontrollable force and put me firmly in the pro ultra safety camp when it comes to crowd control, pitch invasions, etc.

You would be one of those against outdoor concerts?

What?

A concert is a mass of people on a pitch or field, uncontrollable force.

[cornafean]

Worst: The only time I was ever scared in a crowd. A crush on the terrace at Lansdowne Road at a rugby international in the seventies. The crowd was a swaying wave; occasionally, your feet were off the ground and you were just flotsam in the sea of people. A kid of about eight, separated from whoever he was with, was crying and in danger of getting crushed. Somebody managed to pick him up and put him on their shoulders. Throughout the first half, we shifted him around from one to another's shoulders as there simply wasn't space anywhere to put him down. The whole experience made Hillsborough very real for me, clarified how a mass of people can be an uncontrollable force and put me firmly in the pro ultra safety camp when it comes to crowd control, pitch invasions, etc.

As a youngster, I had the misfortune of being on a dangerously overcrowded Canal End for the 1983 All Ireland Final. There was an almost incessant swaying of the crowd over and back, up and down. Some people lost coats and bags in the mayhem. But for the grace of God, people could have been killed and I think the Hill was equally bad that day.

However I can't understand how you can equate scenes like that with post-match crowd celebrations, mistakenly labelled by vested interests as 'pitch invasions'. In fact the Croke Park hysteria surrounding so-called 'pitch invasions' has now led to the irony of Hill 16 'patrons' being once again caged behind fences, in defiance of the Taylor Report into crowd safety after the Hillsborough disaster.