So, seems the luck of the Irish remains the ironic term it always has been. Never mind. It's now clear to all that it would've taken the unlikelihood of great heart from passing shadows, to change our fortunes atm. HOWEVER, what a memorable day for us fans on here. Haven't had such a proper 'Paddy's Day' since I was carried out of Midnight Mass and laid out on the steps of a church up in Cricklewood (after a 'warming' tumbler full of neat whiskey) more than 35 years ago! Irish Brixtonians are few and far between compared to the Kilburn-ites of my youth. I'm about to unstick the main thread advertising the meet up now - but before I do, I'd just like to start one for the craic, in the hope of attracting and pooling some of the stories and pix that will hopefully emerge in the aftermath of what has been a truly memorable occasion: the welcome return of our indigenous Irish cousins! The meet up point was the Crown & Sceptre in Melina Road. The place was ram-up (as we say in Brixton), far too tight to have had much chance of speaking to all who turned up but the atmosphere under the tri-colour replete with Rs crest was everything you could've expected. Whether we'll ever again see such a crowd of not606ers in one place is doubtful at best. I remember meeting my co-mod NUTS, Tramore, Finglas, Kingdom and one or two others including organiser, Inky Steve (although I doubt he'll remember!). From this side of the pond, I remember Col, son Will and Tooting - and Roller of course who I've known for a while now. Seems I missed out on our Goldie and HE (Hoops Eternal). Great shame, next time maybe. For any of you who have chosen to avoid catch-ups with other board members, I understand the benefits of splendid anonymity but really, everyone I've met so far have been real diamonds to a man. So, before handing over to the rest of youze for a tale or two, I'll just nauseate you with a few (slightly amended) verses from a well known Dubs track! Mackieâs Hughesiliers! 'Twas in the year two thousand twelve When the prem was full of dangers When the plastix all headed for Chelsea And Paddy, for Queens Park Rangers Come all you not606ers And you long-distance men Long gone the days of McAlpine And Murphy and John Laing Youâll make your way to LR And up there into the stands And they'll say, Good on you, Paddy With your air-fare in your hands The craic is great in Shepherds Bush And theyâd soon be in the Crown With glasses flying and everyone trying 'Cause Paddyâs back in town Oh mother dear, I'm over here But Iâll soon be coming back What keeps me here is the reek o' beer The Rangers and the craic I come from a place where all is green The land of eggs and bacon But if you think I'll buy your âHughes Inâ cries Oh dear then you're mistaken Just get that ****er out of our club To be sure itâll all end in tears Or theyâll be back for more than the craic Will Mackieâs Hughesiliers! That's it! Your turn. URRRsss!!!
brilliant brix! in my current state of fatigue I couldn't possibly give a reply to do that justice but after a good nights sleep I'll give a proper one tomoro lol
Major apologies to the non-Irish not606ers! Looks like, just like Mr Youze, we let the side down. Seems that the 'luck of the Irish' stuff is all baloney! Brixt, I think we might have met, and chatted. So, if that was you, it was great to meet!
Oh yeah, that's who I missed yesterday (in both senses of the word): Nines! Met before but already an institution for a lot of us.
Pleasure to meet all you lads Saturday, great to put names to faces. Such a shame the football let us all down, hope you enjoyed the Saturday night in town!
Great weekend. Super to finally meet so many of my fellow R'rrrrssss from both sides of the pond. Only shame was there was not enough time to talk to everybody properly. Tooting was first to arrive so managed to have a few nice beers with him before the rest of the mob arrived. Dublin Dave then appeared, and before I knew it Inky (big lad), CORKeR, Cork A Hoop, Belfast, Finglas, Kingdom, Col, Brix, Hoops, Morty (great bloke and barman), Roller, Goldy and 999s all arrived. I really enjoyed the craic but just did not have enough time to talk properly to everybody. Sleep deprivation has resulted in two big red eyes but well worth it. Great to finally meet you Brix and your lovely family. Will deffo sit down and have a chat over a coke next time I'm over. Can't publish the exact details of my weekend on here as TBH much of it went by in a blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
According to Roller you left two minutes before I arrived Brix. Next time my friend. It was still a fantastic afternoon... Until the match kicked off. We have some fantastic lads on this board, it was a pleasure to meet you all yesterday.
Bump. Don't want to let the manager override a great bunch of lads. Anymore ''road' type stories from the weekend?
I'll be doing my little piece tomoro brix, 9's sent me a few pics too. a brilliant one of kingdomhoop, finglas and corkeR. if anyone doesn't want the pics put up say so please. cheers
Just wish I could have got there earlier, didn't much time to talk to anyone and I missed some of you completely.
My opening post on this site was âis there any Irish Râs on here?? â It led to me leaving my house in Waterford at 4.30am for the 1 hour drive to Wexford to meet the rest of the South East brotherhood. My Waterford comrade Tramorehoop decided to take the 36hr round trip on the ferry, the nutter! We were meeting him over there. I picked up Brian the fishman en route and arrived at corkeRs house. A coffee and a slice of banana bread later we jumped into his car (because itâs nicer than mine!) A short spin to collect cork-a-hoop and off to Dublin airport we went. Considering the ridiculous time of the morning it was, the journey was anything but subdued. This was Brianâs first trip to Loftus Rd despite following âRangers ever since the mercurial Stan Bowles was lighting up W12. The jokes and abuse made the 90 minutes fly by. Waiting for us at the airport was season ticket holders Finglas and his nephew Nathan. Iâd only met them once before at the Alan McDonald match in Belfast but weâd talked so much about this trip that he already feels like an old friend. The 2 corkys and Brian hit the sauce straight away. â¬6.50 for a bottle of Miller?!? **** That!!! 2 other unknown Râs were there too but they rushed off and we never got to hear their story. My cousin picked us up from the airport. Himself a lifelong supporter and the one who made sure I stayed a fan because he used to send me over programmes and shirts when I moved over here when I was 8 in 1981. He dropped us off at the hotel to dump our bags and then outside the ground. He was going to drop his car home and meet us later. Itâd be a long time since I was in South Africa Rd (a 1-1 draw with Luton in March 2004 to be exact) A few purchases in the club shop and off we went to The Crown and Sceptre. I was starting to get a few butterflies. You know what itâs like, you arrange to meet a few lads in the pub and no-one shows up. Would this be the same? The answer was no! In we went and straight away we saw QPRNUTS and RangerCol and his son at the table that Mortlakeranger had reserved for us. (massive thanks for that bud!) Nutso being a Bolger had a pint in his hand already. He helped me put up the flag and we declared that this little part of West London was officially Irish! The pub quickly filled up and every time I saw someone come in the question was asked âis that one of ours?â Before long we had Kingdomhoop and his grandson, Roller ( who I give most of the credit for this meet up to because of his amazing piece This World of Râs, without that I donât think weâd have been so enthusiastic about getting this together) Tramore got there safely. Tooting, Dublindave. Finglas and Nathan. Goldie, Belfast, 999âs the legend that is Brix! HoopsEternal. All had made their way over and this little gathering was getting quite big. It was a struggle to try and talk to everyone. There were handshakes all round to as many people as possible. For me it kinds of becomes a blur as more and more people came in. Steve Russell, Paul Finney, Alan Nolan and son and Jimmy Colls from the IndyRs site came in as well as Irish Senator Fiach MacConghail whom Iâve spoken to several times on twitter. The place was buzzing! So much positive energy we couldnât possibly lose..yeah well⦠It really was great to meet so many people. I had made this an open invitation and not limited to the not606 forum because Queens Park Rangers as a club has so many demographics that call it their own. From company directors to steel workers we all had one thing in common. We are all passionate about the club. The main thing I heard was âI never realised there was so many QPR fans in Ireland!! â and â I thought I was the only one!â What seemed like seconds passed before we had to set off for the ground. I bought the match day programme to see a tiny pic of the IrishRs in it! Fame at last!! I got goosebumps climbing the old concrete stairs to our seats. One thing hasnât changed is the seats. I couldnât fit in them 8 years ago and I still canât! Build that new stadium Tony!!! Thatâs where Iâm going to end this. We all know how the game went. Before I do a quick thank-you to all the people that travelled over for this. For a first time effort I think it didnât turn out too bad. The next one will be better. Apologies to those I didnât meet or whose name Iâve forgotten to mention. 9âs sent me great pics that Iâll post. That was my Irish experience.. roll on the next one!!
Nice one Inky. Massive effort guys. Proud of you all. The club, when it finds its feet in the modern world, owe you all big time.
