It being quite a few days until the actual football action commences, we here at Super Euro Soccer Party are forced to mark out the days with musings on the trappings and paraphernalia of soccer tournaments in general, and Euro Championships past in particular. I had it in mind to inaugurate my participation in this here group blog with a look back at tournament logos and mascots of our time. It's a topic I may get to in the coming weeks, but Fústar's post on Ronnie Whelan brought me back to those great summer days in 1988 when a whole nation discovered that it had a soccer team, and found this pleasing.
Relative newcomers to the business of big-time international football, our behaviour that summer was, as Fústar alludes, endearingly naïve. The full-blown soulless cross-promotion of more recent days was a long way off, and the all-out insanity of 1990 was hardly even germinating. The summer of Euro '88 was one where we felt our way into the business of football fandom.
Take the song for example. I have scoured the net all over and can find barely a reference to our anthem of that year, "The Boys in Green". Ask most young whippersnappers these days to sing a song of that title, and they’ll just give you a chant to the tune of "Those Were The Days My Friend" by Mary Hopkin. Some of us though, will remember the clunky, almost Country'n'Irish rhythm of the original. Two years later, football was hip, and team songs had followed suit, with New Order on board in England, and U2 helping out over here. That year there was a huge rash of World Cup songs, not all of which achieved the sophistication of "Put ‘em Under Pressure" (for some of us, the three, seemingly random words "Penney's Winning Team" will always evoke a shudder).
But in 1988, there was time for one last gasp of the old-style anthem. Composed with the tone-deaf in mind, and sung by serried rows of players, the video for such songs would always be shot in-studio and would open with a close shot of two mixing deck switches being slid upwards by a studio boffin. The rest of the clip would be a staid affair, livened only by shots of the players "larking" around with headphones, with one of the team's "characters" perhaps pulling hilarious rock'n'roll poses in dark glasses.
Now I know this wasn't pretty, and may to some be an awkward reminder of the mucksavages that we once were, but still. Truly, it is Part of What We Are. The revision of history that glosses over our early, faltering steps into the big time (soon to be mirrored by Irish society in general) may minimise our "dumb hick" quotient, but it also ignores the very real, still-innocent joy we felt at having a football song of our own at all. I can't even find the lyrics for the song, let alone a video, so here, from memory is the original "Boys In Green":
"We are the boys in green,
The best you’ve ever seen.
We’ve just made his-toe-ree,
We’re goin’ to Ger-man-ee.
We’ve got a lot to prove,
We’ve worked out every move.
You’ll wonder where we’ve been
When You see the Boys in Green.…and you’ll say IRELAND IRELAND
Show them what we’ve got.
IRELAND IRELAND
We can beat this lot.
IRELAND IRELAND
We can cel-eb-rate.
IRELAND IRELAND
In Euro 8-tee-8La la la till now,
Big Jack has shown us how,
La la la la…"
Blast it, I can't remember the rest. Anyone who can recall the thrilling climax, please lend a hand in the comments box, so that at least the next generation won't go without a definitive copy of the lyrics online. IRELAND IRELAND, show them what we’ve got….
Wasn’t it something like…
We’ve just made his-toe-ree,
We’re off to Ger-man-ee.
We’ve had to wait til now,
Big Jack has shown us how.
You’ll wonder where we’ve been,
When you see the boys in green…
Oh man. You’ve caused some unwanted images to come flashing back there. Shudder…
As I recall, the team (and Jack) appeared on The Late Late just before jetting off to “Ger-man-ee”. I have a vision of them standing in their “serried rows” miming (with acute embarrassment) to “Boys in Green”. Anyone share this (possibly false) memory?
May 30th, 2008 at 12:11 amThanks to Fustar for alerting me to the imminent footification of this site, a topic close to my heart, albeit as an Englishman and a Liverpool supporter something I’d happily have spent the Summer forgetting.
Is it me or is the Dog mascot pictured above concealing something in its left paw? Something’s not right about it anyway, from the leering tongue to the bow legged stance. I don’t trust that dog.
Anyway it reminded me of some of the other daft mascots football’s thrown up, the first I can remember being Naranjito, the improbably anthropomorhised orange from Espana 82.
There’s a selection of them here:
Rosy cheeked best friends Tip and Tap could only come from a more innocent age, back then they doubtless referenced football as a unifying force, today they’d more likely be the focus of right wing rage for promoting alternative lifestyles.
That bbcoded monstrosity above looked ok till I pressed submit, honest…
Matt
May 30th, 2008 at 10:29 amAll fixed now, Matt. The monstrosity has been tamed.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:50 amMy dad, a supporter of Irish football when it was neither fashionable nor profitable (he got suspended from his school, the famed Joey’s in Fairview, in the early ’60s for starting a soccer team and had a trial for Everton’s junior team around the same time) thought he’d died and gone to heaven when Ireland got into Euro ‘88. During the England match my older sister came in and asked him for money to buy a paisley shirt in the Abbey Mall (ah, the late ’80s!) and my dad, eyes still glued to the screen, said that she could have it if Ireland won. She wore that monstrous garment with pride…
May 30th, 2008 at 10:53 amIf you think the dog is freaky and devious looking as a 2-D image you should see him as a 3-D mascot dancing up and down the sidelines. His enormous maw looks made for but one thing - devouring children.
Naranjito is one of those mascots whose painfully forced grin and wide-eyed stare seem to be screaming “Please…Killll Meeeee”. Life as a hideous anthropomorphised freak is clearly getting him down.
May 30th, 2008 at 11:10 amStella, Unlike your Da (fair play to him) I knew very, very few adults of my parents’ vintage who were into football at the time.
I recall watching the qualifying matches for the 86 World Cup (so close…dammit) and feeling like I was an enthusiast of some obscure, niche activity. I never remember my Da watching a second of an Ireland match until Jack took over. It was all rugby and GAA. “Soccer” came a distant third (if it was lucky).
Paisley shirt bought in a mall, eh? You just don’t get much more late 80s than that.
May 30th, 2008 at 11:44 amMy whole family were glued to Euro ‘88. Even better was that we were in Spain when Ireland beat England 1-0. I got a cheap t-shirt with the pic of Ray sticking it in the net and walzted around wearing it, pissing off all the English holiday makers.
My brother and I went in to greet the team on their open top bus in town when they came back. All I can remember is the chaos and Ray singing - to the tune of the Camptown Races - “who put the ball in the England net? I did, I did”. Brilliant.
Around the same time, I went to many crappy Ireland matches (on crutches too) in Landsdowne that were practically empty. After ‘88, it was much harder to get tickets.
May 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pmThose were the days! Lashing rain and a churned up muck pile for a pitch. Tony Grealish, John Devine, Gerry Daly and other long-forgotten legends sewn into skimpy pin-stripe jerseys.
I suddenly feel terribly old…
May 30th, 2008 at 4:12 pm