The Road Goes Ever On

Every Game An Away Game by Bluebeard

(first published in the March 2011 Finn Harps match programme)

The Finn Harps faithful are for me the most welcome fans to the RSC. They have the longest and trickiest trip of all the fans we will see this year. Any Blues fans who have ever made the trip to Donegal will know it is not easy, given Ireland’s comprehensive traffic calming strategy that is colloquially known as the Midlands. Things are better than they were, but still no handy trip, and for the die-hards who come from the opposite corner of the country, credit is due.

It does make me think of the fans who travel regularly to our home games from all over, and I don’t just mean from Ferrybank. We have a fair few travelling the length and breadth of the county coming to games now. Particularly, I note the Dungarvan contingent have been coming from the West of the County in increasing numbers: time was it was an unmerciful journey, but no longer so, and the number travelling proves this.

Out of the county, there used be quite a few Wexford based fans who would travel, and some who got involved in the club and the supporters club. I used be one of them, sharing a car with a fan from South Kilkenny to the games back when they were on Sundays and I still lived near to New Ross. There were always a few cars parked across from the RSC registered as KK and WX. I’d imagine that there were some people travelling from Tipp too, given some of our players over the years.

Outside of the locale, we have our share of exiles too. Unless I am greatly mistaken, there might be one or two who travelled here from Cork tonight. I used to live in Dublin, and I recall the planning that used to be necessary. Getting to games from the capital involved a bit of forethought – particularly in the Discover Ireland Division. Home games were a close-run thing, as getting out from work at five inside of the M50 meant a missed game. The upside were the benefits of starting for Monaghan or Longford at the centre of the national radial system, and of course a whole host of ‘local’ games when we are back in the Premier Division. One man I knew had been living in Ashbourne for years and considered Dalymount his home ground – you can imagine his favourite home game in the past ten years.

Not all of the Dublin support are in exile of course: some of them were born and bred there. Some lived here in Waterford once upon a time, some were just impressed by their play back in the days. I recall a work meeting with a crowd of Dubs once where somehow the Blues were mentioned, and it turned out that one of them was a shareholder from way back when, a woman who had been a fan since the days of matinee idol Peter Thomas (the large bracket of his career conveniently allowed for her to keep her age a secret). Before I moved, I regularly got my lift down fortnightly with a man who had lived here years back, and had embraced the true faith. His brother who had never lived here, independently came to his senses, and picked up his Blue cross and followed too. Gentlemen both, they have been going to Blues games faithfully for a fair few years now.

So fair play to the travelling fan, not just to those making the impressive journey that Harps fans will have to make twice this year, but credit a-plenty to the home fans who have a journey ahead of them after the game. Three points will make it an easier task.