{"id":404231,"date":"2026-03-26T03:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/404231\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T03:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:10:20","slug":"ireland-fans-land-in-prague-for-playoff-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/404231\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland fans land in Prague for playoff \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of Republic of Ireland<\/a> fans arrived in Prague<\/a> on Wednesday hopeful about the team\u2019s World Cup<\/a> playoff chances but relieved at making it to the Czech capital in the first place.<\/p>\n

Gavin Kelleher and James Doyle spent the night trying to sleep in Manchester Airport after a day of travel chaos. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got here now, 15 hours later than expected,\u201d Kelleher said on Wednesday morning. \u201cWe had a bit of a nightmare to be fair, originally we were supposed to go Cork<\/a> to Manchester and get a connecting flight to Prague.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flight out of Cork was cancelled, so the two 23-year-olds were redirected to Dublin, but by the time they caught a flight to Manchester their connecting one to Prague had left without them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to sleep in the airport for eight hours in Manchester \u2026 pay for new flights, another \u20ac300,\u201d Kelleher said. \u201cWe went into an [airport] lounge, had a couple of bottles and breakfast, fuelled up. It was tough, but we\u2019re here now, that\u2019s the important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Doyle and Gavin Kelleher arrived at Prague after a day of travel chaos. Photograph: Jack Power <\/p>\n

The pair are among the few who secured tickets from the 1,024 allocation Ireland were given for the playoff against the Czech Republic<\/a> in the 19,370-capacity Fortuna Arena. Thousands more are travelling without tickets. <\/p>\n

Publicans in the Irish bars of Prague\u2019s old town have been bracing for throngs of Ireland supporters and have made sure they are well stocked. A popular spot for stag-dos, the city is equipped to handle what\u2019s coming. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland v Czechia: Squad updates, TV details and more<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mark Maguire and his 24-year-old son Conor have not given up hope of sourcing last-minute tickets. <\/p>\n

Mark, from Portsmouth originally but now living in Navan<\/a>, Co Meath<\/a>, was in the United States for the 1994 World Cup when he got into Ireland\u2019s matches against Mexico and Norway. <\/p>\n

\"MarkMark Maguire, right, and son Conor, arriving in Prague for the Ireland-Czech Republic match. Photo: Jack Power <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Norway ticket I picked up about 20 minutes before kick-off, having flown from Chicago that morning. There\u2019s always hope,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Johnny Gunnery, from Coolock, Dublin<\/a>, said: \u201cNo tickets. Just come over for the atmosphere, enjoy the buzz. That\u2019s the vibe today. Go with the flow. Just join in with the crowd.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"How Troy Parrott factor will influence Ireland v Czech Republic<\/p>\n

A group of three Hare Krishnas happened to be at V\u00e1clav Havel airport at arrivals, chanting and playing music, as two flights full of Ireland fans landed on Wednesday. Kneecap rapper Mo Chara and The 2 Johnnies duo were among the arrivals. <\/p>\n

The Hare Krishna group said they were awaiting a friend, who is coming in on another flight from Bristol. An Irish child using his small carry-on as a scooter almost knocks into one of the three. \u201cYeah, right through the Hare Krishnas,\u201d one fan says, sighing. <\/p>\n

Supporters put a lot of effort into planning their trip to Prague to ensure they did not miss out supporting the Boys in Green.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the direct flight booked before the draw was done, so that paid off in the end,\u201d Daryl Bolger said after walking through the arrival gate alongside friend Daniel Becker. <\/p>\n

Bolger has always followed the Ireland team home and away, but family life has meant paring back the trips abroad of late. \u201cI\u2019ve two small kids so I\u2019ve taken a break the last couple of years,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pass was booked in early for this one. Couldn\u2019t miss this one.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"BrendanBrendan Gilsenan and Oisin Terrell, Mullingar, were among the Ireland fans leaving Dublin Airport on Wednesday. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

The two have tickets among the Czech fans. \u201cWe\u2019re in the home end, so we\u2019ll go in no-colours and hope for the best,\u201d Bolger said. <\/p>\n

Ireland fans are arriving in Prague more in hope than expectation. They are far from the first Irish men to do so. <\/p>\n

A community of Franciscan friars, fleeing persecution that would intensify under Oliver Cromwell, travelled to Prague to establish a training college in 1629. Hundreds of years later there is still a Hybernska street, or Hibernian street, near Prague old town, where the friars were based. <\/p>\n

The college the order founded shut in 1786. Most of the 37 priests living there at the time decided to make the long journey across Europe back to Ireland. <\/p>\n

When this week is out the trip home from Prague for the thousands of Irish fans, many carrying a hangover, may feel just as arduous. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Republic of Ireland fans arrived in Prague on Wednesday hopeful about the team\u2019s World Cup playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[1877,11022,52,18,19,17,1873,64812,2639,6634,132,35350],"class_list":["post-404231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork","tag-czech-republic","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meath","tag-navan","tag-prague","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}