The speakers billed were Jamie Carragher and Didi Hamann, both of whom played a part in the 2005 Champions League final comeback against AC Milan in Istanbul. Some feel it was the club’s greatest hour in an illustrious history of great hours, days and years. When Andrew later told me there was an extra ticket available, I snapped it up for my perennial Drogs companion, Paddy. It is not just the world of Drogheda United that myself and Paddy share but Liverpool as well. He is fortunate enough to get to their games in Anfield. Me . . . that’s another story.
The last such event I attended was back in May when my son and myself got tickets as a joint birthday present from my wife. Then Ronnie Whelan, Steve McMahon and Jan Molby were the speakers. That was the night I broke the dry and took to the whiskey.
Dry well behind me, this time we were intent on making a day of it so arranged to head to Dublin in the afternoon to swallow a few with Andrew in the Teachers Club before making our way out to the Santry hotel which was hosting the event. We made no effort to hold out until the club, swigging away at a hip flask and a bottle of uisce beatha on the journey. The Teachers is my favourite watering hole in the country. The atmosphere is always relaxed, the drink reasonably priced and the staff courtesy personified. I can just roll onto the last bus if the need arises. It is a few minutes walk from the Teachers and the journey back to Drogheda at that hour of the day is around 45 minutes.
On the night the Legends event was well put together. The wedding room was packed. Many parents had brought their children. These former players know how to work an audience. They perform as well on stage as they once did on the field of play. Insights and ribaldry combine to serve up entertainment of a quality that many stand up comedians would struggle to meet. Of course, it would not have been the night that was in it had the exploits of Istanbul not been laid out for us by two of the people who made it happen.
Dry well behind me, this time we were intent on making a day of it so arranged to head to Dublin in the afternoon to swallow a few with Andrew in the Teachers Club before making our way out to the Santry hotel which was hosting the event. We made no effort to hold out until the club, swigging away at a hip flask and a bottle of uisce beatha on the journey. The Teachers is my favourite watering hole in the country. The atmosphere is always relaxed, the drink reasonably priced and the staff courtesy personified. I can just roll onto the last bus if the need arises. It is a few minutes walk from the Teachers and the journey back to Drogheda at that hour of the day is around 45 minutes.
On the night the Legends event was well put together. The wedding room was packed. Many parents had brought their children. These former players know how to work an audience. They perform as well on stage as they once did on the field of play. Insights and ribaldry combine to serve up entertainment of a quality that many stand up comedians would struggle to meet. Of course, it would not have been the night that was in it had the exploits of Istanbul not been laid out for us by two of the people who made it happen.
On the way through Dublin to catch that last bus home Paddy and myself started discussing the topic of climate change. How we got from Liverpool to global warming only the drink can explain. I don’t think he or I know or even remember much about it.
In the land of the legends being regaled with tales of a ferocious Jamie tackle on Sani as well as Didi spending a night in the cells of a Tokyo police station . . . an evening well spent.
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