'I suppose supporting the Irish team like we do is just in your blood'

Frankie Murrin and Bobby Cunningham during the Euro 2016 Group E match between Belgium and Republic of Ireland at Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux

placeholder image — Frankie Murrin and Bobby Cunningham during the Euro 2016 Group E match between Belgium and Republic of Ireland at Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux

Both Bobby Cunningham from Kilcar and Killybegs native Frankie Murrin suffered severe health issues in the last two years, but having both taken the road to recovery they were back on the road last week to watch the Republic of Ireland in action in Athens

With those distinctive sombreros stuffed with teddies and their green leprechaun suits, Bobby Cunningham and Frankie Murrin have been a staple part of Ireland trips for well over 30 years.

Down the years they’ve been to Gibraltar and Gdansk; Luxembourg and Lille; Seoul and the Stade de France. Often caught on camera at various outposts across Europe and even further afield, both men had serious health difficulties in the last two years and it looked as though their travelling days were numbered.

Bobby, 72, who lives in Bavin, Kilcar, suffered a heart-attack in November 2021 whilst visiting his eldest daughter Olivia in Scotland and was hospitalised in Edinburgh.

“I was very lucky,” he says. “Put it this way, there were people who were more scared than I was because when you’re going through something like that, you don’t be thinking too much. I had a few spare parts fitted, though, and was soon on the mend - the most recent of those was a hip just five weeks ago in Ballykelly.”

Frankie and Bobby in Paris before the international friendly between France and Ireland in 2018

Then, last September, Frankie, now 74, contracted a rare disorder called Guillain-Barré syndrome when a person's own immune system harms their body's nerves and there was a serious worry.

“I was in hospital for 14 weeks and I certainly never thought I would be back on a plane or galivanting,” he says. “I was in Letterkenny on a life support machine for four weeks and then in Galway. Basically, the disorder ate the muscles in my body and that left me with no power in my legs or in my arms. It’s a disorder that one in 10,000 get, maybe one in a million.

“They got a mass said for me in Killybegs as they were expecting me to die and that day. Little did they know, I was up eating a steak in Galway on the road to recovery. I was out of hospital and home two weeks before Christmas. I’ve told people since that I came back as fast as I went down!”

With both men firmly back on their feet, they were soon planning to get back on the road and spent last week following Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland team in Athens, where they played Greece in a Euro 2024 qualifier.

Republic of Ireland players, from left, captain John Giles, Steve Heighway and Liam Brady on his senior international debut during the European Championship against USSR in 1974

Whilst living in Drumcondra, Bobby recalls being crammed into Dalymount Park one Wednesday afternoon in October 1974. Don Givens’ hat-trick gave an Ireland side that included Johnny Giles and an 18-year-old and well-permed debutant Liam Brady a 3-0 win over the Soviet Union, who had finished runners-up to West Germany at the European Championships at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels two years beforehand.

That though, was the exception and not the rule in those days for the Irish team, who narrowly missed out on the 1982 World Cup in Spain and the rest by a country mile in an age of frequent disappointments and shortfalls.

Frankie and Bobby with members of the local police force prior to the Euro 2020 qualifier between Gibraltar and Republic of Ireland at Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar in 2019

That all changed when Jack Charlton took over as manager in 1986 and Bobby was in Rome’s Stadio Olympico for the 1990 World Cup quarter-final when Ireland’s epic journey was eventually ended by Italy and Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci.

By now the trips were becoming more frequent, with the pair’s first together being to Poznań for an eventful 3-3 draw against Poland in the Euro 92 qualifiers. Back then, not long after the fall of the iron curtain, there was still a greyness over Eastern Europe with those who watched at home did so with a crackling commentary that sounded like Neil Armstrong’s on the first moon landing in 1969.

Poland players celebrate their side's third goal against Ireland in Poznan in 1991

By the time World Cup 94 rolled around, Ireland were again paired with Italy, this time at Giants Stadium in Easter Rutherford, New Jersey.

“That day was amazing,” Frankie says. “Tickets seemed to come out of nowhere and half of Ireland was in Giants Stadium.”

“We couldn’t believe it walking into the stadium,” Bobby adds. “It was green, white and gold everywhere and it was a fantastic game. At the time Ireland were going well and you would’ve been hopeful, even confident, of getting a result as Italy were hyped up a lot.”

Ray Houghton scored the only goal as Ireland painted the Big Apple green. Then it was off to Orlando for Mexico, in a sweltering 42 degrees celsius, before eventual elimination by the Dutch, supported by a sea of orange at the aptly-named Citrus Bowl.

Quota restrictions in Killybegs meant Bobby’s decision to retire six years ago from Island Seafoods was a simple one and Frankie only stepped away from the family’s Murrin Fisheries at the Roshine Road Industrial Estate last year following his illness.

“We never really had a bad trip, whatever country Ireland are drawn against, we try and be there,” says Frankie, who married Mary, from Donegal Town originally, in 1975. They live at Cummins Hill - the same estate current Republic of Ireland captain Seamus Coleman is from - and have four children, Martin, Linda, Christopher and Marie.

“Anywhere we ever went, we found the locals very helpful and friendly,” says Bobby, who is married to Margaret since that same summer and they have four children - Olivia, Keith, Ciaran and Danielle. “We never have been in a situation where we would’ve been nervous or anything like that …”

“Well there was one …,” Frankie interjects. “We were in Riga in Latvia and there was a fella having drinks with us on the trip and we learned he was the pilot that would be taking us home a day or two later. That was a quiet enough flight! There were plenty of prayers being said!”

Republic of Ireland players from left, Robbie Keane, Simon Cox and Keith Andrews celebrate at the end of the Euro 2012 play-off in Estonia

“There was another one actually,” Bobby adds. “Possibly from Tallinn in Estonia where we were on a very small airplane. No cabin crew or anything like that. There was only about 50 people on one of those DC-10 planes that the engines kept falling off in the States.

“Only a pilot and this fella was out and away, one minute he was above the clouds and then he was banking right and banking left and then you were that low you could count the cattle in the field. It was scary enough. But we made it safe and sound.”

Last week, the two men were back and the road and back meeting old friends under the Acropolis in Athens, sharing yarns, talking football and enjoying the good weather. There were issues for a large quantity of the 2,600-strong Irish contingent entering the AEK Stadium, with tickets not scanning at turnstiles with crowds building up outside. It was uncomfortable for all, the two Donegal men included, before gaining admission just before kick-off. Greece would end up winning 2-1.

“It was very enjoyable,” Bobby says of Athens as a whole. “There was a problem getting into to ground and we were being sent here, there and everywhere. Someone was going to get hurt with the gates very slow and some not even working. It was frightening for a while and the Greeks didn’t seem to know what they were doing. But we made it.”

Frankie and Bobby in Athens last week before Ireland's match against Greece

With the personal journeys over the last couple of years that both Bobby and Frankie made to get to Athens a lot more complicated than booking a return flight, they were always going to make it.

“The game was disappointing but the Greek fans stayed back in the stadium and couldn’t believe the Irish fans were still singing,” Frankie adds. “Ah you’ll get the odd hiccup and we’re at this long enough now not to get too down about it and they got a good win, 3-0 against Gibraltar on Monday. We’ll look into the trips now in the autumn and we’re not finished just yet. I suppose supporting the Irish team like we do is just in your blood.”