The man who brought a slice of Italy to Dublin during Italia 90 admits that he was probably the only one praying Ireland wouldn’t get a second goal against England - in case the stands wouldn’t hold ecstatic fans celebrating.
Dubliner Michael Dawson also recalled paying £96,000 each for the big screens which broadcast the games to 48,000 people in the RDS.
The businessman was the brainchild behind the Italian village where fans needed to get through passport control into what was the largest event in the world outside of Italy during the World Cup.
And he chuckles as he admits he prayed Ireland wouldn’t get a second goal against England because he thought the make-shift stands would collapse if the crowds were to start jumping with delight again.
“When we qualified for the World Cup, there was a lot of giving out over the prohibitive cost of travel and tickets so I thought why not recreate Italy in Ireland?
“Large screen technology wasn’t good 30 years ago and I needed the best there was. Bear in mind I had no money and had to get a bank overdraft to afford to travel to Holland to where the screens were.
“They were state-of-the-art but were 96,000 Irish punt each so I bought two and persuaded the company to lease me two for a month. I also managed to convince an Irish company to buy one from me and rent it back to me for the duration.
“We replicated Lansdowne Road and laid down the pitches and erected the stands and we even had the Garda and Army bands play before each match as they would do if any match was here.
“We had flag throwers from Venice and all food served had to be Italian and currency accepted could be the Lira or the Punt. The Central Bank rang me to tell me that it was illegal to use Lira here as legal tender but said to go ahead with it for the duration.
“The fans were meant to use their tickets going through passport control but some brought their actual passports, because we found about 20 under the stands after each match.
“The tickets were expensive at £17.50 a pop at a time when a ticket to a good concert was about £12 but everyone wanted one - Crowds of 48,000 wanted one.
“I think I was the only Irishman in the world praying that we wouldn’t score a second goal against England because I was under the stands when the first goal happened and the noise and the jumping going on was phenomenal. I didn’t know if the stands could survive a second goal.
“There was no trouble at all. After one match, I was walking home and saw a car with all the windows smashed and the roof collapsed and I thought, please don’t say this happened on my watch.
“Then I saw three lads inside from Northern Ireland. They were on their way down and were in a crash. So they rolled the car back over and drove it to Dublin where they missed the start of the game. They were going to spend the night in the car and worry how they’d get home the next day.
“On another occasion, a car was robbed elsewhere with two tickets for a match inside. On a hunch, the gardai arrived and checked the occupants of those seats - turns out the car thieves couldn’t resist using the tickets for themselves
“It really was a time when everyone pulled together and the excitement was palpable. Definitely one of Ireland’s better times.”
