Lehinch, Co Clare
Picture:Mig_R

By Pete Sixsmith

From Cork to Galway and an easy drive via Limerick and Ennis, we stopped in the town of Gort which has a population of 6,000 of which 1,500 are Brazilians attracted by the meat packing factories in this area.

We looked for Emerson Thome assuming that he would be head honcho but no sign of him.

I last visited Galway 20 years ago when it was just a sleepy university city with a Northern League standard football ground.

Now it is the Celtic Tiger personified, with new industrial estates, shopping centres and houses that look as if they have been transplanted from the suburbs of Northern Virginia or Massachussetts.

In addition it was packed with people flocking from all over the Republic to sample the Galway Races. As keen sportsmen we went along and enjoyed another very Irish sporting occassion.

Like the hurling, it was a very egalitarian event with the toffs rubbing shoulders with the riff-raff. As fully paid up members of the riff-raff brigade we made several bookies richer in the course of the evening as we did a Robin Hood in reverse. And don’t take any notice of Grant Leadbitter the next time he gives you a tip in Boylesports – the one he gave us ran like a cross between Steptoe’s Hercules and the long dead Shergar (Pete Horan did claim to have spotted him in a field but I remain to be convinced).

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The new edition of A Love Supreme is not only packed with great reading for traditional Sunderland fans.

It comes, as the editorial proclaims, “drenched in Guinness” and is a must for all our Irish supporters, whether their allegiance is long established or has been inspired more recently by the Quinn/Keane/Drumaville transformation. As many will have seen from the t-shirts, ALS wordsmiths have come up with Sundireland to encapsulate that phenomenon.

My copy arrived here in France as fellow SAFC supporters were heading for Galway, where the Irish pre-season tour ended with the sort of result against limited opposition – 4-0 – that you would expect, even allowing for the unreal ambiance of friendlies that have more to do with the need to build up fitness than scorelines.

Chopra: will he get the Mido touch?
Picture: Peadar O’Sullivan

Good to see Michael Chopra grabbing a goal, though and even better to hear rumours this morning that his partner upfront could turn out to be none other than Mido, who passes the “proven Premiership” test and is an effective, defence-worrying attacker on his day.

In my own little contribution to ALS Issue 159, I return to the theme of that Irish support, looking at past as well as present displays of affection from Ireland, north and south, towards SAFC.

And I also deal with the less chummy offshoots of that relationship: the Irish ultras who resent fellow countrymen and women who have chosen to follow Sunderland or, indeed, any English club, and their equivalents on our side of the Irish Sea.

If the subject interests you, you will find a short extract from my article on the continuation page. And you will come across plenty of Irish views of all kinds in the lively chatroom of the eleven-a-side site. The site also devotes a lot of space to Sunderland coverage, reflecting the surge of interest in our club.

Read on for the extract from my ALS article and then buy the magazine………

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The story of Sean Landless, boy actor and Sunderland daft, is another of those Celebrity Supporter profiles that need to be read as slices of history.

But it is not for the want of trying that we have so far been unable to make contact with Sean and catch up on what became of the acting, the GCSEs and A levels, the dreams of becoming a pilot…..and most of all, his commitment to SAFC.

An idea from Sean of the emotions he experienced as we slumped towards something he had not known – failure at record levels – will be worth their weight in gold. Did he stick with us? Did he abandon ship, only to return when things came good again? And what of that season ticket renewal?

There are those who know Sean and his more recent activities (see the Comments that have been added since this item was originally posted at Salut! Sunderland).

From Jeff Brown, we learn that the acting may have fallen by the wayside, in favour of working in a pub handy for the Stadium of Light. More exotically, if Finland is exotic, we hear from pilkiSAFC that he’s shot off to Helsinki. But at least – and this is confirmed by his former teacher, Barbara Moffat – he still appears to be SAFC mad.

All, I hope, will be answered soon enough. I am juggling with the technology to promote this article to brief Page One prominence, amid all the pre-season excitement, with the aim of jogging other people’s memories, maybe Sean’s included. The reason it was already on view was simple: my eagerness to post all the remaining Celebrity Supporter articles as soon as I could.

Read about Sean, as he was when we spoke back in November 2001 (the year in which decline took hold, to be followed by relegation the following season), on the continuation page. And be patient: that feathery dress* will be explained……..

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Liam Miller: enjoyed his home town goal
Picture: Peadar O’Sullivan

By Pete Sixsmith, on the road from Cork to Galway

So, the caravan (or Toyota Auris) rolled on to Cork and arrived in a city that was the opposite of Dublin.

Small, manageable, incredibly friendly and not full of dangerous drunks looking for a hoolie.

We stayed in a Universty Hall of Residence unsullied by wretched students and had a fabulous meal in a quiet restaurant called The Hardwood Cafe. It was run by three foreigners – a Canadian chef, a Lithuanian waitress and a manager from Limerick. We had heard good things about the nearby hayfield manor, hotel in cork, and, due to our positive experience in the city, I am seriously considering coming back to stay there.

As we were the only customers the craic was almost as good as the food and the absence of custom was best explained by the population of Cork seething about a ropey referees decision which allowed Waterford to pinch a draw in the hurling quarter finals. From there to an authentic Irish pub and a great music session. Suddenly Ireland began to look good.

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Just needed the tiniest of excuses to bring you a few more of Peadar O’Sullivan’s pictures.

Keane: a mixed welcome
Picture: Peadar O’Sullivan

Peadar could not make it to Cork City to see the team he follows take on the Lads last night. So what reception would he have given the returning heroes – or, according to view, villains – Roy Keane and Liam Miller?

The Irish soccer website, Eleven-a-Side, carried a great line about the crowd giving Keano a warmly ambiguous welcome.

Check out the site and its chatroom. OK, there is the occasional jibe harking back to burn-everything-English-except-her-coal days.

When I invited readers to let me know their thoughts on Sunderland’s Irish tour, one character, Kenny in Cork, effectively told where to go, adding: “Sickining (sic) to see over 2000 of these queen loving fools wear Sunderland shirts at the cross tonight – clowns.”

Leaving aside his imperfect knowledge of the North East’s relationship with the Royal family, we’d have to acknowledge that the SAFC support has also included a few (fewer just now, you’d suppose) Irish-baiting No Surrender imbeciles. And to be fair, our Kenny was shot down in flames by a majority of the people who posted replies.

Mostly, it’s good crack/craic, and the bits by Shane Breslin, the man who runs the show, are particularly well-written. He’s doubtful, by the way, about our prospects of making much of an impact with the present strike force.

But expect Shane’s site to cover Sunderland’s fortunes quite a bit in the coming season, starting – if we start today – with his own take on Keano’s tussle with Fulham for the signature of the Cork striker Roy O’Donovan.

And turn the page, electronically, for some more of Peadar’s pictures…….

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This batch of pictures comes from a fabulous portfolio created during the pre-season friendly against Bohemians by Peadar O’Sullivan, passionate football fan and clearly gifted amateur photographer.

Now I remember Aisling Quinn as a little girl proudly taking to the field at the Stadium of Light to help her big daddy celebrate the finale of the thrilling 1998/1999 promotion season in which he had played such a massive role. Great to see you’ve kept the faith, Aisling.

Aisling Quinn, daughter of Niall, SAFC chairman
All pictures: Peadar O’Sullivan

Rep of Ireland Legend, Charlie Hurley

King Charlie? Not just a Rep of Ireland legend, Peadar, but a Sunderland one, too. Some of us are old enough to remember without needing to be told by fathers or grandfathers!

Carlos Edwards

Great pictures Peadar, and thanks for the kind permission to dip into your work.
To reward those who read on to the next page, here’s one more for now (I have asked if I can use the lot, not in a desire to be cheeky but because these are shots any Sunderland fan would want to see and they deserve the Salut! Sunderland treatment)…….

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John Penman, an East Stand regular who makes long trips down from his home in Scotland to be at games, finds a way of telling his life story through the SAFC tops he has owned and loved

As I wait patiently for my new 2007-08 kit to be delivered, I cast my mind back to the other strips that I have owned bearing the SAFC crest.

These days strips are big business but it most certainly wasn’t always like that. My first kit was bought circa 1982 in a sports shop in Glasgow of all places. I had just been browsing when the pinstripe red short sleeved top caught my eye.

It was very much love at first sight as I grabbed the shirt just in case someone were to beat me to it (there was only one in the shop).

Over the next few months it made various appearances most notably in a nightclub after we beat West Brom 3-2 at the Hawthorns in April 1982, virtually securing our top league status. Whether it could be called a fashion accessory is debatable and it wasn’t particularly liked by the ladies since football fans in these days were generally perceived as thugs by the general public.

Despite all this I wore it for many years and even after it had outgrown its nightclub appeal, I wore it to work.

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By Pete Sixsmith in Dublin

So, the season almost begins and here we are on a pre season tour.

The last time I followed Sunderland abroad was an absolutely disastrous pre season to Spain.

Disastrous on a personal level because my father had just died and my travelling companion’s daughter’s father-in-law was just about to. And disastrous from a playing point of view because we realised in the delightful city of Seville that we were prime candidates for relegation.

Well, this time in Dublin there are no personal sadnessess and despite a lack-lustre performance on Saturday no real fears of relegation.

But it would not be fair to say that all in the garden is rosy.

David Connolly Considers His Options
Picture: Peadar O’Sullivan

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There are some things in life you just cannot bring yourself to say.

A child abuser, I suspect, would struggle with all the implications of announcing to the world: “I’m a paedophile.”

Tony Blair might not actually enjoy being ordered to exclaim: “Yep, I was a Tory all along.”

Simon Cowell would never shout it from the hilltops that none of his programmes will ever produce as many as three people you’d ever need to listen to (though that’s the old folkie in me talking).

Mick McCarthy is perhaps unlikely to tweak his cv to include the following win/draw/lose summary of his career as a Premiership manager: LLLLLLLLLLLLLLDWDLLLLLLLLLDLL

And that was just his record up to the unlucky 1-2 defeat at home to Chelsea on Jan 15 2006. He had more to go.

But most of all, you do NOT admit to an unclean family secret………

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