In Ireland, hurling, Gaelic football, rugby and soccer are popular. As a child, most of my friends were into soccer. We had some interest in local teams, but we mainly followed British teams. I followed Manchester United way back in the early 1970s – the days of George Best and Bobby Charlton.
I lost interest in sport in the 1980s, though I would probably have watched the World Cup. And Ireland qualified for the first time in 1990. We were all crazy into soccer that summer.
Then, in the 1990s, the favourite sport was Formula 1 racing, in the days of Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Eddie Irvine and so on.
I’ve drifted away from sport nowadays, even the World Cup. The last one that I vividly remember was South Africa in 2010. The first one that I remember was the 1970 one in Mexico. We all loved Brazil’s Pele. We went to a local pub to see it on a colour TV, which was my first time seeing a colour TV. Then, in 1974, we bought our first colour TV for the Munich World Cup.
Here’s one of the Ireland World Cup songs from 1990. Englishman, Jack Charlton was our manager back then. We all loved him. I remember once being in a coach in Dublin in 1990, and another coach drew up alongside us. Someone remarked “That’s the Irish team”, and so it was. It was such a thrill to see them all. I wonder if they were equally thrilled to see me? Probably not 😁. I was never good at soccer.
And here’s my favourite football song from the 1996 World Cup. Ireland and England generally support each other – unless we’re playing each other 😁. I love how Three Lions is so honest. It’s full of hope based on what happened in the past, but it’s honest about subsequent disappointments. I feel like that about Christian revivals. Things aren’t too bad, but you just wish that the dramatic growth that you hear about in other regions of the world happened here too.
I asked Co-Pilot about Christian formula one drivers. It told me about Alex Ribeiro (Brazil) a former Formula 1 driver in the late 1970s. He launched the “Jesus Saves Racing” ministry, which placed evangelical messages on Formula 1, Formula 2, and Formula 3 cars.
A good number of soccer players are openly evangelical too, mainly Brazilians. Examples include Alisson Becker (Brazil, Liverpool), Gabriel Jesus (Brazil, Arsenal), and Roberto Firmino (Brazil).
And in Ireland two names that come to mind are boxing star Katie Taylor, and Frank Hogan, who wasn’t a sports star himself, but who became famous for carrying his John 3:7 sign to hurling and Gaelic football matches. Sometimes Irish people think that you need to be Roman Catholic to be truly Irish. But anyone who ever met Frank would tell you that you’d never meet anyone as Irish as him.
And here’s a popular hymn sung at Rugby games in Wales. See if you can spot Tom Jones 😁.
Hibernia Gospel 