FATHER AND SON are side by side at the entrance to the away end on the bottom of Connaught Street outside Dalymount Park.
It’s just before 6.30pm on Friday evening. The third third installment of this Dublin derby between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers kicks-off in a little over an hour and Dean is still fretting over sourcing tickets among the travelling supporters.
“I’m stung with him now,” Dean laughs, putting his arm around nine-year-old son Harley. “He’s a Rovers fan. I’m Bohs. He won’t go in the Bohs end with me.
“If I need to spend a couple of hundred to get tickets and be with him in there I will.”
It’s at this point that Harley whips off his jumper, wraps it around his waist and kisses the Rovers badge on his chest to tease his father.
“Stop that will ya,” Dean groans, jokingly.
Originally from Liberty House Flats in Dublin 1, he grew up supporting Bohs.
“Harley’s a southsider out in Tallaght so that’s how it happened,” he explains, before the question of ‘how’ even needed to be asked.
This Dublin derby is not a friendly one, yet for father and son it provides another strand to strengthen their relationship.
Music could well be another.
“I heard that Christy Dignam died but I never heard his music,” Harley says.
Dean will soon be able to put that right.
The Aslan frontman’s passing two weeks ago sparked an outpouring of grief and celebration. Both continued in unison on Friday, when Bohs and Rovers came together to make the night a tribute to the Finglas native.
He may not have been a League of Ireland devotee – Celtic were the club he held dearest to his heart – but his music and messages within it ensured he had a powerful ability to unite rival fans with a shared sense of love and loss.
That is a powerful legacy to leave.
“Every time I would see them play I would end up in floods of tears,” Dean says. “Maybe it’s the Dublin thing or just understanding what they’re saying and relating to it in your own life.
“Every song had a meaning to it that brought out a lot of emotion.”
On Friday, Bohs wore a special commerative jersey with Aslan printed across the front in place of usual sponsor Des Kelly Carpets, the limited edition shirt available to pre-order online until this evening.
As of yesterday €90,000 was raised for St Francis Hospice in the three days since going on pre-sale.
Bucket collectors were also out in force, dotted around the entrances before kick-off and then marching through in their blue bibs.
Among those to drop in a few euro were the Casey brothers, Cathal and Eoin, from Lucan.
They were in Mono’s Bar close to two hours before kick-off, the celebration of Christy and Aslan well underway.
“Part of the connection was seeing the same faces, people you would recognise from around the league because they would be Bohs, Rovers, Pat’s or Shels,” Cathal begins.
“You’d just know them. Then there would be the people outside of that, the ones you might only see once or twice a year. You’d only see them at Aslan or in the pub on Christmas Eve.”
Eoin continues, pointing to Dalymount: “Even in there, there are lads you would only nod to and know to see but when you’re at Aslan you throw your arms around each other.”
Cathal remembers his first gig at the age of 17, still looking about 12, and a bouncer taking pity on him after he had been refused entry at Vicar Street.
“I don’t know, maybe it just felt like that sense of community when you went. And there is definitely that link with the culture of the football here and their music going together.”
Rovers board member Mark Lynch admits to “plenty of tears being shed” following the news of Christy’s death.
He laughs at nights in Dundalk’s Imperial Hotel – after watching his team at Oriel Park – the Sallynoggin Inn, Traders Pub in Walkinstown or Molloys in Tallaght.
Not to mention travelling to watch them in a festival played in a hangar in an airport in Frankfurt.
“Mad stuff, great,” he laughs.
Like the Caseys, what sticks with Lynch from folllowing Aslan around Ireland is seeing faces he could instantly pin-point to grounds throughout the country.
“I don’t know if it’s a subversive thing with League of Ireland fans and certain Irish artists but you would recognise a lot of people and the clubs they followed. That’s why this gesture is so fantastic, Christy and Aslan did unite us.”
Getting to watch him sing in the 1899 Lounge at Tallaght Stadium ahead of Rovers’ friendly with Cetltic in 2017 remains a highlight.
Christy accepted an invitation to attend and, when he asked whether the guitarist on stage would mind playing Crazy World for him in a certain key, the response was emphatic.
“It made the hairs stand up, he had the room up, it was a special feeling,” Lynch says.
The impeccably observed minute’s silence prior to kick-off did the same, also paying respect to the late Ronnie Nolan, whom played for the two clubs.
An Aslan playlist dominated the night on the PA system and when Rovers took a two-goal lead early in the second half their fans rightly enjoyed the moment with a chorus of Crazy World on repeat.
At half-time, Christy’s daughter Kiera had also sung it in full in front of the Jodi Stand.
“I think yis know this one,” she began. “Come on, don’t pretend yis don’t know it.”
Some people sang a the top of their voice and some just wanted to take in the moment.
“I’m not forgetting yis over there,” Kiera, wearing the special jersey dedicated to her father, continued as she turned and waved to the Rovers fans.
The thrilling Bohs comeback meant it was the home fans filing out singing the chorus of Crazy World.
Eventually, it organically morphed – as all great football songs do – into something with the same tune but different lyrics taunting Rovers.
It’s alright, yeah… it’s alright. ❤️🖤 pic.twitter.com/0N8EyYlabU
— Bohemian Football Club (@bfcdublin) June 23, 2023
You will no doubt hear it from them again soon.
Stephen Bradley could have been forgiven for wanting to get away from Dalymount as quickly as possible given the manner of the result.
But the Rovers boss was still smiling at the memory of listening to Aslan when he was an Arsenal apprentice in London, as well as going to see them in Dublin city centre and the Dew Drop Inn in Kildare.
“I loved them, I loved him. He’s an icon for so many of us and he’s a genius in how he delivered it.
“I remember my brothers listening to him growing up and then continuing it on myself. That’s what Christy and Aslan makes me think of; family.”