{"id":495252,"date":"2026-06-12T01:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495252\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T01:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:40:11","slug":"mexico-never-leaves-your-heart-football-mad-expats-gather-in-dublin-as-world-cup-kicks-off-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495252\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mexico never leaves your heart\u2019: football-mad expats gather in Dublin as World Cup kicks off \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the Mexican<\/a> expatriates crowded into a very sweaty and loud Button Factory in Dublin on Thursday hadn\u2019t even been born when their country held their last World Cup<\/a> in 1986. <\/p>\n

It was a raucous crowd of mostly young football fans who filled the Temple Bar venue for the opening match of the World Cup between Mexico and South Africa<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In the 2022 census, there were 3,300 Mexican citizens living in Ireland. A lot more have come since the last census, according to those present. <\/p>\n

It certainly seems that way from the 550 fans in the sold-out Button Factory, and those in several other venues around Dublin and in Cork, where there is a substantial Mexican population. <\/p>\n

There were thunderous cheers, collective singing and fist pumping. And that was before the game even started. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m as nervous as if I was about to play. My legs are shaking right now,\u201d said Ivan Murillo. He\u2019s an optimistic man and thinks Mexico can make the semi-finals. <\/p>\n

Elizabeth Lopez is an Irish citizen and proud Mexican who came dressed from head to toe in the colours of her native country, clutching a Mexican flag in case anybody doubted her loyalties. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can leave Mexico, but Mexico can never leave your heart,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\"OscarOscar Castillo and his friend Laura Gonz\u00e1lez outside the Button Factory in Dublin before the start of the World Cup <\/p>\n

Oscar Castillo came dressed in his El Santo mask, named after a famous Mexican professional wrestler and actor. \u201cTonight is going to be one of our best experiences of our lives,\u201d he said, win, lose or draw. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are expecting to win. Whatever happens it is so good to be in Dublin with our people,\u201d said his friend Laura Gonz\u00e1lez. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never knew there were so many Mexicans in Dublin. The community is growing every year. I\u2019m so happy that Mexico is hosting all the world in Mexico. We are going to have a really great party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say Irish people are the Mexican Europeans and we are the Irish of our continent,\u201d said Ignacio Beni, who has been living in Ireland for nine years. <\/p>\n

There were loud boos for the Stars and Stripes when it appeared on screen and even louder cheers for the Mexican flag as the clock ticked down on the big screen before kick-off. <\/p>\n

Everybody stood for the Himno Nacional Mexicano, the Mexican national anthem, their fists clutched to their hearts. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0World Cup Group A guide: Mexico must finish top to set up last-16 game against EnglandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t have long to wait before Juli\u00e1n Quino\u00f1es rifled home the first goal of the night and of the tournament after just eight minutes. <\/p>\n

Had things been different there would be an Irish invasion of Mexico tonight for the game against South Korea in Guadalajara. Alas, it was not to be. The scenes in the Button Factory are about as close as we are going to get to a Mexican World Cup. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of the Mexican expatriates crowded into a very sweaty and loud Button Factory in Dublin on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[615,42,2628,43,257,40,38,41,39,4018],"class_list":["post-495252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dublin","tag-headlines","tag-mexico","tag-news","tag-south-africa","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}