{"id":536712,"date":"2026-07-07T02:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/536712\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T02:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:05:09","slug":"julie-jay-ireland-may-not-have-got-to-the-world-cup-but-were-still-having-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/536712\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie Jay: Ireland may not have got to the World Cup but we\u2019re still having fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is something wonderfully infectious about a World Cup<\/a> that raises the spirits, even when the Irish team fail to qualify.<\/p>\n

Given that we rarely make the cut, Irish fans have learned to enjoy a tournament that, much like space travel, is something most of us will never be in a position to experience firsthand.<\/p>\n

Instead, we will have to make do with watching from afar and telling ourselves that, with Ivory Coast qualifying, the Irish flag made it to the final 32 in the world. Indeed, my eldest took some initial convincing that the boys in green hadn\u2019t made it to LA when he saw a stadium littered with tricolours that looked remarkably like ours, but once the same team started winning matches, he accepted that this most definitely wasn\u2019t us.<\/p>\n

I have been pleasantly surprised by how easily my kids have been convinced to throw on the football, though perhaps some of their amenability stems from the fact that the cartoons are off come 7pm, so it\u2019s either watch high-level international soccer or somebody combining crocheting with watercolours over on Nationwide.\n <\/p>\n

In a bid to get the kids into it, I\u2019ve been letting them pick their team and my team, which, if we\u2019ve missed the start of the match, has somehow resulted in my five-year-old always getting dibs on the team with more goals. As the eternal underdog, Mammy is well used to starting on the back foot, but now we\u2019re three weeks in, it\u2019s starting to feel a little unfair.<\/p>\n

However, to quote my five-year-old, \u201cMother, such is the arbitrary nature of sport. Now, can you please top up my Pimm\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n

As a baby born in the early \u201980s, I have such wonderful memories of the magic that was Italia \u201990. I know the nostalgia has been done to death this summer, with many pundits recalling a seminal time in Irish sport, but its importance cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n

\"RepublicRepublic of Ireland fans before the FIFA World Cup European Qualifying match in Lisbon. Picture: James Warwick<\/p>\n

When Jack Charlton\u2019s men made it to Italy, it was the first time my mother cooked lasagna, and I can also remember it as the first time my dad cried. It had less to do with the emotion of Packie Bonner saving a goal against Romania and more to do with him not liking lasagna (he was more of a meat-and-potatoes man).<\/p>\n

So of course it\u2019s different this time round \u2014 our emotional investment just isn\u2019t the same, but still we can enjoy it much in the same way that I can enjoy a CMAT concert while knowing the odds of me ever selling out St Anne\u2019s Park are slim, slimmer again if it involves me doing a rendition of Nothing Compares 2 U.<\/p>\n

Of course, I am only delira the boys have been enjoying the World Cup, with Number One happily picking a side in the long-running rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo.<\/p>\n

He insists that Ronaldo, or Moraldo as he mistakenly calls him, is the best footballer in the world, basing this on nothing other than the kids in the playground categorically saying so.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to dispute the expertise of a senior infant, but I do feel the people of Argentina might disagree. Given it\u2019s more likely we might be holidaying in the Algarve than Patagonia, I will keep my opinion to myself.<\/p>\n

Together as a family, we are gradually getting to grips with the offside rule. I\u2019m making steady progress, but I don\u2019t think RT\u00c9\u2019s Darragh Maloney needs to fret about me coming for his commentator crown just yet. If for no other reason than there\u2019s not a hope I could get a babysitter every night between now and July 19.<\/p>\n

Darragh, Ian Wright, and my old mentor\/father figure, Roy Keane, can collectively sleep easy.<\/p>\n

Penalty shoot-outs have been a source of real excitement, with my husband encouraging Number One and Number Two to watch and \u201cget some tips\u201d. The main tip for penalties we\u2019ve picked up so far seems to be to kick the ball in the direction of the net. Admittedly, a lot of the less successful teams have been kicking the ball in other directions, so perhaps I\u2019ve got that one a bit skewed.<\/p>\n

\"JulieJulie Jay: The World Cup has my kids playing more football in the garden. Picture: iStock<\/p>\n

But overall, the World Cup has definitely inspired a bit more football action in the garden, which has so far been tricky, given we haven\u2019t got any grass yet.<\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m sure it was tricky for players to play in the Qatar sun four years ago, but try playing on pebbles and let\u2019s see how good Moraldo is then.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, the World Cup has been an excuse for an extended bedtime, though I draw the line at staying up past midnight and watching Paraguay beat Germany, despite many members of our family doing exactly that (our cousin Danny was a missionary in Paraguay for many years, and as a result my auntie has decided to back the South American country to go all the way, referring to them fondly as \u201cour cousins\u201d).<\/p>\n

Even if the World Cup hasn\u2019t inspired a future Messi or Ronaldo in our household, it has certainly given rise to more hydration breaks, and for that, I will be eternally grateful. Though I didn\u2019t start drinking water until about three years ago (previously, I was convinced H20 was a drug), I have been motivated by the repeated hydration breaks during matches to start knocking back pints of the sparkling stuff with more regularity.<\/p>\n

So World Cup 2026 may not have given us an opportunity to see the boys in green take the USA by storm, but at least it\u2019s upped our aqua intake, and my pores have definitely tightened as a result.<\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019d take glowing skin over a trophy any day of the week \u2014 if somebody wouldn\u2019t mind telling Moraldo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is something wonderfully infectious about a World Cup that raises the spirits, even when the Irish team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20644,71805,20645,61,60,43,1786],"class_list":["post-536712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-julie-jay","tag-parenting-preschool","tag-parenting-school-children","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536712","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=536712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}