LOI: Friday I'm in love — Terrace Edition

Words: Sèamie LaPêche

Images: Sèamie LaPêche

It’s Friday I’m in love! The league of Ireland, a summer season.

Friday 12th June 2026. A date that would have been marked on every calendar across Ireland.

That morning half the country should have been fast asleep while the other half nursed a hangover and coffee at work after waking up at three am to watch Ireland take on South Korea in the World Cup.

Unfortunately, Ireland aren’t there.

Yet, come eight pm later that same day, Tolka Park would be packed and there won’t be a single thought of what could have been in Guadalajara.

©Sèamie LaPêch/ Terrace Edition. .Shelbourne vs Shamrock Rovers.

So while the World Cup rolls on without us, two of the countries most decorated sides in Irish football walk out under a June evening sky.

Shelbourne host Shamrock Rovers in the ‘Ringsend Derby’ on a sunny evening in Drumcondra, Dublin.

A decade ago, the League of Ireland felt a tough sell. Crowds were sparse. Grounds felt aged and neglected. Irish football fans found their fix across the Irish Sea with Celtic and the English Premier League.

You can certainly feel the shift in recent years. No longer an afterthought that it used to be , having a quick glance of the scores on the Saturday newspaper.

Friday nights have become religion.

Attendance across the league has exploded in recent seasons.

Grounds are selling out.

Away fans are travelling in numbers.

It’s all part of the league’s charm, that none of it is perfect.

The smell of burgers drift from the chip vans that surround the perimeter of the pitch, with queues stretching across walk way behind the goals.

Pints sold in plastic cups. Club shops operating out of portacabins. Snack shacks shifting pick n mix for the little ones.

Turn around during a game and you’ll spot groups of children kicking footballs together at the back of the terrace while their parents watch on.

Grass and weeds poking up through the deteriorating concrete that have seen generations walk over the years.

It’s the rough around the edges feel that give the league its authenticity.

Seats are no longer empty because of poor attendance but because fans are abandoning them to be squeezed into the terraces surrounded by the flags and pyros, generating the noise and atmosphere.

The next generation is making the League of Ireland their Friday routine, embedding themselves in the culture whilst forging its identity.

A lot is to be said for the summer season too.

There’s a grand stretch in the Irish evenings, come full time the sun will only be setting. Supporters enjoy the odd pint in beer gardens before making the walk to the stadium.

Fans linger around before and after the game.

No one is rushing home to get in out of the cold.

Nobody is standing in Tolka Park on a wet January night battling horizontal rain or freezing fingers.

Instead it’s sunshine and sunglasses on dry Friday evening in June.

While the major leagues across Europe disappear for the summer. the League of Ireland suddenly has the stage to itself, albeit a World Cup summer and while Ireland may have missed out, the domestic league is thriving with the recent international friendlies containing no fewer than seven League of Ireland players.

The fact those players are even part of the conversation says something about where the league finds itself today compared to ten years ago.

You only have to look around Drumcondra to see the ambition. The proposed redevelopment and investment in Tolka Park shows a club looking towards the future rather than simply trying to survive.

So while South Korea and Czechia played out a World Cup fixture thousands of miles across the Atlantic, supporters in Drumcondra squeezed through turnstiles on Richmond road in their numbers as they always do, to cheer on their local team, not a second’s thought given about the World Cup.

Sèamie is on Instagram: @lapechephotography.

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