We asked our readers where they were in the world when Ireland smashed their 113-year hoodoo and beat the All Blacks for the first time in Dublin . . .
Emma Paredes (Essex)
I was watching the match on my phone with my husband in the Labour Ward at Queen’s Hospital Romford. I was pacing the room and watching snippets in between contractions! My son Robin was born a few hours after the final whistle!
Mary Breen (Istanbul)
I was en route to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and missed my connection in Istanbul so I had to wait 24 hours for the next flight. I face-timed my sister from my airport hotel; she put her iPad in front of her TV, and I watched the match on face-time! I was thrilled to see it and it more than made up for missing the flight. I’d have been on the plane and missed the match had I made the flight.
Rory Moses McKeown (Bangladesh)
I was on a two week work trip to rural Bangladesh in a remote area without wifi or an Irish bar. Kick off was at 2am my time and my mates texted me the scores right the way through. Even though it was about €5 a MB for roaming data, for the last 10 minutes I told them I had to switch on my data to read the Irish Times live updates. Them being my “mates” they proceed to spam me with costly pictures of the telly in the pub back home. Those tense 10 minutes cost me an arm and a leg, but worth every cent.
Jim Murray (Sigo)
On Saturday last in Sligo, my male voice choir Celtic Choristers, Dublin, got second place at the Sligo International Choral Festival. Huge relief at not getting first: we would have had to perform in the winners’ concert AT THE SAME TIME AS THE ALL BLACKS’ MATCH! Well done the winners Rosemount MVC from Derry.
Peter Master (São Paulo, Brazil)
As a captain on the offshore construction/pipe laying vessel I was 100 miles offshore in Santos Basin, Brazil. We are laying pipe in 2,000m of water for Petrobras. While I could not stream the game live, I enjoyed (as much as I could in the circumstances) the game following the IT live updates, while in contact by email and phone with family and friends, who were watching the game.
Patrick Quinn (Lucan)
Normally on a Saturday I would go to 7pm vigil Mass in our Parish church St Patricks Esker-Dodsboro-Adamstown in Lucan as I produce and present a Religious & Social Affairs programme at 10am on Sunday mornings on Liffey Sound 96.4FM. So in order to be home for the start of the match, I went to 6pm Mass in Palmerstown and was home from Mass at 6.55pm in good time for the start of the match.
Shane O’Neill (Vancouver, Canada)
Because of broadcast rights or some other nebulous legal reason, I cannot watch Ireland play live. The match is usually rebroadcast about two or three hours later. So I have to have a complete blackout of all electronic contact with the rest of the world until I have watched the game. This is not easy. No texts, emails, Facebook or any other social media. My partner is not a die-hard rugby fan, unlike some, and would quite often see the result on Facebook through some of our Irish contacts. Now she has to pretend that she does not know, which can be difficult especially if it is a good win or a bad loss. Sometimes I can tell from her demeanour and sometimes she teases me about the score. I advise her that one can go off a person. So Saturday, November 17th was a blackout day until four in the afternoon. My daughter texted me “Are you up to date, Dad? at around one o’clock. “No I bloody well am not”, I texted back through gritted fingers. That was a hint though. I just knew by the tenor of her question that we just might have won. So with something of a lighter heart than I might have had, I sat down, Guinness in hand, and took off for a wonderful roller-coast ride into the history books.
John O’Sullivan (Chile)
During a work trip to Chile, I searched high and low with three Chilean workmates for a bar in Valparaíso that was showing the match, only to discover that it was not on any of the channels. We opted to go to a local cafe to watch it on my Iphone, as I had downloaded the RTÉ Player and Channel 4 apps in case of an emergency. As these channels weren’t broadcasting that far from home we ended up huddled in a corner listening to the match on RTE radio. So exciting, even for the others, who couldn’t understand a single word uttered by Michael Corcoran.
Carolan Ibbotson (Sydney)
Watched the first half at home but because it was early Sunday morning and I was reading at 7am mass, I had to record the second half. Sat in mass praying for the win. When mass was over, I and some other Irish parishioners came out the front of the church. My husband was there with a big smile on his face saying ‘you won’. We all jumped, screamed and cried, which was an unusual sight for the rest of the congregation streaming out of mass, given our ages ranged from mid 50s 80s. It sums it up no matter how long you live away Ireland is still your heart and your home.
Sean Lyndon (Westmeath)
At a wedding reception and the 7pm kick-off clashed with dinner. Arranged for the hotel duty manager to ask me to move my badly parked car. Excused myself and settled into the hotel bar. Master stroke, master result.
Bobby Lambert (Sudan)
Shouting wow in Wau, South Sudan, with two South Africans in a bar at the lovely Amarula Lodge.
Elaine Woods (Cusco, Peru)
Having booked our 4-day Inca trail hike months in advance (and before the autumn international fixtures were released!), myself and my boyfriend resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t catch the match live. However, on Saturday morning our guide informed us that there would be patchy signal available at our camp site for the night. The game was due to kick off at 2pm Peru time, which gave us only a few hours to reach the game. We sprinted through the mountain passes, taking no time to stop and admire the views, reaching the campsite with moments to spare. A friend managed to rally enough signal to get a RTE radio live stream, and the next few hours were spent huddled on the side of a mountain (only one spot had enough signal), shouting, cheering, hugging and crying, much to the confusion of our Peruvian hosts. What a day!!!!
Gavan Wallace (Aviva stadium)
At the time I was “working” in one of the corporate boxes in the east stand. When I mean working, I spent half the time serving and the other half with my eyes glued to the match. Everyone was cheering, even us waiters. The stand shuddered as the final whistle blew. A joyful memory I’ll never forget.
Kevin McDonnell (Newry)
Sitting rather calmly in my living room, relaxed and feeling good. Ah heck, let’s tell the truth - sitting on the edge of the sofa screaming and roaring my head off. At one stage my good wife said that she feared the TV would come bounding across the floor and hit me over the head because of the abuse I was giving to Wayne Barnes. To be fair to him we were not “Barnesitized” as the All Blacks once famously described his performance when reffing an Ireland game. After the final whistle I took off my oxygen tank and calmly, and gingerly, made my way to A&E as I suspect that I may have had a very minor heart attack. But it was worth it.
Derek Ryan (Mozambique)
With rainy season now hitting Eastern Africa, I sensed a nervous tension building inside me all day as I wondered if my DSTV satellite dish would withstand the thunderstorm that flashed and shook the foundations at around 6pm Irish time. Des Cahill on RTE radio was gently reminding us dedicated foreign listeners that the moment was almost upon us and yes indeed, the dish withstood the test. If you turn up the telly and close your eyes during Ireland’s call, you can pretend to be sitting in the Aviva with a plastic cup of Guinness cheering Johnny and his band of brothers. The haka might be reminiscent of a clap of thunder in these parts of Africa. It can shake you to the core if you allow it to but somehow the boys seemed to have their chests pumped and remained unshaken as the line of Bravehearts took a step forward and never looked back. As Marian Finnucane asked the following morning, ‘Is it good for the heart?’ Probably not but there was a spring in everyone’s step the following day.
Fergal O’Sullivan (Dublin)
Backstage in the National Concert Hall, packed in to the Artists' Bar with most of the cast and crew from the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society's production of Carousel. Those of us on stage were sneaking five minutes of the match every time we came off stage and were thankful that our interval matched up perfectly with the last 20 minutes of the game, as the mics we were wearing might have broadcast a few cheers at the wrong time.
Paul Wynne (Ghana)
I work in Ghana for an Italian company - multiple nationalities within the operation. Most of the guys ‘know’ about rugby though fail to understand the game. They also failed to comprehend the significance of the world number one team playing the world number two team, the distance Ireland have come to be playing at the level they now play and the fact that it had taken 113 years for Ireland to beat New Zealand at home. We sat watching the game unfold before us live on TV - they failed to understand my elation at the end of the final play. There are times you wish you were in Dublin.
Paddy Kennedy (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany)
Watched it at the in-laws in a small village in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. There was a birthday party there for my girlfriend’s uncles’ 82nd birthday. I brought the iPad and watched on silent - better than with the German commentary on DAZN anyway. Apparently nobody knew I was watching it. And of course nobody was even aware of the game or it’s importance. But when Stockdale scored I leapt up punching the air. Everyone looked at me like I was possessed. I sheepishly pointed at the iPad and said rugby. As the game went on I got more and more engrossed and at the final whistle stood up to celebrate and found myself completely alone. But there was beer!
Bryan McClure (Barrie, Canada)
I was following the game online as I attempted to have snow tires put on my car. As much as I wanted to be watching the game, I was forced to follow the tweets and live updates as I waited in the garage to get my tires on. But I made sure to wear my Irish jersey and lucky Guinness shirt to give all my support to the boys in green. A celebratory pint was had once I was able to drive through the snow back home.
Murphy Glenn (Hanoi, Vietnam)
Up at 2am, I watched history happen on my laptop via rugbypass. Hard not to scream in case I woke my wife and son up. Went to bed listening to Off The Ball report on Newstalk. Fell asleep overjoyed and looking forward to the next day’s headlines. Ireland top of world rugby! Happy days.
Michael Keary (Astana, Kazakhstan)
Game finished at 3am. Couldn’t sleep ‘till 7am. Had to read the Kiwi press to get to sleep. Joyous!
Pat Murphy (Granard, Ireland)
Left my granddaughter’s Christening party to get home in time to settle down with the dog and hubby and a few beers in front of the stove The greatest day in Irish history??
Mark Fleming (Oslo, Norway)
Was in my living room screaming at the TV. Family thought I’d gone mad. Took about an hour for the adrenaline to leave the system. Texting like crazy the whole night. Noise level at Aviva incredible. Waiting since ‘73 for that one. Even wrote a poem ... ‘Kick and chase , Stockdale, Grace’.
Peadar Farrell (Negros Oriental, Philippines)
We got up from bed at 2.45am on the Siren dive boat at the north tip of Cebu and the Negros islands in the Phillipines. Sixteen members of the Curragh Subaqua Club are spending 10 days diving all around Cebu. I provided the wifi hot spot from a local sim card and Mark ran Virgin TV on his phone and bingo. Some of the crew were sleeping around us so we used earphones and kept the celebrating to a minimum.
