Twenty years after Bohemians supporters turned a terrace jibe into a name of their own, James Kilgannon photographs the flags, tifos and Friday-night rituals of the Jodi Stand at Dublin’s Dalymount Park.
Words and photographs by James Kilgannon
In 2006, a group of Bohemians supporters took a phrase meant as a dig at the club’s fans and made it their own. The Notorious Boo Boys would go on to make their mark in the Jodi Stand at Dalymount Park.
They took their early cues from the European ultras movement. The aim was to bring more colour and organisation to Dalymount through flags, banners and displays. In time, they dropped the ultras label and carried on supporting Bohs in their own way.
Rooted in Phibsborough, Dublin 7, Bohemians has long been shaped by the people who own it and turn up to watch it. The club’s culture stretches well beyond football. The Boo Boys are one part of that wider identity, visible in what they put on their banners and in the causes they choose to get behind.
You can hear that identity in the build-up on a Friday night. Johnny Logan’s Eurovision winner Hold Me Now gets belted out before kick-off. The song is as much a part of a night at Dalymount as the football itself.
On big occasions, a tifo makes a statement in red and black. When the flares go up, the Jodi Stand can disappear behind a wall of red smoke that drifts out across the pitch.
I’ve spent the season covering the League of Ireland, and it’s Bohemians I keep coming back to. In the Boo Boys’ twentieth year, I wanted to photograph the things that draw me back to Dalymount. So much of what I came to see happens before a ball has even been kicked.
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