There’s not a lot that can rival being in a big city during an important sporting event in terms of atmosphere and passion. That’s the main reason I aim to get to London for as much of the 2012 Olympics as possible.

I was in the centre of Dublin on Saturday for the important Ireland v France football World Cup play-off game and witnessed first hand what I believe the Irish call the ‘craic’ – and I liked it.

Even at midday (a full eight hours before kick off) the streets were filled with Irish people wearing their nation’s shirts, scarves, face paint, wigs and waving flags – it was indeed a sea of green.

Best of all though was the friendly atmosphere between the French fans who were over for the match and the jovial locals. Not once did I see any animosity – instead both sets of fans were posing for photos together, drinking in each other’s company and singing each other’s songs.

Ah the songs – brilliant! Traditional Irish music has to be the most upbeat and uplifting music in the world. I forget how many times I must have joined in with Wild Rover or Molly Malone over the course of the day and it never got boring.

So to the football, and after watching a pretty dismal England game against Brazil we settled in among several hundred green army fans (and a handful of French followers) to watch the biggest game in Ireland for several years.

The action in the pub was far more interesting than the game, which was won for France by a solitary deflected Nicolas Anelka goal, and as we left the pub I suspected that would have put a dampener on the night and we’d head back to the hotel.

How wrong I was...

The way the Irish partied long into the early hours you’d have thought they’d won the game. “We’re on the march with Trappy’s army,” they sang, “and we’ll really shake them up, when we win the World Cup, cos Ireland are the greatest football team.”

They danced with French fans and it was great to see, but hard for someone from England to comprehend.

If England had just been beaten at home in a game of such importance, I’d expect to see people flooding home, probably in a hell of a sulk, and those that stayed in town causing violent scenes – especially with the oppositions fans in such close proximity.

We English fans could definitely learn a thing or two from our Irish counterparts when it comes to seeing the positives in defeat.

I sincerely hope that you are reading this with the knowledge that Ireland came back from that one goal deficit and got a memorable victory in Paris last night.

Even if that wasn’t the case, I’m sure the travelling Irish fans will still have had a “grand old time”.