The puck of the Irish

“BELFAST, BELFAST, BELFAST”

Make no mistake, this is new territory. In more ways than one.

Queen’s Island, a vast plot of land lying, literally, in the massive shadow of Samson and Goliath – Harland and Wolff’s celebrity crane couple – had for well over a decade played host to nothing but a few grey industrial estates, some rubble, and lots of derelict space.

Post Ceasefire, and with the building of The Waterfront Hall, and talk of a redeveloped ‘Cathedral Quarter’, the areas around Belfast’s docks, for so long neglected relics of chronic industrial decline, are now being sold not only as prime sites for heavy investment, but as the main locus for the city’s re-imagining.

Commerce and tentative identity-construction are walking hand-in-hand in modern Belfast. And Queen’s Island – home now of the multi-million pound Odyssey Arena – has become the favourite hangout for their big dates. That’s where they go to watch the Belfast Giants.

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So, this is what it must be like to support Manchester United. The Belfast Giants Ice Hockey team, new – and first time – champions of The Sekonda Superleague, have just gone ahead courtesy of the second score of the match from Sean Berens, and the home crowd have already adopted the smug, gloating posture and air of predestination that comes with following any successful team.

‘Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio’ they chant at the apparently stricken Berkshire outfit, while over the venue’s PA, the nu-metal and drive time compilation staples (Bon Jovi, The Barenaked Ladies) that have been caned incessantly all night are momentarily usurped by an enthusiastically received ‘Hit The Road Jack’.

You’ll not get any profane questioning of the sexuality of members of the opposition here. But, likewise, you won’t have to sit through a rendition of The Billy Boys. For anyone versed in the dismal history of Northern Irish sport, with its visible and not so visible sectional choices, its yen for abject failure, and its rubbish toilets, the Odyssey on hockey nights must appear like some kind of strange, impossibly sanitised, alternative universe. One where Barry knocks out Steve Cruz, where George and Alex turn Pioneer. A Belfast side winning a UK title backed by a loyal, family-based following – it’s as well the stadium is all-seated because, after swallowing that notion, lots of people will need to sit down.

Tonight’s game is virtually irrelevant – this is the second leg of the Challenge Cup semi-final, and the Giants start the match holding an unassailable four goal lead from the first tie – which, coupled with the worst traffic congestion seen in the town in years, has meant that the expected full-house has failed to materialise. But the turn out – most of who come decked out in full home team regalia – is still mightily impressive.

“We sold out well over seventy percent of our home games last year,” says Peter Collins, the Giants’ Communication Director, “and this year we’ve done much, much better. The way the city has taken to the team and the sport in general has just been phenomenal.”

And unexpected. When they began their debut season in 2000, the Odyssey had yet to be completed, forcing the Giants to play all their ‘home’ matches on rinks the length and breadth of the UK. Meanwhile, back in Belfast questions were being asked regarding the economic viability of supporting a side made up entirely of North Americans, playing a sport with little competitive history in Northern Ireland.

When, on December 2nd 2000, the team eventually got round to their first match in the Odyssey Arena, they had a lot of convincing to do.

Much to everyone’s surprise, and despite being beaten on that first night, something about the Belfast Giants ‘franchise’ managed to touch a neglected nerve in the Northern Irish public. The more games they played in Belfast and, as the intense marketing campaign (backed by most national and local daily newspapers and a raft of the usual corporate suspects) kicked in, interest exploded, to the extent that the city is now – and not just on the basis of their recent title win – considered to be the most enthusiastic base of ice hockey in the UK. A state of affairs unimaginable when they first tried to recruit players to Belfast.

“It was very tough trying to persuade players to come here initially,” says Collins. “Dave Whistle (Giants’ coach) had a lot of players lined up, but it onlytakes the Twelfth of July to come on TV and suddenly they change their minds. But once we got up and running, and once the players from the visiting teams started coming to Belfast and saw the stadium, the reaction of the crowd, and a bit of the city, things did change very definitely. It’s a fantastic place to play. Ask any visiting team. It may not be the biggest place to play in, but it’s undoubtedly the best and most atmospheric”

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Wouldn’t you know it, Bracknell end up winning. Sean Berens, is the Giants’ two-goal man of the match. “It’s great that we’re through to the final,” he says, “but it’s never nice to lose.” Chicago born Berens has played for more than half a dozen teams in his professional career. The Giants are his first side in Europe. It’s surprising, then, to hear just how highly he rates the atmosphere at the Odyssey compared to the places he played in the States.

“Actually, I think the fans are a lot more into it here, support the team a lot more, they all wear jerseys, bang drums. The atmosphere is an awful lot more intense here and the people are more whole-hearted than back home. It’s a blast, I’m just loving it and I honestly couldn’t be happier.”

A part-time singer-songwriter and fan of The Dave Matthews Band (“No man, you’ve got him all wrong, he’s amazing.”), Berens has played a series of gigs at the Odyssey’s Hard Rock Café with money going to the Simon Community. As such, he is one of only a few Giants’ players who have managed to project an individual personality beyond the team unit.

But then, that hardly seems important. At training the morning before the Giants’ next match, what’s most striking about the movement of the players on the rink, is just how little impact is made on the actual ice. At GAA, soccer and rugby matches the divots, scars and slashes are everywhere to be seen. The pitches, in many ways, are physical representations of all the contests that go on above. Over the years as these sports have found themselves immersed in battles taking place in the wider community, they’ve looked every bit as pock-marked as their grounds. In hockey, after every period and to the accompaniment of bell-ringing product placement, a Zamboni vehicle chugs onto the ice and clears the playing surface of every blemish and score. The huge numbers of people coming out to follow the Belfast Giants aren’t over-demanding – they don’t want, it seems, to see themselves reflected on the surface, they’ll stay happy just as long as it keeps looking new.