They are calling it a pilgrimage, and that doesn’t feel like an exaggeration.
For the first time in 24 years, Ireland stand within touching distance of a World Cup, and thousands of their supporters are streaming towards Prague, turning a midweek qualifier into something that feels like a once‑in‑a‑generation event.
A city turning green
Only around 1,200 tickets have been allocated to Irish fans inside the 20,000‑seater Fortuna Arena, home of Slavia Prague. That number barely scratches the surface of what is coming.
More than a dozen flights are leaving Dublin for Czechia this week, almost half of them extra services laid on for the occasion. Plenty more are zig‑zagging their way across Europe, changing in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, then piling onto trains and buses for the final leg into the Czech capital. By Thursday, the expectation is clear: Prague will feel like an away end.
Gary Spain, Supporter Liaison Officer for the Republic of Ireland men’s team, is braced for an invasion.
He expects at least 6,000 Irish fans to descend on the city for what he calls one of the biggest games in a generation. There is no formal fan zone. There is, however, a famous surplus of Irish pubs.
Even that might not be enough.
"There aren't enough pubs I think in Prague's Old Town for everyone to watch the match in a pub," he said, fully aware that thousands will spill into squares, side streets and anywhere a television can be found.
Inside the stadium, the numbers are smaller but the noise will not be.
Of the 1,024 away‑end tickets allocated, most have gone to the hardcore — the ones who have followed Ireland to the less glamorous corners of Europe, turning up when away ends were half‑empty and qualifiers felt like chores rather than dreams.
"They've gone to the fans that have been to the most away games," Spain explained. "So it's those who have been to six of the last ten under‑subscribed away games have been guaranteed a ticket, and those on five were in the ballot for tickets, that's the way they've been allocated."
Add an estimated 200 friends and family of the players, and the Irish contingent inside the Fortuna Arena will be compact but ferocious.
"They will definitely make their voices heard," Spain said. "Wherever you go, the Irish fans will always be heard."
‘They’ll make it a little bit horrible’
If anyone understands what awaits Ireland in Prague, it is Diarmuid O’Carroll.
The Killarney native knows the Fortuna Arena and Czech football intimately. He is Assistant Manager at Sparta Prague, Slavia’s great rivals across the city, and also serves as assistant to Michael O’Neill with Northern Ireland. On Thursday, he will be in Italy for his own game, but his mind is clear on what Stephen Kenny’s side are walking into.
"It's a very hostile environment," he said of the Fortuna Arena. "They create that for the Champions League games. They create that for the domestic games. I would envisage something very, very similar. It'll be a loud, whistley, kind of aggressive nature to the game."
Czechia will not try to disguise what they are. They are direct, physical, unapologetically intense.
"They're very passionate. They're very hard working, very physical," O’Carroll said. "There'll be an element of aggression within the stadium, and an aggression with how they play. It'll be a physical game. It won't be a beautiful football game by any means. They'll make it a little bit horrible."
The Czech FA has underlined the stakes. It cleared its domestic calendar in the past week so that players — almost half of whom come from the national league — could focus entirely on this World Cup qualifier. After a turbulent campaign, which included a mid‑stream change of manager, the message is now brutally simple: beat Ireland, then deal with either Denmark or North Macedonia.
The current Czechia manager has described his squad as "soldiers" and the match as "war". No one in Prague is pretending this is just another international.
For O’Carroll, that language reveals as much about pressure as it does about intent.
"Czech people are brilliant but they are passionate and they demand success, because the two clubs have done quite well in European competitions, ourselves and Slavia over the years," he said.
"So I think they'll be adamant that they expect to go through, they'll be looking to do the business. I think there is an assumption that they will go through and I think that's maybe a little bit disrespectful to our team."
Underdogs with a puncher’s chance
Ireland arrive as underdogs. No one disputes that. Czechia have home advantage, momentum after their reset, and a squad drilled to turn this into a scrap.
But Ireland have already ripped up one script in this campaign, then another.
Their unexpected wins over Portugal and Hungary have dragged them to the brink of something extraordinary. To reach the final qualifying game next Tuesday, they will need to do it again, this time in the most hostile setting they have faced.
Spain believes they can.
"I think we can. I mean, I'm really, really hoping we can," he said, the emotion obvious. For him, this is about more than a summer in the US, Canada and Mexico. It is about a missing chapter in Irish football.
"World Cups are just so special. I'm conscious of the younger fans that have never had the chance to see us in a World Cup. It would be absolutely massive. And I'm sure everyone will be dreaming of Guadalajara on the 11 June."
That date, that city, has become a kind of shared fantasy among supporters. First, though, comes the reality of Prague: a snarling home crowd, a Czech team that has been told this is "war", and an Ireland side that must embrace the chaos without being swallowed by it.
O’Carroll knows the numbers are against them. He also knows where his heart lies.
"I think if I was going purely analytical, I'd say it could go 2-1 either way," he admitted. "But listen, I'm Irish, I want them to succeed, I want to go through."
So he leans into the possibility that Czechia’s confidence tips into something more dangerous for the hosts.
"So I think we could catch them, probably with a little bit of arrogance, a little bit of overconfidence and we'll say 2-1 to Ireland on the night," he said.
If that happens, the Fortuna Arena will fall silent, Prague’s streets will erupt, and those thousands who travelled by plane, train and sheer stubborn belief will feel that the 24‑year wait was worth every mile.
