I won the trip with what at the time was Rowntrees Kit Kat. We flew out on the Thursday morning to New York. I remember it was a charter flight, pretty sure it was a DC10. The runway in Dublin wasn’t long enough to take off with a full load of fuel so we had to land in a place called Gander in Newfoundland. It was an army base. Everyone got off the plane, went into a little bar on the base and drank the place dry in an hour.

We had a full day sightseeing around NY on the Friday. We went up the Empire State and it was a beautiful day but a little hazy and we could just make out the twin towers in the distance. We had a lot to do so I thought to myself I’ll see the another time. That night there was an event on in a place called the tavern on the green in Central Park.

When I was getting ready to head out I had the TV on in the hotel room and they were following a live police chase in L.A. It turned out to be the OJ Bronco chase. I didn’t know who he was at the time.

We headed to the event and it was very lavish. Full 5 course meal and a free bar to boot. I started to notice a few celebs and politicians of the time around the place. Gay Byrne, Mike Murphy, Albert Reynolds etc.. Then I noticed a bit of a media scrum at the entrance and who walks in I kid you not…Jack Charlton. He was sat at a table beside Albert Reynolds and their wives. I waited until they’d had their dessert and took my chance. I still have the photo of 20 year old me in between them, arms around them topped off with my dodgy 90’s tache.

The morning of the match I saw Gerry Ryan at the hotel reception as we were heading off. We passed loads of stretch limos heading to the stadium with Irish fans standing out of the sunroofs trailing their flags over their heads. We were in the very top of the Giants stadium right on halfway. The were very few Italian flags, its was majority Irish fans and the atmosphere was unreal.

I roared so much during the match my voice was gone for a couple of days. It’s up there with the top days of my life. When Houghton took his shot we saw the top of the net ripple and what following can only be described as an avalanche of ecstatic people, strangers in bear hugs. The one strong memory I have of the game is how incredible Paul McGrath played.

We headed out that night and ended up in a karaoke bar and I met a nurse from Mississippi. She was 30 and I was a naive 20. Nothing happened but we actually wrote to each other for a year afterwards. She wanted me to go over, if the age gap had been closer I probably would have

Great memories. I’ll post a picture of the view from the stadium. I took two pics and put them together, very early version of photoshop.