“The Beasht” – Ireland in a Campervan

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To many the ideal getaway is a sun soaked beach on the Costas, to others it’s a wild four nights in Vegas, but then there are the rare few who’d rather A-Team up an old rust bucket and become famous. We found those very people. More power to them.

Earlier tonight while manning the Butterfly Rebellion Twitter account, with the brief of noising up those Sassenachs out to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 1966 by smashing up France, I came across “the Beasht.” Now no words can quite describe what the heck this is other than, perhaps, Ireland in a Winnebago. First spotted boarding a ferry for France, this hilarious booze cruise soon became a huge hit – not only back in Dublin, but with the whole of Scottish Twitter.  It’s no secret that we have an open support policy in Scotland; we follow anyone playing against England, but we’ve a special place in our Tartan Army hearts for the Welsh and the Irish – so we’ve adopted this crew of craic wielding bhoys in green.

We’re all just going to have to come to terms with our deep sense of envy here. Not all of us may be the biggest football fans in the world, but the Fr. Ted road trip of a lifetime with a bunch of Irish lads and a porta-fridge ram-packed with cans has to be up there with joining the mile-high club or a night on the tiles with Mark Wahlberg and Flash Gordon. There’s no doubt that this wee rusty wagon is a ship of dreams. People will be singing ballads of this pimped-up ride for centuries, and all its Argonauts will return home heroes with hangovers and tales of epic sessions.

The creation of Allan and David White, Ciaran Carrol, Shane Stimpson, John Doolan, Leon O’Brien, and Dara Flynn, the Beasht is a heart-warming story of transformation. According to the YBIG website this was a “heap of sh*te,” without as much as a floor, until a great deal of “blood, sweat, and beers” took this previously loved auld yoke from “rust to riches.” By the looks of things – and so long as the wheels stay on it – this won’t be the last of the beers. We’re going to stay in touch with the lads, and, if you’re interested too, we will keep you up to date.

Plus, this whole thing has given me an idea. Now that we have an eye on some Irish lads at the Euros, maybe we could get in touch with equally mental Welsh and Ulster fans as they take some of this special kind of chaos to the continent. We don’t know of any yet, but maybe you do. If you know of interesting groups of supporters from Wales or the Wee North doing it large in France let us know via Facebook and Twitter (links below). Scotland might not be there, but why should that stop us from hitching a lift with those very troopers who we all want to see gub the English?

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