CONVERSATIONS with Asem, from Jordan, can be drawn-out affairs.
You ask a question in English, his mobile phone app translates into Arabic, he answers in his mother tongue and you then wait for the reply to be relayed in English.
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There are no such delays when someone fails to finish in front of goal. The shrieks and howls of laughter are instant.
The different nationalities having a kickabout in East Wall may not all be familiar with the phrase ‘absolute sitter’ but they know one when they see one.
It is a reminder how football can break down barriers, whether they be linguistic, cultural or whatever, more quickly than most forms of social interaction.
Mohamed, a 17-year-old from Somalia, said: “It’s good to meet new people.
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“I play for Kilbarrack United and I’ve made friends. It’s easier for me to do that through sport than my parents.”
The small enclosed Astro pitch located between West Road and Church Road would normally be a hive of activity on a Saturday morning.
A combination of it being a Bank Holiday weekend and first Holy Communions means the kids’ academy did not go ahead.
But a drop-in football session organised primarily for those seeking International Protection, but open to all, proceeds as planned.
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Some are there when the gates open at 10.45am. Others are still arriving at 11.30am, a half hour after the appointed start.
It is the sort of time-keeping that might have junior football managers tearing their hair out but there is an understanding of the difficulties those who are not staying in the nearby Gateway Centre or Fairview Centre encounter in getting here.
Until last week, Asem — a 28-year-old keeper who has international caps and hopes to join a League of Ireland club — was sleeping outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street.
But he was one of those rounded up early on Wednesday morning and brought to Crooksling in the Dublin Mountains.
Making the trip back into the centre is about two hours each way.
With no cooking facilities available, Asem — who arrived in Ireland three months ago — will have missed at least one of the three daily meals provided just to be here.
Some stragglers arrive muttering ‘traffic’ accompanied with a roll of the eyes that could belong to a flustered commuter but the journeys they have undertaken to seek refuge are beyond our comprehension.
Asem said: “I had some difficulties in my country but I don’t want to go into detail.”
Abdul, a 27-year-old from Somalia, is similarly reticent but said: “When we’re here, we’re happy.
“It’s exercise which helps you mentally and for stress relief, for those who have suffered trauma in our home countries.”
VITAL SUPPORT
Many have benefited from engaging with Cross-Cultural Conversations, a group of volunteers ‘dedicated to helping to foster an environment of inclusion’, one of whom, Laragh, nips off and returns with snacks and drinks for the players.
It has worked with Abdul, who arrived alone 19 months ago.
He said: “It was difficult, very stressful but communities like Cross-Cultural Conversations helped me to stand on my own two feet.
“These people are like my family now.”
His English is now fluent, he is working as a security guard and has volunteered to coach in Bohemian FC’s Junior Academy.
He beamed: “I’ve always been a football fan — Real Madrid in Spain, Chelsea in England and now Bohemians in Ireland.”
The numbers playing eventually swell to 15.
There is no strict inventory — because what does it matter? — but among the number there is a Nigerian, a handful of Afghans and someone from Myanmar.
Other weeks there have been players from Nicaragua, Eritrea and Pakistan who, along with the Afghans, are keen to get a cricket game going.
That would require a little more space and organisation. This weekly football game is still in its infancy.
Some are wearing Na Fianna shirts, the result of an appeal sent out to provide gear.
A strong response from community groups and individuals should ensure their kit is more uniform in the not-too-distant future.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
In the midst of all these people united by a desire to establish a new life here and, for an hour or so, football, is Daniel Ennis, the vice-chairman of East Wall Bessborough who was born and bred on the North Strand.
It is not that long ago that our perception of the local community’s response to International Protection applicants was formed by the protests outside the former ESB building in which they are housed.
Ennis — a Social Democrats candidate for the North Inner City in the upcoming local elections — has taken a different approach, one fuelled by his own experience and family background.
His late father Geoff Ennis Senior helped form the club in 2008 through the amalgamation of East Wall Wharf and Bessborough United.
And his son explained: “There were other clubs involved in the area who wouldn’t take someone in if they had been involved in crime or drugs.
“He had an open-door policy, believing everyone should be given a chance and that’s what we’re doing here.”
Ennis — who was on the books of Bohs, Shelbourne and Bray Wanderers and counts former Ireland international Keith Treacy as a best friend — said: “My dad saved some of my friends going down the wrong road.
“East Wall Bessborough is a club built on charity and helping people in need.
“We try to break down the barriers to entry into sport as well as the barriers to entry into our community using sport.
“In East Wall, you have the original working class, the middle class, and we have foreign nationals who might belong to one of those two groups or are living in the centres.
“We don’t have to use harsh words like integration and assimilation but we have 56 players under the age of ten and there are 14 different nationalities.
“Their parents are watching them every week, they start chatting and get to know each other.
“And, on the pitch, there are only three colours, you can have one team in blue, another in red, and the green of the grass which we all have to share.”
FREE FOR KIDS
Like most sports clubs, East Wall Bessborough leads a hand-to-mouth existence.
Ennis is well aware that, by insisting on not charging fees to kids, whether they be from families who have lived in East Wall for generations or are new arrivals, he is placing an extra financial burden on his committee.
But he said: “You can’t charge them or they’d be gone.”
Reaching out to those living in the centres was a natural extension of the underlying desire to provide an outlet for the local community.
But, aware some former club members were among those on the protests, he wants it to be a place of sanctuary.
Ennis said: “Some of these lads were afraid of walking down Church Road.
“I don’t want my area being a place people can’t walk around.
“I want these lads in our gear, then our crest becomes like body armour because that’s what people see first, not the colour of their skin or what they think or perceive them to be.
“This isn’t about forming a refugee team, it’s about welcoming people into our club and our community.”
