Analysis: we don't just break into a blast of 'Ole Ole Ole' at soccer matches, but also at gigs, homecomings and other celebrations

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It was the summer of 1990. The average price of a house in Ireland was €60,000 and the average worker travelled under 8km to work. Sinead O'Connor had turned Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U into a mega-hit, My Left Foot scooped two Oscars and Nelson Mandela had been released from prison after 27 years. Italia '90 fever was sweeping the nation and our love for a particularly fetching soccer chant was blossoming.

Since then, we don't just break into a blast of Olé-Olé-Olé at matches, but at gigs, homecomings and other celebrations. It’s a chant with a really interesting history, says composer and musicologist Dr Seán Doherty, lecturer in DCU’s School of Music. "Olé" is Spanish and goes "back to the bull fighting days, where it was a marker of approval from the spectators". The tune itself comes from a 1985 Belgian song called "Anderlecht Champion" in which the original "olé" was turned into the French "allez, allez, allez". The Spanish version (E Viva Mexico) was created in 1986 for the Mexico World Cup.

It spread like wildfire and is now ubiquitous, says Doherty. But it was probably with Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland’s anthem for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, that "it got inserted into every Irish person’s brain". The song featured Clannad’s Moya Brennan, Irish band Horslips and was produced by U2’s Larry Mullen. It didn’t just sample "olé, olé, olé", but also Scotland’s 1978 anthem Ally’s Tartan Army, which became "we’re all part of Jackie’s army".

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From FAI TV, Put 'Em Under Pressure from Italia '90 Fifa World Cup

Jackie was of course Jack Charlton, the Ireland team's legendary manager and "put em under pressure" was a phrase coined by him to exemplify the playing style of his team. He led Ireland to the 1988 European Championship and the 1990 and 1994 World Cups. There were even calls for him to be canonised, to which he replied: "Canonisation? You couldn’t have done that to me anyway, I’m a protestant."

When Charlton died in July 2020, radio stations in Ireland played Put 'Em Under Pressure in tribute simultaneously at 12.30pm to coincide with his funeral and in scenes mirroring those after Ireland’s winning penalty shootout against Romania in 1990, crowds erupted into chants of "olé, olé, olé" at the Walkinstown roundabout the day of the funeral.

"There’s such a legacy of [Italia ‘90] in song, in nostalgia, in art and documentaries and sport. It’s a moment where, if you weren’t there you wish that you were," says Dr Siobhán Doyle, cultural historian and curator at National Museum of Ireland. "It’s not only the nostalgia for the tournament and the players and the excitement, but it’s a nostalgia for that time in the past."

Ireland's run in the World Cup started with a 1-1 draw against England, followed by a game against Egypt that ended in 0-0, while the match against the Netherlands ended in a 1-1 draw. But the hype around Italia ’90 hit fever pitch when Ireland won a penalty shootout against Romania (5-4), sending the team into the final eight. Much of Ireland’s excitement could be personified by RTÉ broadcaster George Hamilton’s now famous line, uttered in the seconds before Ireland won the shootout: "The nation holds its breath".

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Crowd sings olé, olé, olé at a Loyle Carner gig in Vicar Street, Dublin on February 21, 2023

Our participation in the World Cup was an unprecedented situation in Ireland’s sporting history. "It was an escape from everyday life, people were in such a bubble," says Doyle. Businesses closed and busses stopped running, "people just didn’t go to work for a week — there’s not a hope that would happen now." Italia ‘90 memorabilia and material culture is now hard to come by in Ireland because people are quite precious about it, she adds. Some fans also amassed debts to follow the team and attend games.

"It’s interesting that [the chant] has transferred to things like concerts, but a lot of people find it very cringe, particularly when it goes beyond the sporting environment," says Doyle. Already in 1990, the chant had moved beyond the pitch. Reporting for the Irish Times on Sinead O’Connor’s appearance at The Point, three days before the quarter final when she dedicated her song "Jackie" to Jack Charlton, Dave Fanning said the crowd chorused "olé, olé, olé" to demand an encore.

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From RTÉ Archives, George Hamilton commentates as Ireland "holds its breath" during the Italia '90 penalty shootout

"It's only one to sing when we're winning, it's not one to bring out when our team is behind and needs the crowd to lift them, like the Fields of Athenry or Ireland’s Call," says Doyle. "It’s the type of song that only works when it really garners the entire crowd. It needs a particular moment in order for it to really take off, and when it works, it really works, and when it doesn’t it bombs."

But we do love a chant and they have a long history: Football chants go right back to association football, back to English composer Edward Elgar, who wrote the first "certifiable" football chant (He banged the leather for goal), says Doherty. "Since then people don't really write original football chants, they take other songs and they put new words to them." They come from everywhere: Advertising jingles, pop songs, nursery rhymes, national anthems. "People are so incredibly creative and inventive with them. They’re really kind of the last traditional folk song that exist."

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From RTÉ Brainstorm, You're not singing anymore: where do soccer chants come from?

And like all good folk songs, olé, olé, olé has taken on a life of its own. In fact, Doherty would "even go as far as to consider it a meme". "It’s been passed on from one team to another. It’s been completely de-localised from its original setting - so much so that no one can really remember or would be hard pushed to tell you where it comes from."

At singer Lizzo’s recent concert at the 3Arena, she was treated to a four-minute standing ovation featuring several rounds of "olé, olé, olé" that had the American baffled. "If your only interaction with [the chant] is at a Lizzo concert, well, why would you [know where it came from]? In my mind, it’s a musical meme," says Doherty.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's The Ryan Tubridy Show, UCD's Professor Paul Rouse on why he and the Little Museum of Dublin are on the hunt for World Cup Italia '90 memorabilia

Doherty reckons its staying power lies in a combination of the fact that it lives in the Irish national psyche and the chant itself: it’s easy, musically predictable and memorable. "There’s only five notes from the bottom to the top. It has a regular phrase pattern and we like things that are regular patterns, they're easy to remember," he explains.

"The notes themselves outline predictable harmonies: it articulates exactly what we expect to hear, going from tonic harmony to dominant harmony, and that's the really important thing in tonal harmony." Interestingly, the notes themselves are also really common in pop music. "It goes between the 3rd and the 5th notes in the scale — it’s in so many songs from the early 2000s to mid 2010s," says Doherty. "People have called that the millennial whoop."

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ