A survivor of the Heysel Stadium tragedy has recounted his experience 40 years ago when 39 people were killed after a wall collapsed on fans at the European Cup Final match between Juventus and Liverpool in Belgium.
Among the dead was Belfast man Patrick Radcliffe.
Around an hour before kick-off, trouble had broken out between opposing fans.
A small minority of Liverpool supporters fired stones and flares at the Italian section of the stadium. As the Juventus fans tried to escape, they were crushed against a wall, which then collapsed.
Irishman Michael Hamell was in that section of the stadium and said the atmosphere was good until "missiles" began to be thrown by a "small cohort" of Liverpool supporters.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Hamell said he was in what was termed the "neutral" part of the stadium, behind one of the goals on 29 May 1985.
At first, "harmless stuff" was thrown like apples, bananas, and tomatoes, then the mood changed, he said, and rocks and bottles began to be thrown.
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Mr Hamell said once this happened, he could sense the whole crowd moving downwards towards the pitch and then everything changed when some Liverpool fans got over the wire meshing.
"And I always remembered the poles that they had and to think that they had the colours of Liverpool Football Club on them a few moments before.
"The crowd panicked, as you could expect. There were middle-aged, older people. There were people with their children, everybody there."
Most of the destruction, he said, came from "the pressure that moved the crowd down".
Mr Hamell said that he was halfway up the terrace and very quickly "it was every man for himself".
He said he was trying to hold his ground but eventually, he and other men around him were rolled to the ground and pushed down "literally like an avalanche. A small slow avalanche".
"I squirmed my way under a crowd barrier. When I fell, five, six, seven people fell on top of me, but I did get my hands and my arms up and held my ground underneath the barrier and that's certainly what saved me."
RTE Archives: Heysel Stadium disaster 1985
After around five, six or seven minutes, he said the pressure started to ease.
"When the pressure eased, I was able eventually to get up. I was pretty well bruised and damaged but not badly damaged."
While he could stand up he said the people on either side of him who were on his arms never got up.
"And that's a moment, that's a time, that will stay with me."
The Red Cross arrived and took Mr Hamell down onto the pitch where he walked to the far end to rest.
"When I got to the far end, I looked back and the pitch was actually cleared at that stage and the two teams came out and played the match."
He added: "My whole memory is of the stupidity of this nonsense, attacked at a football match. And so much damage to so many people."
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Unlike other football tragedies, Mr Hammel said Heysel is not spoken about much.
"I always thought that there was a sense in part of the British press that you could find fault with somebody else, rather than taking the reality and saying we, our fans started this, you know, you could always find someone saying, well, some Belgians threw rocks or anything.
"But I can assure you from where I was nobody did anything. And I think that belief that it was almost a mistake that happened, and you were goaded. It was part of the problem."
Several Liverpool fans were eventually found guilty of manslaughter following the disaster.
The match went ahead despite the deaths before the game with Juventus beating Liverpool 1-0.
