ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the relationship between tourism and popular culture generally, and sport and nation branding specifically. Sport has long played a central role in nation building, and national myth-making through sport is common across all continents and wholly reliant on the media. The chapter examines the media lionizing of Irish football fans attending the 2016 UEFA European Championship in France (Euro 2016) and reflects on the implications of this for Ireland as a tourist destination and nation brand. It also examines the role of the travelling football fans as promotional subjects of the Irish nation brand. The chapter explores how Irish fans quickly became a central story within the international news coverage of Euro 2016. It focuses on sport as one of the most tangible manifestations of national identity in the modern world, and as a growing element of the global tourism industry.
