A young Liverpool football fan from Co Monaghan is “still on a high” after meeting some of the club’s biggest stars.
12-year-old Dáire Gorman got the chance to visit Anfield earlier this month, after a video of him at his first game went viral.
Dáire was born with a rare condition called Crommelin syndrome, meaning he was born without arms and without femur bones in his legs.
For his birthday this year, Dáire was surprised with tickets for a Liverpool match through the Little Blue Heroes charity.
His dad filmed his emotional reaction to the crowd singing “You’ll never walk alone”.
“It was my dream, my whole life to go to Anfield. Dad took the video, to have me singing ‘you’ll never walk alone’ forever.”
The video shows Dáire in “floods of tears” as the crowd sang.
“Just with my condition, I always listen to it, knowing that I’m one of five or six [people] in the world with this condition, and that I walk alone with this condition. Just overcome with emotions listening to ‘you’ll never walk alone’.”
After being posted on social media platform X, Dáire said the video “blew up” and it caught the eye of Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
The sixth-class student from Monaghan was then invited to Anfield with his family once again, where he was met by the club manager, who related to Dáire’s emotional response to the anthem.
He also got to meet some of his biggest footballing heroes.
“It was an out of body experience,” said Dáire.
“One thing that will stick with me forever was the time that Darwin Núñez and Luis Diaz just barged through the door and shocked me completely. Diaz gave me a signed shirt and I broke down in tears again,” he said.
Dáire described the club manager as “down to earth” and “just like a normal person you’d meet out on the street”.
Liverpool FC posted a video of the magical moment on their social media on Christmas day and it has now been viewed by millions of people all over the world.
Dáire’s mam Shelley, dad Kenny and sister Aoife also got to enjoy the experience at Anfield.
Shelley described her son as resilient and strong, with a fantastic outlook on life.
She said the support they’ve gotten since the video came out at Christmas has been “amazing”.
“It’s had over 20 million views, people are getting in touch from all over, it’s just been great, people are taking time to contact us. It gives you a lift,” she said.
So how is Dáire coping with his new-found fame?
“Its just been mayhem since!” he said, adding that people in Monaghan have started recognising him from the video.
“I’m still on a high,” he added.
