Coach reflects on week of ‘contrasting emotions’

As Ian Pillion sat down to reflect on life on Sunday evening, it was certainly with a range of varying emotions.

Fresh from watching the Temple Villa Under-14 girls advance to the semi-final stages of the SFAI National Cup, the team's head coach was "exhausted" following a late Thursday night return from Dubai where he was a witness to the ongoing warfare in the Middle East.

"It has been a surreal week or so. From experiencing a feeling of fear in Dubai to the elation of making history with Temple Villa on Sunday, you couldn't script it really," Ian said.

The Perigord Life Science Solutions Security Operations Manager was returning from work in Hyderabad, India, with a colleague and intended to stopover for two nights in Dubai before travelling home. He touched down in Dubai International Airport on Saturday afternoon (February 28) just as missile and drone activity in the region started to escalate.

"Luckily, our flight was one of the last to arrive at Dubai International Airport before it closed to airspace at 2pm that afternoon," Ian said.

Any plans to visit the Dubai attractions were "soon out the window" after Ian booked into his hotel close to the iconic Palm Jumeirah.

"We hired a car on the Saturday evening and visited the Palm Jumeirah close to the Dubai Marina. We were taking photographs when we heard what we believed to be fireworks in the Dubai sky. They were actually drones being shot down by the UAE air defence forces," Ian added.

The South Westmeath resident said on a clear day "you can see the coast of Iran from the Palm Jumeirah", but he didn't think the missile and drone activity was "as close" to where they were "until we heard the sounds directly overhead".

The anxiety levels increased when, at 1am on Sunday morning a "siren went off in our hotel" which was "a scary experience".

"I went downstairs to see what was going on. There was a lot of activity in the hotel and we were all relocated to the underground car park until 8am as a constant sound of missiles and drones continued outside," Ian stated.

Ian said the Burj Khalifa hotel was completely evacuated "for fear of an attack", but as daylight broke a semblance of normality resumed.

"Understandably, all the local attractions were closed but during the day there wasn't as much war-like activity in the vicinity. However, you were still very conscious of what was going on and we were being updated with alerts from the authorities on our phones," Ian continued.

While Ian was hoarded up in Dubai, his family, wife Sinead, and children, Grace and Alex, were obviously concerned for his safety in the Middle East.

"Sinead and the children were more concerned than I was in hindsight. They were obviously following all the media reports and of course what was being broadcast was the worse case scenarios as they began to emerge," Ian said.

As missile activity once again littered the Dubai sky on Sunday night, Ian realised there was "no chance" he would be returning on a flight to Ireland the following day.

"All scheduled flights were grounded, but thankfully we were able to avail of an unscheduled flight through our corporate travel agent on Thursday afternoon much to our relief," Ian said.

Reflecting on the experience, Ian said it is "hard to believe" that he was in a "real war" situation, but commended the help from the local community during his extended stay in Dubai.

"I am also grateful to all the Temple Villa committee for their support throughout my ordeal in Dubai and to my fellow coaches, Dom Kelly and Mickey Greene for preparing he team for Sunday's game," Ian stated.

While in Dubai his overriding focus was to be in TP Hickey Park Mount Temple on Sunday to watch his Temple Villa team play. That moment came to pass and was one to remember as his daughter Grace scored the second goal in a 2-0 win.

"Unfortunately, I missed our quarter-final win so it was great to be home and witness our club make history on Sunday. It certainly was a memorable way to finish off a week which was initially filled with concern, contrasting emotions you could say," Ian concluded.