Irish men taking English modes of transport going overseas to the matches (12)

'the matches' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.

'irish men taking english modes of transport going overseas' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'irish' could be 'ir' (abbreviation) and 'ir' is present in the answer.
'english' could be 'e' (abbreviation) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'transport' could be 'lighter' (lighter is a kind of transport) and 'lighter' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?