Irish Hockey

[trailer]

Hockey thread descends into Flag and Anthem discussion. But it's only Unionists who are insular and backward looking.

Unionists are insular,  but not to our island but to the other one.
And if the Hockey association have sought to disassociate themselves from the bulk of Irish people why should people not remark on it?

This is f**king mental.

[Baile Brigín 2]

Hockey thread descends into Flag and Anthem discussion. But it's only Unionists who are insular and backward looking.

Unionists are insular,  but not to our island but to the other one.
And if the Hockey association have sought to disassociate themselves from the bulk of Irish people why should people not remark on it?

[/b]

Ah here. Thats special.

[BennyCake]

Britains campaign and policies in Ireland has come to this, the stage where the hockey/rugby crowd chose to go neutral. I understand the decision to change the flag/anthem, but it is sad that Irish sport and Ireland as a country has to hide it's national flag and anthem like they are some sort of embarrassment.

Must be one of the few countries in the world that does so, yet it's not the only country with political/racial/religious issues.

[michaelg]

Britains campaign and policies in Ireland has come to this, the stage where the hockey/rugby crowd chose to go neutral. I understand the decision to change the flag/anthem, but it is sad that Irish sport and Ireland as a country has to hide it's national flag and anthem like they are some sort of embarrassment.

Must be one of the few countries in the world that does so, yet it's not the only country with political/racial/religious issues.

It is not the ROI hockey team.  Nor is it the  ROI rugby team.

[omaghjoe]

The more I read about it the more convinced I am that this is one remarkable group of athletes. They have cross-over skills from many other sports, including Camogie, Gaelic football, cricket, soccer, Indycar motor racing, and even Irish dancing.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-irelands-hockey-heroes-859992.html

Hockey itself is a smashing sport. It should be a lot more popular with the general public on the world stage than it is. It's a very skilful game and has meaningful international competition, with a wider spread of competitive countries than rugby or cricket - arguably only association football has a wider spread. It's consistently one of the most interesting sports at the Olympics. In terms of the marketing of the sport, however, it's been a big underachiever.

I always enjoyed it in PE, myself. It was one of the few ball games that I was any good at. But then the teachers made a bit of effort to teach the skills of it instead of assuming we already knew how to play.

You'd prob been good at camogie too if you tired it 

[Dougal Maguire]

I think that's the important thing. The Soldiers Song is the ROI anthem. If we get a United Ireland we will need a new flag and a new anthem that the entire population can associate with. I for one would be content to sacrifice these for the greater good

[dec]

Must be one of the few countries in the world that does so, yet it's not the only country with political/racial/religious issues.

The reason is not because of political/racial/religious issues. It is because in those cases the Ireland team represents 2 different states. The only similar situation I can think of is the West Indies cricket tea which represents an number of different states, and they have an anthem and flag that are not the flag or anthem of any of the individual states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_cricket_team#Flag_and_anthem

[BennyCake]

Britains campaign and policies in Ireland has come to this, the stage where the hockey/rugby crowd chose to go neutral. I understand the decision to change the flag/anthem, but it is sad that Irish sport and Ireland as a country has to hide it's national flag and anthem like they are some sort of embarrassment.

Must be one of the few countries in the world that does so, yet it's not the only country with political/racial/religious issues.

It is not the ROI hockey team.  Nor is it the  ROI rugby team.

True, but the Irish anthem and flag pre-dates partition.

[michaelg]

Britains campaign and policies in Ireland has come to this, the stage where the hockey/rugby crowd chose to go neutral. I understand the decision to change the flag/anthem, but it is sad that Irish sport and Ireland as a country has to hide it's national flag and anthem like they are some sort of embarrassment.

Must be one of the few countries in the world that does so, yet it's not the only country with political/racial/religious issues.

It is not the ROI hockey team.  Nor is it the  ROI rugby team.

True, but the Irish anthem and flag pre-dates partition.

This is not that complicated.  Why can't you just be happy for the  success the team has enjoyed?

[Dougal Maguire]

Agreed. Set up a new thread for the national anthem debate

[BennyCake]

I think that's the important thing. The Soldiers Song is the ROI anthem. If we get a United Ireland we will need a new flag and a new anthem that the entire population can associate with. I for one would be content to sacrifice these for the greater good

It's also the anthem of thousands of nationalists in the North.

[OgraAnDun]

I think that's the important thing. The Soldiers Song is the ROI anthem. If we get a United Ireland we will need a new flag and a new anthem that the entire population can associate with. I for one would be content to sacrifice these for the greater good

I agree, I'll be sad to see it go but I think it's neccessary to accommodate unionists.

[michaelg]

I think that's the important thing. The Soldiers Song is the ROI anthem. If we get a United Ireland we will need a new flag and a new anthem that the entire population can associate with. I for one would be content to sacrifice these for the greater good

It's also the anthem of thousands of nationalists in the North.

Probably not the anthem for the majority of the players from NI though.

[BennyCake]

Britains campaign and policies in Ireland has come to this, the stage where the hockey/rugby crowd chose to go neutral. I understand the decision to change the flag/anthem, but it is sad that Irish sport and Ireland as a country has to hide it's national flag and anthem like they are some sort of embarrassment.

Must be one of the few countries in the world that does so, yet it's not the only country with political/racial/religious issues.

It is not the ROI hockey team.  Nor is it the  ROI rugby team.

True, but the Irish anthem and flag pre-dates partition.

This is not that complicated.  Why can't you just be happy for the  success the team has enjoyed?

I haven't said I'm not pleased for the team. They did well. Fair play to them. Never watched hockey in my life until lately. I mightn't ever watch it again but I was glad to see them do well. And it was great to see the whole country behind them.

The anthem/flag issue was brought up by someone, and well, here we are...

[michaelg]

Britains campaign and policies in Ireland has come to this, the stage where the hockey/rugby crowd chose to go neutral. I understand the decision to change the flag/anthem, but it is sad that Irish sport and Ireland as a country has to hide it's national flag and anthem like they are some sort of embarrassment.

Must be one of the few countries in the world that does so, yet it's not the only country with political/racial/religious issues.

It is not the ROI hockey team.  Nor is it the  ROI rugby team.

True, but the Irish anthem and flag pre-dates partition.

This is not that complicated.  Why can't you just be happy for the  success the team has enjoyed?

I haven't said I'm not pleased for the team. They did well. Fair play to them. Never watched hockey in my life until lately. I mightn't ever watch it again but I was glad to see them do well. And it was great to see the whole country behind them.

The anthem/flag issue was brought up by someone, and well, here we are...

Can you not see how using Ireland's Call might help to get the whole island behing the team?