Sport For All indeed.........................

[MW]

People who aren't regular attenders at GAA games and indeed wouldn't know where their local GAA club is feel they can speak about the GAA and their membership so why can't stew speak about this incident MW?

Stew can of course speak about this incident indeed I've made no complaint about him doing so.

Him using it to have a go at Glentoran supporters ( ) and to talk about it as if it's some sort of regular occurrance I do object to.

The sad thing is that people like you try to dig your head in the sand when this type of thing happens and try to excuse it as an isolated incident. 

No, the 'sad thing' is that some tossers burned a national flag, and that they did it at an IPL football match.

It was an out-of-the-ordinary incident. And pointing that out isn't 'excusing' it. Any more than people pointing out that child abductions are rare are 'excusing' predatory paedophiles.

Some GAA player in Fermanagh was called named in an isolated incident yet we had various newspaper and news coverage and even it's own special programme with all on owc feeling the need to speak about it yet when a tri colour is burned at one of your soccer games there's only excuses.  I'll be interested to see how the incident is dealt with by relevant authorities. 

I've not amde any 'excuses' and neither have I seen anyone else making any on here.

Sadly there will probably be little action by the authorities. This sort of thing would have been more likely to have been seen back in the 80s and early 90s (and then not exactly frequently). I would suspect the same people are responsible as who have in the past 2/3 years have burned a Glentoran flag/scarf in a particular section of the Kop at Big Two games. I don't know whether Linfield have the equivalent of Glentoran's confidential telephone number for reporting sectarian, racist or offensive language/behaviour, but if not, they should.

[MW]

It has happened all too often, even in these ' enlightened times'.

Once is too often, I would say. But you don't actually know how often it has happened or does happen. You're going simply on your own assumptions.

This has happened throughout the history of the IFA.

This is yet another example of your careless and quite frankly daft turn of phrase. The IFA was founded in 1880. If you think Tricolours or any other flags have been burned at local football matches throughout the period 1880-2008, then you've a very active imagination.

There is also a knock on effect for the Northern Ireland team as this behaviour keeps nationalists away from attending games and since you are a protestant MW I don't think you understand how threatening WP was and apparently still is for nationalists, you can't possibly get it.

I can see that this sort of thing gives off an 'unwelcoming' (maybe not the best word) message. On the other hand there should at least be a recognistion that this was actually a Linfield match and not a Northern Ireland match.

I am under the impression that there is still a lot of hatred in WP for nationalists and catholics

This is precisely the sort of thing I was talking about on the last page when I referred to the wierd transferrance that's done from people to place to people.

You do realise that Windsor Park normally sits empty and that the people who you see at a particular match don't actually live there or have some sort of permanent residence?