Spotlight on BBC 6 Counties tomorrow night

[Chrisowc]

It is well documented that a lot of owc in the big stand were wearing england tops that night. Figure that one out.

Where was this documented and by whom?

Have a looksee on the owc site, going way back. There were quite a few disgusted at the site of england tops, while others were quite honest with their support of a team that compised their soccer heros.

Like the boy in work who was questioning me for the need for so many England flags at the match

It hadn't occured to him that they belonged to England fans

[T Fearon]

Clarification as to why I , and most nationalists lend to support to whoever is in opposition to the IFA side, including England. It has nothing to do with irrational hatred either.

1.Decades of  sectarianism, on field and off field, that has been brushed under the carpet

2.The monocultural composition of the team's support and IFA Executive.

3. The role of the IFA in being responsible for the split in Irish soccer accruing from its unionist ethos.

4.The specifc sectarian abuse on individuals such as Lennon and Rogan

5. The pure naked hatred of November 1993 which would be replaicted tomorrow (I have no doubt) if the FAI team was to re appear at Windsor Park

6. The exclusiv use of unionist symbols at Windsor Park, showing that the IFA is unwilling to even try to represent the whole community here.

7. The monotonous repeats of goalkeeping errors from 25 years ago which gave the IFA team hollow victories against average World Cup hosts.

Twice recently our esteemed Sports Minister has abused GAA hospitality to inform his hosts how the sport needs to become more attractive to protestant/unionists. When is he going to do likewise as far as the IFA is concerned towards catholic/nationalists

[Main Street]

of course many (most) of OWC fans will want to see ROI beaten in pretty much every game, for reasons varying from bigotry, disagreement over players to general local rivalries.
The same of course is reciprocated.

I find that an incredible statement.
I have not come across this personally. In fact the vast majority of fans who follow the Republic have a range of feelings towards the NI team from mostly apathetic to well wishing. The NI team is not regarded as a rival.
The OWC majority mindset is not reciprocated by the vast majority

[Evil Genius]

Clarification as to why I , and most nationalists lend to support to whoever is in opposition to the IFA side, including England. It has nothing to do with irrational hatred either.

1.Decades of  sectarianism, on field and off field, that has been brushed under the carpet

2.The monocultural composition of the team's support and IFA Executive.

3. The role of the IFA in being responsible for the split in Irish soccer accruing from its unionist ethos.

4.The specifc sectarian abuse on individuals such as Lennon and Rogan

5. The pure naked hatred of November 1993 which would be replaicted tomorrow (I have no doubt) if the FAI team was to re appear at Windsor Park

6. The exclusiv use of unionist symbols at Windsor Park, showing that the IFA is unwilling to even try to represent the whole community here.

7. The monotonous repeats of goalkeeping errors from 25 years ago which gave the IFA team hollow victories against average World Cup hosts.

Twice recently our esteemed Sports Minister has abused GAA hospitality to inform his hosts how the sport needs to become more attractive to protestant/unionists. When is he going to do likewise as far as the IFA is concerned towards catholic/nationalists

Shouln't you be out doing something about it, like "having a word with" Gerry Armstrong? After all, he's got it coming to him...

[Evil Genius]

of course many (most) of OWC fans will want to see ROI beaten in pretty much every game, for reasons varying from bigotry, disagreement over players to general local rivalries.
The same of course is reciprocated.

I find that an incredible statement.
I have not come across this personally. In fact the vast majority of fans who follow the Republic have a range of feelings towards the NI team from mostly apathetic to well wishing. The NI team is not regarded as a rival.
The OWC majority mindset is not reciprocated by the vast majority

I don't know where you come from, MS, but at the risk of repeating unfair generalisations, from my personal experience, I have few or no problems with ROI fans actually from the Republic. However, amongst those ROI fans who come from NI, I sometimes see a section display an antipathy, even hostility, towards the NI team and its fans which is rarely replicated by those from south of the border.

Now before anyone jumps down my throat, I am not accusing every northern ROI fan by any means. I daresay most are only concerned with supporting their own team, rather than doing another team down. But the sort of bile exhibited by Robin Livingstone of the Angrytown News, or even by Fearon on this very site, is not exclusive to those two individuals. Sad to say, this antagonism is to be found e.g. after NI matches when cars carrying soccer fans away from Windsor along the Westway/Ormeau Road/Markets etc are regularly stoned by wee spides wearing ROI tops, or those of a certain well-known Scottish club* etc.


* - No disrespect to the overwhelmingly decent majority of Celtic fans, btw.

P.S. I have absolutley no desire to get dragged into a blame game, or another dreary and endless slanging match along the lines of "Aye, but youssuns are far worse than ussuns etc". Rather, I am merely recounting the experience of NI fans on the ground.

[nifan]

of course many (most) of OWC fans will want to see ROI beaten in pretty much every game, for reasons varying from bigotry, disagreement over players to general local rivalries.
The same of course is reciprocated.

I find that an incredible statement.
I have not come across this personally. In fact the vast majority of fans who follow the Republic have a range of feelings towards the NI team from mostly apathetic to well wishing. The NI team is not regarded as a rival.
The OWC majority mindset is not reciprocated by the vast majority

Many people have varying views, but a lot will want to see NI lose in every game. Others will be apathetic. Some will support us.
In general most people i know who support the ROI enjoyed slagging us off when we went through a horrendous run - particular highlights included losing to armenia and canada.

I wouldnt know about the vast majority, and id say it would be very hard to know the breakdown, but I would say the vast majority would be apathetic at best to us.

To say that you dont see us as rivals asks the question who do you see as rivals?

[screenexile]

Don't see how any of you see this as relevant as there are many NI fans who would act in the same way and like to see the Republic lose... In fairness I'm not blaming anyone for this particular stance as I had the misfortune of watching Scotland come close to qualification for Euro 2008 in an English pub where the English fans took great delight in the fact the Scots were beaten by the Italians even though it had no possible bearing on England's performance or whether they made the Euro's or not... not particularly pretty but that is the mentality of a lot of supporters of football... Liverpool Everton... Celtic Rangers... Man U City! It's nothing new and it's not a particularly big deal IMO.

[Main Street]

Many people have varying views, but a lot will want to see NI lose in every game. Others will be apathetic. Some will support us.
In general most people i know who support the ROI enjoyed slagging us off when we went through a horrendous run - particular highlights included losing to armenia and canada.

I wouldnt know about the vast majority, and id say it would be very hard to know the breakdown, but I would say the vast majority would be apathetic at best to us.

To say that you dont see us as rivals asks the question who do you see as rivals?

Did you lose to Canada? you deserved your slaggin then, doesn´t mean much though. If you say the vast majority would be apathetic, that means they don´t care enough to bothered one way or the other
then you are contradicting your other statements.

For instance NI beating England would not have registered that much because on the same night the Republic got beaten by France and as you know yourself it's hard to get worked up one way or other on what's happening elsewhere.

Rivals would obviously be England, that's a dumb question actually
Wales, Scotland and  NI  not
NI has more nuisance value than the other 2 if we have them in a group, even if they have nothing to play for in terms of qualifying they still take the game more serious as if we are perfidious foes.

[scalder]

I heard about a bar in Spain the night NI were recently playing England and the 26 county crowd were playing who I'm not sure. Well this was an Irish bar but the English lads piled in in numbers and demanded their game be put on the big TV, so the siazable contingent who wanted to see the "RoI"game has to watch on a tiny screen in the corner. Anyway the nordies scored and their couple of supporters erupted in joy and were promptly turned upon by some of the English. Que the Irish of a republican presuasion, incoluding some hard core Derry lads to come to their counrtymens aid! English backed off and the NI suporters could revel in their rare victory in peace!

[nifan]

I meant the attitudes would be reciprocated, I would of course be guessing at numbers from both sides.
Im not contradicting anything - the attitudes exist from both sides.

Rivals would obviously be England, that's a dumb question actually
Wales, Scotland and  NI  not

England are a team that are talked about as contenders for most tournaments, though they are generally short.
They have won a WC albeit a long time ago.

I think you need to realise you are more at NIs level than you think. Im not fully up to date with the latest figures but i suspect our rankings are also somewhat similar, and while not a perfect measure, the relative rankings of european teams is usually reasonable.

If you can seriously claim we arent rivals but england are i think you need to ponder why you really believe that.

[Evil Genius]

I heard about a bar in Spain the night NI were recently playing England and the 26 county crowd were playing who I'm not sure. Well this was an Irish bar but the English lads piled in in numbers and demanded their game be put on the big TV, so the siazable contingent who wanted to see the "RoI"game has to watch on a tiny screen in the corner. Anyway the nordies scored and their couple of supporters erupted in joy and were promptly turned upon by some of the English. Que the Irish of a republican presuasion, incoluding some hard core Derry lads to come to their counrtymens aid! English backed off and the NI suporters could revel in their rare victory in peace!

Reminds me of the time a wee while back when NI were playing in Copenhagen. The day after our fighting 0-0 draw, a few of us went to an Irish Bar for a few pints of lunch. The staff and a few of the customers were from the Republic, but all were very very amiable. Anyhow, as we all sat round trying to find that elusive balance between being unable to face another drink and desperately needing another one, a sports round-up came up on the TV, including our game.

When this was followed by pictures of the goals from the Republic's "seven goal thriller" in Cyprus, we were very disappointed for you.










Were we f**k! It was hilarious - the few local Danes in the bar couldn't understand how all these Irish football fans were struggling to sing "One Team in Ireland" whilst holding their sides with laughing and giggling...

[Main Street]

I meant the attitudes would be reciprocated, I would of course be guessing at numbers from both sides.
Im not contradicting anything - the attitudes exist from both sides.

Rivals would obviously be England, that's a dumb question actually
Wales, Scotland and  NI  not

England are a team that are talked about as contenders for most tournaments, though they are generally short.
They have won a WC albeit a long time ago.

I think you need to realise you are more at NIs level than you think. Im not fully up to date with the latest figures but i suspect our rankings are also somewhat similar, and while not a perfect measure, the relative rankings of european teams is usually reasonable.

If you can seriously claim we arent rivals but england are i think you need to ponder why you really believe that.

Rivals in football, as in some team you don´t like  who you want to beat  and who you like to see lose - that´s England. NI don´t come near that standard of rivalry.
You claimed that most Republic would want to see NI lose

Having a similar standard has little to do with football rivalry.
it´s not a Glentoran Linfield situation.
That´s why I said this doesn´t make sense

many (most) of OWC fans will want to see ROI beaten in pretty much every game, for reasons varying from bigotry, disagreement over players to general local rivalries.
The same of course is reciprocated.

[nifan]

most was in brackets as it was an estimate by myself. Many is certainly fact.
I have met many ROI fans who want NI to lose generally. Against england the results would be skewed by the abe lot, but in general i have met numerous other who want ni to be beaten generally for the various reasons above. Many may not be vociferous about it, but they take enjoyment to the level of enjoyin slagging the NI fans they know - this is the same level that a lot of the "many (most)" ni fans treat the roi.

If you dont see us as rivals thats fair enough, many i know do - there was a dvd released recently about the ROIs "greatest ever victories". What was the featured match? NI vs ROI 4-0. Some people obviously see it as a rival.

[magickingdom]

Evil Genuis, why are you so desperate to prove that the vast majority of the Nationalist community wanted England to beat Northern Ireland? Granted there was a sizeable minority that hoped for that. These are usually the people that write letters to the press and phone in radio stations.* I would safely bet the majority wanted Northern Ireland to win.

To turn the tables, would 100% of the GAWA want RoI to win in a given match? I doubt it, I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to see RoI win, even if they don't activity support them.

it took me about 6 month to work out what owc stood for and now this? gawa? whatz it stand for...

[ziggysego]

Green And White Army