Irish people supporting English football clubs

[Baile Brigín 2]

1 - Which team do you support? Aston Villa

2 - How long have you supported them? since 1992

3 - Are you from the same town or city as that club? If not, do you have any personal or familial connection to it? Did you live there for a while? Do you live there now? No connection to Birmingham

4 - If the answers to 3 are all no, why do you support this team? How did you pick them out of all that's available?

I picked them solely for the Irish connection on the pitch.  McGrath, Staunton, Houghton etc.  Nobody else in my family really followed a team at all. I was free to choose without influence really. There have been some ups, but many many downs. School could be rough at times lol

5 - When England plays in international competitions, how do you feel about them? Do you
a - Root for England, particularly any players from your favourite EPL club?
b - Don't have a strong opinion one way or another, but would lean slightly towards wanting England to do well
c - Don't have any opinion at all
d - Have a mild preference for England to lose
e - Vigorously support England's opponents, and yearn for the English to do on the receiving end of a bloody good hiding

I'd be in-between d and e here.  I do enjoy watching England big it up and then eventually fall. I dont particularly want them to win anything but I would be devastated if they did.

6 - Are there any local clubs in your own town or city that you could give your support to? If there are but you don't, why not? Is the quality of the competition not worth your while? Are the facilities crap? Did you just never get into it? Is it not well publicised and you don't know the games are on?

The biggest club in town is of course Glenavon.  Mourneview was really a no go zone in the early 90s. I could of course support Lurgan Celtic but that level never appealed to me.  I enjoyed playing for local Mid Ulster clubs but that would be as far as local support goes. Many from the town go down and support Cliftonville.  That never appealed to me either.

Here is the odd. Not picking on you per say, but you picked a foreign side because of Irish players but cheering on 11 Irish lads in North Belfast doesn't appeal. You can see how all this comes across as strange.

It's quite lucky this 'my local side is shite so I am arbitrarily picking a winning team' never caught on in Gaelic games.

Where are you from? Enniskillen. I follow Kerry in the football and Limerick in the hurling....

Life through the lens of a freestater.

Or just cop on.

I won't follow a team in a league with Linfield in it, so I follow a team in a league with Rangers or Chelsea.

I wish people would just be honest.

"I have a passing interest in soccer so picked the team from the big shiny league that was winning when I was a lad"

There is nothing wrong with that.

The last bit, it's pretty much what alot of folk have said. The fact the people don't want to attend hate fest games in their locality and all that comes with it is completely understandable, unless of course you don't have that lived experience....well?

But they support teams in England that are involved in hate fests. What do you think Man U v Leeds, Chelsea v West Ham, Arsenal v Spurs, Villa v Birmingham or Newcastle v Sunderland are?

Escapism Coco

Eh?

Indeed, why you shouldn't be dictating to northern men of a certain vintage.

So when a Dub makes a point you can't quite argue around, call him a Stater. Good man.

[J70]

Started when a young kid for me in the late 70s. Rest of the class were supporting Liverpool, so I cluelessly tagged along as I started to play and learn the game (I was a late starter having spent early years in the US before we moved back).

Developed into an obsession for a while as a kid and then a very keen interest that I have maintained my whole life.

When I could as an adult, I went to Finn Harps games, whether at home, in Dublin where I lived for many years, or if they were playing in part of the country I happened to be in that weekend (saw them in Galway, Cobh and a few other places).

Still a committed Liverpool fan to this day, while Harps are not as easy to view these days apart from You Tube highlights of their current travails.

[thewobbler]

You'll never understand it BB.

Postulate and prance all you like, but the Troubles was a very real and complex time.

Which you'll never understand

[Baile Brigín 2]

You'll never understand it BB.

Postulate and prance all you like, but the Troubles was a very real and complex time.

Which you'll never understand

That's a cop out.

Saying I won't keep an eye on, say, Cliftonville or Newry because of the troubles while following British clubs instead is inane.

You follow Man United or Liverpool because it's easier to casually follow them. Stop with the pseudo sociology.

[trueblue1234]

For me it's not so much the shiny league but the fact coverage was easier when I was young growing up. There was no local football on tv and given the nature of clubs in the north, I or my family, weren't travelling to soccer games. It was a very real concern when growing up.
I did try to go to a few games in my older years, but the standard was terrible, and that quickly put me off it. Was a real slog to watch. Maybe I was unlucky with the games I went to, but as a spectacle, it was poor fare.
That was the good thing about MotD. You only got the highlights, so that grew my interest in English club football and as a result Liverpool. I should also mention the interest in Italian football too as a result of C4.
I don't mind cheering on Liverpool while at the same time hoping England get beat. For me it's too different things. It might be odd, but I don't see it as straight hypocrisy. IMO anyway.

[Eamonnca1]

Thanks for the responses so far, this is interesting. I have some more questions below, which I've bolded.

Bit of a pattern emerging here. A lot of it seesm to be hereditary. People supporting an English club because their dad or another older relative supported them.

If you answered like that, can I ask why your relatives supported them?

Would they have lived and worked for a while in the city where "your" club is based?

I know my dad spent a bit of time around Luton in the 60s (although he moved quite a bit with the construction of the motorways) and since then always took at least a passing interest in the fortunes of Luton Town. He was never a vociferous supporter of them, and any interest he had in English soccer was more to do with the pools, and the Saturday evening ritual of watching the results coming in on Grandstand's Vidi-printer followed by the classified results. It was vastly eclipsed by his love for the GAA though. I digress.

In our class at school there were two die-hard Celtic fans, and I get the impression that they inherited that from their dads. I don't know if they spent any time in Glasgow, but I know it was an industrial powerhouse in the 19th and early 20th centuries, so a lot of Irish would have gone over there. I know my Irish grandparents spent some time there.

I would say there were generations of Irish that worked in Britain and picked up a following of local soccer clubs that they later took back to Ireland with them and passed on to later generations, which probably accounts for some of the support that still exists today, based on the responses we're seeing here.

For the ones that picked teams at random, that was a little harder for me to fathom, but I think I have it now. Is it like when your mates come into school talking about the latest happenings in a soap opera, so you feel the need to get into it yourself to see what's going on and you can partake in the conversation? I remember being completely lost in a lot of coversations at school among lads who would just discuss English soccer every day at lunchtime. It'd be a big incentive to get into it. I probably would have been less of an outcast if I had a strong opinion one way or another on who was going to win.

Finally, there are definitely parts of Ireland where there's not much in the way of soccer (good quality or otherwise) to support. Given the sheer blanket coverage that the EPL gets on free-to-air TV, you're probably more likely to see Man-U v Liverpool than Glenavon v Glentoran. And when you do, the EPL games just look better because of the big crowds, the big stadiums, and the noise they make. A big crowd is part of the spectacle, it makes you feel like you're watching something worthwhile. That's why the LGFA and Camogie finals in Croke Park always look a bit understated to me. Vast empty areas in the stands and behind the goals are not a good look, and it really detracts from the atmosphere. It certainly doesn't look good on TV. Similar is the two men and a dog that seemed to watch Irish League matches the last time I saw any of that on BBC NI's coverage.

I mean, compare Ballymena United:



to Dortmund:



It doesn't take a genius to see where the better atmosphere is.

So if there were a soccer team near you, that played in a large-ish and modern stadium, attracted a big enough crowd to generate a good atmosphere, played at a high enough standard, and didn't have a sinister or sectarian atmosphere about it, would you be more likely to support them and go to their games on a regular basis?

[RedHand88]

Yes absolutely to the last one if I grew up with it there. Too late now.

[SaffronSports]

Which team do you support? Leeds United

2 - How long have you supported them? Since 1990/91 season

3 - Are you from the same town or city as that club? If not, do you have any personal or familial connection to it? Did you live there for a while? Do you live there now? no connection


4 - If the answers to 3 are all no, why do you support this team? How did you pick them out of all that's available? my dad started to get into football at time of the 1970 fa cup final between leeds and chelsea, he picked leeds.


5 - When England plays in international competitions, how do you feel about them? Do you
a - Root for England, particularly any players from your favourite EPL club?
b - Don't have a strong opinion one way or another, but would lean slightly towards wanting England to do well
c - Don't have any opinion at all
d - Have a mild preference for England to lose
e - Vigorously support England's opponents, and yearn for the English to do on the receiving end of a bloody good hiding

6 - Are there any local clubs in your own town or city that you could give your support to? If there are but you don't, why not? Is the quality of the competition not worth your while? Are the facilities crap? Did you just never get into it? Is it not well publicised and you don't know the games are on?
I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

[Eamonnca1]

I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

So mid-80s to mid-90s then? How old would you have been at the time? That'd certainly be enough to put anyone off supporting the local team. Mad stuff.

[SaffronSports]

I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

So mid-80s to mid-90s then? How old would you have been at the time? That'd certainly be enough to put anyone off supporting the local team. Mad stuff.

More late 80s to late 90s. Was it 89-97? I was born in 1984 so you're probably looking about 1995/96ish as i found once they went to big school, lads i knew from the local estate where i lived changed in terms of religion.

[Eamonnca1]

I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

So mid-80s to mid-90s then? How old would you have been at the time? That'd certainly be enough to put anyone off supporting the local team. Mad stuff.

More late 80s to late 90s. Was it 89-97? I was born in 1984 so you're probably looking about 1995/96ish as i found once they went to big school, lads i knew from the local estate where i lived changed in terms of religion.

They became more hostile when they went to secondary school?

[Eamonnca1]

Another question for those who selected Option E for opposing England's national team, can you tell me your reasons? Select all that apply:

• Fed up hearing about 1966 and dread hearing it for another half century if they were to win the damn thing again
• Fed up with the attitude of them expecting to win every time and having a big post-mortem every time they don't
• Hooliganism
• Don't like the English personally
• Bad experience with British solidiers during the Troubles
• Bad experience with English people when living in or visiting England
• 800 years of oppression, colonisation, famine/genocide, etc.
• Other, please specify ...

[SaffronSports]

I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

So mid-80s to mid-90s then? How old would you have been at the time? That'd certainly be enough to put anyone off supporting the local team. Mad stuff.

More late 80s to late 90s. Was it 89-97? I was born in 1984 so you're probably looking about 1995/96ish as i found once they went to big school, lads i knew from the local estate where i lived changed in terms of religion.

They became more hostile when they went to secondary school?

Yeah, boys i was friends with as youngsters would be lads who would end up trying to start fights with us as we got older. Larne would be a very much protestant town and it would have been a regular occurance to get chased or hit as a teenager in the town. Few times it was by those same lads who i had lived beside.

[SaffronSports]

Another question for those who selected Option E for opposing England's national team, can you tell me your reasons? Select all that apply:

• Fed up hearing about 1966 and dread hearing it for another half century if they were to win the damn thing again
• Fed up with the attitude of them expecting to win every time and having a big post-mortem every time they don't
• Hooliganism
• Don't like the English personally
• Bad experience with British solidiers during the Troubles
• Bad experience with English people when living in or visiting England
• 800 years of oppression, colonisation, famine/genocide, etc.
• Other, please specify ...

I think i wanted them to win Euro 96 and was gutted in 1998 as Michael Owen was amazing to watch. By 2002 i was delighted when Ronaldinho scored over Seaman. Maybe i changed when i went to big school too lol

[Milltown Row2]

I don't mean this in a confrontational way, I'm just genuinely curious about it, and I'm trying to get to the bottom of it. If you're an Irish person who supports an English soccer club, can you please answer the following questions. Just be as straight and honest as you can with each one.

1 - Which team do you support?

Man Utd (from a distance)

2 - How long have you supported them?

Late 70's

3 - Are you from the same town or city as that club? If not, do you have any personal or familial connection to it? Did you live there for a while? Do you live there now?

No


4 - If the answers to 3 are all no, why do you support this team? How did you pick them out of all that's available?

Father and older brothers followed, dad supported them as a kid, he was pulled in by the Busby babes period the Munich air crash for him was the big sentimental thing that generated a lot of support around Belfast.

Full disclosure

I've literally no care whether Utd were relegated to the conference and enjoy the banter with mates of other teams.

5 - When England plays in international competitions, how do you feel about them? Do you
a - Root for England, particularly any players from your favourite EPL club?
b - Don't have a strong opinion one way or another, but would lean slightly towards wanting England to do well
c - Don't have any opinion at all
d - Have a mild preference for England to lose
e - Vigorously support England's opponents, and yearn for the English to do on the receiving end of a bloody good hiding

Wouldn't support England, couldn't careless if they win or lose either way

6 - Are there any local clubs in your own town or city that you could give your support to? If there are but you don't, why not? Is the quality of the competition not worth your while? Are the facilities crap? Did you just never get into it? Is it not well publicised and you don't know the games are on?

Used to live ( a different life time ago) in the street that tho away fans headed into Solitude, would not have been from North Belfast but would have headed round watched the games, hit friendly with locals and did a couple of seasons, standard was poor, craic was better but just didn't have any real connection as GAA was the only show in town for me..

I did the Donegal Celtic v Linfield at Windsor. Purely out of I knew it was going to be mental lol

Many thanks.