I was going to write about the critical storm that’s been stirred by Jeremy Corbyn’s reluctance to commend a shoot-to-kill on Britain’s streets, but I think I’ll opt instead for the shoot-to-score philosophy that will bring the south of Ireland to the Euro Finals in (that’s right) France next Summer.
Like thousands of others in the north, I was lepping and swearing and punching the furniture through 90 + minutes. And when they won 3-1 overall, I was grinning as widely as any of the sweat-soaked players who trotted around the Aviva stadium saluting the fans.
Which brings up the question: why? I’m not from the south of Ireland (well, technically yes – I was born, studied and worked there – but I live here); the team I might be expected to support – Northern Ireland – is already through to the Euro Finals next summer. So what’s with the furniture punching and yeehaaing?
It’s a gut thing, I think. When we used to go to Bundoran on a Sunday, as many of the family of eight as could be crammed into the Morris Eight, when we crossed the bridge at Belleek and finally on the road to Ballyshannon, we’d let a sort of rebel yell out of us. It didn’t make sense, of course. We were now in a state which had failed miserably to achieve Pearse’s dream of cherishing all the children of the nation equally. The southern government had made clear for more than thirty years that beyond lip-service, it didn’t give a damn about northern nationalists. And yet we felt this weight lifted as our overloaded car trundled towards Bundoran. The seeds of my furniture-punching last night were sown in my childhood excursions into the state beyond British rule.
I know this loyalty to the Republic (sic) of Ireland team can really irritate some unionists. But the sad truth is, you can’t make people love you. Northern unionists should know that, having dealt with British politicians for so long. It’s a gut thing: I don’t feel any antipathy towards the Northern Ireland team, and I hope they don’t meet the south until the actual Final; but feeling part of the waves of euphoria and clean mad buck-lepping delight that swept round Lansdowne Road last night was a glorious, liberating experience. They can’t take that away from me.
Well said Jude,
Same here!
Grma, Bangordub…Agus Yeeeehaaaa!
I watched it in a pub on the Antrim Road. The clientele even shared the minutes silence and applause after. Naturally the win was celebrated loudly. As for the NI team, I used to travel to Windsor to watch them in the 60s. The sectarianism eventually wears one down and one gets t he message, it’s their team. So I stopped going, even stopped going to watch Irish Leagyue matches. Looking back at the diminishing crowds going to those matches, I realise that I wasn’t the only one sick of the sectarian nature of football here. Recently I met a former Irish League footballer who was quite a prolific scorer in his day. He was from the Nationalist side of the fence he told me that that sectarianism even affected team selection. I remember we had often suspected that a quota system was in force. Anyway, as you say one can’t be forced to love/respect people. Despite years of having Orange Culture forcibly fed to us we still don like it.
I watched it in a pub in Wallasey n had to shush them to acknowledge the min silence…those looks were bad….but nothing to what I got when I stood for our national anthem haha. In fairness, most of them were cheering us on by then end….but I defs wont be going back there if we ever have to play England ouch!!!
I am sure the Irish Republic would love to have fans who put this on record
A woman in her 30s has alleged sex abuse against FF’s Pat Carey. Can we now assume Fine Gael/Labour will offer her a seat in the Oireachtas?.
I for one am not terribly annoyed about them qualifying for France they will fail to get any points and will be back home just in about time to watch us in the Semi finals.
What’s your point, neill – especially with the quotation?
Jude get yourself a second cup of coffee and work it out
I don’t normally drink coffee. So again – why did you quote that bit in the middle, neill?
I noticed a tweet of Senator Cahill herself, in which she made reference to the tweet of Jude’s to which you refer. She outrageously claimed that “Jude has a track history on writing about sexual abuse in a questionable way”.
Well I have to say that there are many things about the tales that Cahill is telling that I find ‘questionable’. For instance was she really subjected to a kangaroo court as she describes? If so why was she so warm in her praise of Breige Wright, who she later alleged was part of this kangaroo court? Why did she write how she considered the actions of the army (the IRA) “honorable?”
Why did she withdraw her evidence in court and thus guarantee the acquittal of those she made allegations against? Although I do bear in mind that the DPP made mistakes in how they handled things.
Was she really refused from going to the RUC by the IRA with her allegations? Bear in mind that this was a lady who evidently held a leading position within RNU, a dissident Republican organisation openly opposed to the GFA and the police services both sides of the border. Would it not be plausible to believe that since she was anti RUC then she asked the IRA to get involved and dispense their particular brand of justice?
I find her account of how she came to be national secretary of RNU questionable. Do people really assume such leadership positions in organisations such as those, after merely attending a couple of meetings first, all the while apparently not really knowing what the organisation was about?
The allegation that she apparently secretly recorded Catherine McCartney and threatened to use the recording against her in some way is questionable.
I find her refusal to engage in Seanad debates over the last week or so questionable. For one lauded as being so courageous can we not question her refusal to speak on issues surrounding her until after her ‘appointment’ to the Seanad?
In fact her appointment to the Seanad is questionable. Her qualifications for the role on the ‘industry and commerce panel’ are questionable.
Neill your evident blindness to the reality of why Labour aided by FG put her into the Seanad is questionable. Do you think their motives were noble? Or maybe can you see credibility in the theory that they are happy to use the woman, despite all her baggage, as a stick to beat SF with?
All very questionable indeed only Cahill would rather throw mud at others than answer some of these. It’s just a pity that it all wasn’t taken care of in court and if in fact she was due justice then it’s a pity she didn’t get it.
“I for one am not terribly annoyed about them qualifying for France they will fail to get any points and will be back home just in about time to watch us in the Semi finals”
That crystal ball of yours is amazing Neill. Could I borrow it? The Euro millions has a jackpot of £100 million this weekend….
Proud.to.be.Irish.great.game.jude.
Super.Great.Jim.
Brilliant night – onwards and upwards! The Jack Charlton bug has spread again!
Partitionist!
Jude,
I foretold this scenario last year before either of the Irish teams had qualified and how does this idea sound. Both Irish teams are destined to meet at some stage in the competition (group stages so that neither actually knocks the other out) And in the year of infamous celebrations, The Somme and Easter Rising being replaced by the harmony and arm in arm holding of both teams united on the pitch. Kinda like the 16th & 36th divisions being replaced by our football teams. Unity at last!!!
Absolutely. I will cheer for both teams and am proud that this little island produced two qualifying teams.
Great result, but my nerves were shredded. At one point I was contemplating going out for a walk until it was all over.
Fair play to Martin O’Neill what we lack in guile we more than make up for in character, and as for Jonathon Walters he has the heart of a lion.
Something doesn’t add up. Almost all Catholics support the republic when it comes to the garrison game yet apparently don’t want a UI. And they all vote for nationalist political parties with reunification at their core at election time.
I’m happy today but confused at the same time !
Simple, Cal – there are lies, damned lies, and opinion polls!
BOGBALL BEGRUDGER
Loath as one is to urinate on those who wish to celebrate last night’s victory, Esteemed Blogmeister, but the view from this side of the Black Sow’s Dyke is obviously different from that of the other. Going forward, at the end of the day.
Not least from those who gaze at the Irish sporting world through the green-eyed goggles of a Bogball Begrudger. Which world is anything but sporting, particularly when mediated through the DOB-dominated media. And its imitator, RTE, which increasingly sounds like a dubbed version of the DOBlin media.
To put the curbing of one’s enthusiasm into context, one would like to focus on some random details:
Denis O’Brien (for it is he !) bankrolls the twin glowers , the pair of poppy-wearing bainisteoiri: M.O’Neill, OBE and R. Keane. Mind you, that they choose not to wear their poppies on the western shores of the Irish sea, thus dissing the local heroes of yore, would appear to be an obvious question demanding to be raised at the daily audiences with the journalistic faithful. Furgeddit.
The Londonderry Lad, aka the wee MON from Kilrea, in his cerebral post game debriefing kept mentioning how great a lift for the ‘nation’ it would be. Spring in the step sorta thingy. Nothing more specific than the ‘n’ word, leaving one to wonder just which n-word he had in mind. Ditto, wee Razor, aka Hootsmon Houghton.
(Did one mention the wee Methody Old Boy, George Hamilton? One is now: ‘People are partying the night away in the Four Green Fields of the Island !)
Speaking of debriefing: wondrous to read of our beloved and dignified President’s low key visit to the post game dressing room of the victors, during towel-flapping time. It must have been a wet dream come true for, erm, The Mickey.
Numerous were the fuse-blowing oohs in the morning bulletins on both the news and the sports news today: with many references to the glorious Ole Days of the late Eighties.
One joyous memory of which kept coming to mind: of the heaving mob of good-humoured gobdaws outside the Bank of Ireland in College Green,. Gathered there to welcome back the, erm, home-coming heroes drowning out the then Lord Mayor, Sean Haughey, TD, with a raucous chorus of beautifully modulated boohs.
-We want Jack ! We want Jack ! We want Jack !
Jack ,btw, was the Northumberland lad who had returned empty-handed but fat-walleted from Italia 90.
This vignette suddenly made the boohing of the terrorists in Easter 16 as they were led handcuffed out of the GPO, more vivid.
Dublin City Council, of which the L. Mayor was the mainman, showed its displeasure by falling over itself in its haste to award Big Jack Charlatan with the Freedom of Blackpool,,oops Dublin. (Dubhlinn can translate as either Dublin or Blackpool).
Some wizened observers are of the opinion that The Triumph of FAI-lure, to coin a phrase, reached its pathetic apotheosis in this awarding.
This is no mere aberration of the Local Authorities and their possibly skewed bias in favour of soccer, oops, football and in disfavor of the bogball.
Consider the following:
The South Dublin Council gifted the newly built (from taxpayers’ pockets) Tallaght Stadium to a blow in soccer club called Shamrock Rovers. While essentially telling the local GAH clubs to take a jump, including Thomas Davis GAA club which only been around since the year Dot. Or,maybe even grapeshot itself.
Fingal County Council in North Dublin actually funded a footie club called Fingal which has, alas, since sadly petered out into Goatrack Utd.
(NAMA, true to form, recently rejected an OVER the bottom line bid from Dublin GAA Board to purchase the on-the-market Spawell Leisure Complex, much to the unbridled glee of Ian O’Doherty of the DOBlin media stable).
Dublin City Council bailed out bankrupt Bohemians FC by doing a deal on a ramshackle Dalymount Park.
The same DCC pandered to the visceral odium for the GAA of the Premiership-supporting types who chose to dwell in the surrounding streets of Croke Park , by refusing to grant it permission to complete its renovation. The complete absence of comment from the compliant media as to why this is the only Incomplete National Stadium in the world, does not require comment.
Dec ‘The Neck’ Lynch.
In his legendary leg-pulling ‘Game for a Laff’ column in the Sindo, that duel in DOB’s crown, Dec the Neck has the Bogball in his crosshairs on a weekly basis. Not untypically spancelled with his own coinage: eejitry.
Now, there are some who feel that the OTT reaction to the outcome of the game last night was slightly out of kilter with the reality: to scrape in as the Number 24 qualifier of, erm, 24 countries is a big ticket example of eejitry. Look for a mench in next Sunday’s Sindo and look in vain.
Cead Mile FAI-lte to the OTToman Empire of Eire.
Football, not soccer, was the term of endearment in universal use in all the Free Southern Stateeen’s media this morning.: a neat form of sporting cleansing. Football, in the English mainland use of the word, is an antiseptic way of wiping the slate clean of that embarrassment of Eireland, Bogball.
Football, it goes well with Mummy. As in Footie Mums.
Mind you, not all of the delirium of the craven was down to a victory by proxy over the sporting organisation for which they harbor the most enduring animus. The Head the Balls of Soccerdom have been wearing the green ganseys of envy as they viewed the seemingly relentless road to virtual glory by the Rugby Goys.
Alas, we all know what happened there, too painful to mention.
The footie fraternity’s jealously of the oval balled chaps was less than muted: it was unheard. Being junior partners in the AVIVA, they had to mind their manners, such as they are.
Speaking of the oval-balled game, there was one truly remarkable articulation of honesty in the DOBlin media during the recent RWC, which somehow managed to squirm in, unedited. Matt Williams, the Australian rugby coach it was who calmly observed that ‘the supporters of Ozzie Rules and Rugby League would be cheering on the All-Blacks against the Ozzie Rugby Union team’.
It would seem that freedom to cheer on whichever team you like is a given in a free-thinking Downunder. It’s not that it does not happen in the Free Southern Stateen: it does but in a rather more defined and limited degree.
While Soccer and Rugby types have freedom to do everything from showing utter disinterest to dissing the bogball, the GAA neanderthal is accorded no such courtesy.
Rather, as five minutes listening to this morning’s radio will reveal, WE was the only plural pronoun in town. As in: WE are all over the moon ! WE were all riverdancing in the streets till the sun came up!
The naïve bogballer who distances himself from all this alcohol-fueled WE-WE-ing would soon find the finger of recruitment pointing in his direction. Quickly followed – in the face of further dissent – by the Kitchener Sink been thrown in his direction.
(Electronic Boardman from the Sideline: 8 minutes injury time)
Oopps, that should read 8 months injury time till PARIS 16.
OL-E-BOLA !
OL-E-BOLA !,
OL-E-BOLA !
Taimse im chodladh is na scaramoucheter me.
Know what you mean about the gut thing, but in reverse. Remember growing up and having to cross the border to visit relatives, and seeing the Irish flag flying from buildings and the uneasy feeling of being in ‘IRA-land’ now – it’s Official! The heabie jeabies never really left until the border was crossed over on the return journey and the first reassuring glimpse of the old red, white and blue came into view again.
At least if the three home nations fell by the wayside and RoI was still involved, it would keep the interest levels up a bit more in the tournament. RoI v Albania would have more of a pull factor compared to Iceland v Albania if there was nothing better on the TV
“The heabie jeabies never really left until the border was crossed over on the return journey and the first reassuring glimpse of the old red, white and blue came into view again.”
I understand this completely, as you say in reverse, but I know it was down to experiences in the north and that things have changed for the better immeasurably since.
Did you have a bad experience on your visits south KC?
Perhaps you can imagine how nationalists felt being treated poorly in our own country?
Remember, Northern Ireland does not belong to the UK, they may occupy it but that wont always be the case. Northern Ireland is part of the island of Ireland, and that will always be the case. It is too small a country to hold such baggage. I feel sorry for you KC.
Enough with the condescending fake compassion. A full tank of piss take has just been delivered to the door. I’m guessing there is nothing, nada, zero I can share with you about anything because your brain is that twisted in the deepest, darkest, greenest mindset of 12th Century mentality, I wouldn’t know which way to turn.
“Enough with the condescending fake compassion. A full tank of piss take has just been delivered to the door. I’m guessing there is nothing, nada, zero I can share with you about anything because your brain is that twisted in the deepest, darkest, greenest mindset of 12th Century mentality, I wouldn’t know which way to turn.”
Something must have happened to make you so bitter KC.
Hatred is consuming and takes its toll, I hope you get over it but you really should talk to someone.
I was parked in front of the TV in my living room with my two brothers watching the match. Needless to say our nerves were wrecked. I think Bosnia didn’t perform as well as they could have but that’s not to take away anything from the Republic, they played far better in the 2nd leg compared to the 1st.
Many NI fans gave their congratulations on the Republic’s victory but there were a few on Twitter which just couldn’t hide their disappointment at Bosnia’s defeat and seemed prepared beforehand to gleefully gloat at the ROI’s failure to qualify. One such fan tweeted to me angrily: “Why would you support a foreign team?”. Another was particularly bitter about the ROI’s qualification and said “Why would you celebrate the Republic finishing third in their group? We (NI) finished top in ours”. I reminded this NI fan that NI had maybe the easiest group in the qualifiers and the Republic had maybe the hardest, including World Champions Germany, which we defeated. Of course I may as well have spoken to a wall because the bitterness continued to flow from this particular fan.
The likes of Gregory Campbell are particularly irritated by players here opting for the ROI team over NI. The truth is its because of bigots like Gregory (lets just be truthful, the man is a downright bigot) that Catholic players wont play for the NI team if they can avoid it. Then we have the sectarianism that comes from sections of the NI supporters. Yes, things have improved over the years but there’s much still to be done. Of course many players here opt for the ROI team simply because they don’t want to play for the NI team, it doesn’t reflect their heritage or culture. This is the case for James McClean. James played for the under 21 NI team but opted for ROI when the opportunity came along.
Unionists may be irritated by Catholic players opting for the ROI but what exactly are they doing to attract them to the NI team? Nothing from what I seen. In fact Unionists tend to turn people off the NI team and the Union itself. Compare this to SF trying to attract protestants to vote for them, attending British remembrance events, promoting equality and reconciliation, etc. Or the Irish Rugby team, who changed the emblem of Irish Rugby, opting for a new anthem for Irish Rugby, etc to accommodate Unionist Rugby players.
Politics aside, the Summer of 2016 should be very interesting and enjoyable, I might even go to France myself if my friends/family are up for it. If I’m correct it should be the first time the NI and ROI teams both competed in a major tournament finals together. Can you imagine the atmosphere if both NI and ROI played each other?……
Easy group is that why three teams from our group qualified?
If ROI get England in their group I might even support England! ; )
Great game. Can’t wait for France. I don’t really care or notice how the northern Ireland team do and I don’t think many Ireland fans do either. When I see their fans openly waving parachute regiment flags it makes it difficult to wish them all the best. Anyway, those who want to bring sectarianism into football are an embarrassment, I am glad their behaviour will be on show for the world to see.
That was at the Linfield verses Cliftonville match, not an international. NI fans won an award from UEFA for their exemplary behaviour in 2006. At same match the Cliftonville chairman felt the need to issue a statement decrying the sectarian chants and cries of ‘IRA’ of his own support. It’s good to highlight all aspects of sectarianism, unless of course, this isn’t viewed as sectarian behaviour and is the normal practice for fans at RoI matches? in which case, if NI ever produced a George Best MKII he would think long and hard before ever going down the James McClean route. Sectarianism is an equal opportunity employer and no-one holds the monopoly on it.
When someone like you dislikes the Northern Irish team we are doing ok
Our behaviour will be excellent you can be assured of that I wonder if the Mexican fans can say the same?
I think it’s three teams from every group that qualified.