The game of football and self-deception of power

Two of my three daughters-in-law are English and I love them both. Why then, as I watched the Women’s World Cup Final earlier today, was I cheering for Spain? I like Spanish weather, I’ve found both Madrid and Barcelona beautiful in different ways, and the Spanish people have a verve in their approach to life that resembles the Irish at their best. So is that why I was cheering for Spain?

No. Like many other people from Scotland, Wales and Ireland I instinctively become a fan of whoever is playing against England. My reasons? Well, there’s the English tendency in such situations to see the thing as done and dusted before kick-off. There were people arguing  for a Bank Holiday when/if the England women won today’s game. There was talk about their unbreakable spirit, the talent of the England players, the genius of their Dutch coach. When people start talking as though they had achieved what they have yet to achieve, it’s reasonable to recoil and think “Not so fast – the game hasn’t started yet.”

But truth be told, the reason for my anti-England sentiment lies buried in history. It’s no coincidence that there are many like me in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. That’s because England is the Big Guy in this cluster of nations off the mainland of Europe. The United Kingdom became united because England was bigger and stronger than the other three nations. They imposed their will and ways on Scotland, Wales and Ireland.  It suits England’s purposes to present that union as a voluntary coming together, and there are Scots, Welsh and Irish who have learned to talk in the same way. The drive for Scottish independence may be suffering right now, but they made one thing clear: England will do all it could to stop Scotland achieving independence. Shackling your neighbour is scarcely the action of a friend.

Ireland was England’s first colony. In the early twentieth century, twenty-six of Ireland’s thirty-two counties managed to force their way out of the supposedly-between-equals Union. The manipulation of borders in the north-east kept a corner still tied to England. A majority of Irish people are in favour of a reunited independent Ireland. Pretty soon it’s going to become clear, even to our Tory pro-consul, that a majority in the carefully-created NE stateen want a reunited independent Ireland. But you have to admit, kicking our heels in the waiting room while our pro-consul accepts that it’s all over bar the shouting can be an enormous pain in the arse.