We’re not Brasil we’re Tuaisceart Éireann

Wow, you don't boo or issue death threats to your own players anymore, fair play.

As correctly pointed out by madferret, we have our All Ireland Republic team which incorporates all of the 32 counties and anyone born there, let the bigots have their sash bash in the sewer...

Madferret wrote: Any Irish Citizen be they North or South who lends any creedence that props up these apartheid minded cretins should be ashamed of their ignorance of the realities on the ground.  There is ONE National team for this Nation that represents all Irishmen regardless of religious beliefs & none. Anything else is a makey-uppy sectarian pub team representing a state-let created and maintained by outsiders under force.

This Irishman is not concerned by the "realities" on the ground (whether your realities or mine).

When I go to support the NI team, I am only interested in the realities IN the ground.

And the reality from Saturday is that there was ONE attempt at singing Ten German Bombers - drowned out before completion - and NO singing of Rule Britannia, The Sash, Billy Boys or anything else which could be construed as political or sectarian.

But I'm sure you don't want to hear that, since it clearly doesn't suit your own narrow-minded and uninformed agenda.

Madferret wrote: There is ONE National team for this Nation that represents all Irishmen regardless of religious beliefs & none. Anything else is a makey-uppy sectarian pub team representing a state-let created and maintained by outsiders under force.

So you already have your own national team to support, which may select players from anywhere in Ireland. And you get to play all your games in Dublin, with the flag and anthem of your choice. You can call yourselves "Ireland" (though improperly) and you can join your CEO in singing rebel songs in the pub afterwards without demur.

But that's not good enough for you.

No, you deny the right of some of your fellow Irishmen to play for or support another team on the island, even though that other team in no way threatens or impinges upon your own.

And we're supposed to be the small-minded ones?

Anyhow, from the evidence of this thread (as well as my own experience), I refuse to believe that you in any way represent the great majority of ordinary ROI fans.

I can just never understand this nonsense of 'you should want this different team to do well more so than that one'. If Ireland don't make it, personally I'll want Croatia to do well, because I am a fan of their players and would like to see them finally live up to their potential in a big tournament. Northern Ireland's football, their fanbase, their players, nothing at all about them is appealing to me. And there is absolutely no section of 99% of the support of the footballing world who wishes ill upon us. A large percentage of their support does. So to be honest I'm scratching my head at why I should support them over literally any other team in the world. I think it's safe to say a larger proportion of their fans hate us and wish to see us do badly than any other (even England). I won't actively tune into their games hoping to see them get beat, but I wouldn't 'want them to do well' in the slightest.

Edited by OnTheOneRoad - 15 Jun 2015 at 2:51pm

I like many on here have plenty if not some NI fans.  If they get to France I would like to see them do well for these people.  Most of them have and do support the Republic when they qualify so I’ll return the favour.  Every country has a nasty element but I have always maintained NI has a bigger nasty element than most and most of that is directed towards us.  It is all quantifiable though.  How many of you stopped supporting your English teams after the Lansdowne Riots in 1995? And how many of you wanted England to lose in tournaments despite your loved ones like Stevie G and Becks being on the pitch?  The majority of NI fans are decent people and I don’t begrudge them the experience of a tournament and all it brings. 

I don’t think we need a history lesson regarding the North regarding the football team right now, if you want to support them or don’t that’s fine.  That NI use gstq will always stick in the throat of any nationalist and until it is changed to Danny Boy the team will never properly represent the people of the 6 counties.  You could see Michael O’Neill’s face when it was playing and a few of the players like McGovern and Baird, they were sullen.  A stadium in a more neutral area would have helped more but the decision was made to stick with Windsor.  SF/SDLP got a grand total on 950 votes in the 2015 election East Belfast so it is a very staunch area and still not welcoming for Catholics. 

However I feel they deserve credit for what they are doing and the Republic could learn a lot.  There seems to be a consensus of moving forward together as an entity.  The stadium will look good when completed, the team are playing ok football (defending and attacking on the break has worked well away but at times on Saturday they played a lot of pointless balls forward and got caught out a lot), the manager seems to be able to get the best out of his team, the media and fans are behind them (they’ve created a great atmosphere considering they’ve half a ground, which is not a dig). 

It is interesting to note they’ve changed Chief Executive’s recently as the old one was not liked………

So good luck to Norn Iron, there's a long way to go yet though and if Lafferty had scored and Hungary drew they'd be well away but they're only 2 points behind now. 

as a nordie do what i do, ignore them and let them tear away supporting their team. It doesnt affect me nor my life 

CH 👏👏👏👏

I was at that friendly. He got plenty of abuse, he gave it back. That is football. Have no time for the prick but me and the lads with me laughed at it ( well we laughed after getting outraged and pointing out he was a small man of a certain colour and questionable parentage)

Newryrep's right. Maybe stay at home for that beer, where there's no chance of you meeting any drunk football fans, musical instruments, those without your extensive historical knowledge or anything else that might offend and disgust.

Failing that, take your own advice and give up.

Madferret wrote: Any Irish Citizen be they North or South who lends any creedence that props up these apartheid minded cretins should be ashamed of their ignorance of the realities on the ground.  There is ONE National team for this Nation that represents all Irishmen regardless of religious beliefs & none. Anything else is a makey-uppy sectarian pub team representing a state-let created and maintained by outsiders under force.

unsurprisingly it comes from Dublin's greatest contribution to the forum. 100% spot on MF