Football - an Irish Problem

I write this the morning after the Rep. of Ireland beat Slovakia and Northern Ireland beat Sweden in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. There followed a discussion on the Nolan Show on BBC that was along the lines that Nationalists would not join in the celebrations of the Northern Irish result.

While there may be a small element of the Catholic population that might think like this my view, and I suspect the view of the majority, is that we welcome the Northern Ireland result and marvel at David Healy's first goal. Other than when they play the Republic I would always wish N.I. well.

The problem is not with the football team, but with the historical sectarianism of its supporters. I recognise that the IFA are making huge efforts to combat this and I do not believe that it is a bad as it has been in the past. After all this attitude of the supporters forced Neil Lennon to quit playing football for N.I.

However I still would not be comfortable going to Windsor Park to watch N.I. play as I still feel it is a ''cold house'' for Catholics. Maybe when N.I. play their internationals in a new national stadium this perception might change. For the moment I think the vast majority of the Nationalist community are prepared to wish N.I. well but only from afar......maybe in time that will change....we will see.


Picture from bbc.co.uk