Monday, October 10, 2005
Monday Madness - NI bigots
This will be my last post on the disgraceful bigotry that we all bore witness to on Saturday as 'Northern Ireland' (or England Junior as I like to call them) embarrassed and disgraced themselves through the bigotry of their fans. I was interested to read what the NI 'fans' (and I use that term loosely) over at Our Wee Country thought of Saturday's events. Our Wee Country is home to this disgraceful article by the way.Anyway, here's some priceless comments from the OWC faithful:
From a thread entitled 'Is Celtic playing Cyprus tonite'? (gotta love that spelling!) by 'dbar1':
"i thought they were out of europe but just glanced at tv to see loads of celtic tops supporting a team playing cyprus"
Hey 'dbar1', here's an astounding bit of information for you. Ready? Ireland play in green. Celtic play in green. Celtic are a club synonymous with Irishness who are supported by many Irish people. Therefore, many Celtic fans don't feel the need to buy both an Ireland jersey and a Celtic jersey. I hope now you've learned something 'tonite'!
From a thread entitled 'The North Stand Yesterday' by 'belchie':
"Don’t know where it came from, but I definitely heard ‘Rule Britannia’ being sung, when watching the match on telly. However, this was on BBC Wales, so the tinkers probably dubbed it on. "
Tinkers? What is with the traveller-esque comments on that site? Notice how the Welsh get blamed for the song? These fans just can't accept responsibility! The best thing though was the response to this point from 'Marty':
"Winds up the Welsh along with GSTQ. Not sectarian."
Not sectarian? 'Rule Britannia'? This is what my dictionary says about the word 'sectarian':
"narrow-mindedly putting the beliefs or interests of one's sect before more general interests."
Now since NI fans feed us a load of bullshit about the NI team being for all traditions, it would seem to me that the singing of 'Rule Britannia' certainly falls into the category of 'sectarian' as it is a song synonymous with the British identity and can hardly be classed as of a 'general interest' to the North's population now can it!
But wait! Here's the best part. You're going to love this. It's from a thread entitled 'Booing John Hartson' by 'joecullen'. I'm assuming Joe is a ROI fan as his avatar is of Damien Duff. We all know that many NI fans are friendly towards the Republic's fans though right? I mean we've heard that plenty of times so I'm sure they'll be quite respectful! Here's what joe had to say:
"While watching the Northern Ireland & Wales clash yesterday I was dismayed to hear the sectarian booing of John Hartson in Windsor park yesterday.In light of all the work by the football for all & in particular the condemnation of the Northern Ireland supporters of rangers fans suffering the same fate in Landsdown Road I found it particularly disappointing."
I think that's a fair point. Hartson plays for Celtic and was roundly booed. How will the NI fans respond though? Here's Stuartq:
"Joe, yes there was booing of John Hartson, but can you explain to me how it was sectarian??? Was it based on his religion?"
I'm guessing he doesn't know what 'sectarian' means either. Here's 'brianm':
"can you tell me how booing a player from an opposing side is sectarian?
"are you saying that republic fans are sectarian for booing rangers players?
"FFS get a life you moron"
Moron?! Was that really necessary?!
From 'Carthall loyal':
"the idea is if we put them off their game they will not score unfortunatley this didnt work - sectarian give me a break and wise up you muppet. ps. as you can see I dont post very often but have been on this forum for the last fours years and you have really pissed me off this morning by your comments so i boubled the number of my posts."
Now Joe's called a muppet! Poor guy gets all this stick for raising a very valid point!
Joe's response is quite dignified under the circumstances:
"come off it lads if you are prepared to dish it out then you have to beprepared to take it. There has been numerous threads on this sitehaving a go at the Republic's fans for booing rangers players.Are you trying to convince me or yourselves that Hartson was only booed because he is a high profile player & it has nothing to to do with the facthe pulls on the hooped jersey on a weekly basis"
Here's the reply from 'sickboy' (apt name):
"Come off nothing! Your argument is weak, anyone could come on here and say what you said and it looks like they have in other parts of the forum, did you see or hear ANYONE shout the following at Mr Hartson “you Fen*an this” “You Celtic scum” “you (insert sectarian remark)? I would think if you had you would have said/typed by now, you heard people booing a player, I have said to you (please see above post) why I booed said player on the day, if this is not good enough for you, then please continue to make things up in ones own mind Mr Cullen. "
Here's 'riddler' laying into Joe:
"This guy is simply looking for an excuse to make us look like bigots! I could guarantee he would have been booed had he played for anyone - he's a fat, ugly git who happens to be good enough to cause problems - thats the reason!"
Here's more insults at the man this time from 'pompeyglenn':
"Joe Cullen you do talk p i s h. Hartson was booed for the same reason that every club in England booed him,it's quite simply that no one like him unless he plays for their team,the same is true of Savage and was the same for Vinnie Jones etc. Get over the Celtic Rangers thing you muppet."
Here's comments from 'Golden Boy':
"Guys, why are you even responding to this fcukwit"
So having shown United Irelander readers a glimpse into the mindset of some NI fans, I think it's fair to say that we are a long way away from seeing the bigotry within NI fans extinguished! The treatment of that ROI fan by the bigots on that forum is nothing short of a disgrace. There are readers to United Irelander who visit OWC and I hope they condemn the treatment that man suffered from those hate-filled individuals.
How can we hope to see the NI team reach out to nationalists when NI fans don't even have the balls to acknowledge that Hartson was booed for playing for Celtic? Some of these fans don't even seem to understand what the word 'sectarian' means.
Here is my message to northern nationalists - stick with the Ireland team. Not only are you more than welcome to join in with your southern compatriots in rooting for us, you are an important asset to our fanbase without a shadow of a doubt.
The Irish fans do not disrespect national anthems. They are a great set of fans as evidenced by the huge number who made the trip to Cyprus and who did the country proud.
When it comes to manners, NI fans could learn a thing or two from their southern counterparts. Then again, it's hard to learn when you are willing to close your eyes and your ears to everything around you.
Shower of animals.
On another note, I was given a 'yellow card' over on Slugger by Mick Fealty on this thread, apparently for calling those NI fans who booed the Welsh anthem 'bigots'. I told Mick what he could do with his yellow card. In light of remarks I received from John East Belfast' (a truly horrendous individual), I think I was very hard done by.
# posted by United Irelander @ 12:10 PM 
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