Northern Ireland

[roydo]

There are too many people who have never been to a match but who are willing to tell you how bad it is.

Ah, match threads. Dont you love them?

 

[Khalekan]

get their own anthem and change the name of the ground and they might be getting somewhere towards embracing the whole community.

I don't think the ground name needs changing but if the IFA really wanted to make the NI national team all inclusive then the British national anthem needs to go.

Scotland and Wales don't feel the need to use it so you would think in a country riven with national identity issues the way NI is it would be a no brainer.

I seem to recall they played Danny Boy for a while in the 70s but they soon reverted to GSTQ.

Danny Boy would be a great choice, IMO.

 

[rascal]

get their own anthem and change the name of the ground and they might be getting somewhere towards embracing the whole community.

Well that's just silly

 

[roydo]

I don't think the ground name needs changing but if the IFA really wanted to make the NI national team all inclusive then the British national anthem needs to go.

Scotland and Wales don't feel the need to use it so you would think in a country riven with national identity issues the way NI is it would be a no brainer.

I seem to recall they played Danny Boy for a while in the 70s but they soon reverted to GSTQ.

Danny Boy would be a great choice, IMO.

Dont the Irish rugby team sing two anthems before their game? Always assumed that was a northern one and and a southern one.

 

[squonk]

I don't think the ground name needs changing but if the IFA really wanted to make the NI national team all inclusive then the British national anthem needs to go.

Scotland and Wales don't feel the need to use it so you would think in a country riven with national identity issues the way NI is it would be a no brainer.

I seem to recall they played Danny Boy for a while in the 70s but they soon reverted to GSTQ.

Danny Boy would be a great choice, IMO.

I think the ground name might be going anyway if they get a sponsor, but the anthem has to go if they want to reach out to more supporters.

 

[squonk]

Well that's just silly

and why is that ?

 

[davek]

I don't think the ground name needs changing but if the IFA really wanted to make the NI national team all inclusive then the British national anthem needs to go

I seem to recall they played Danny Boy for a while in the 70s but they soon reverted to GSTQ.

Danny Boy would be a great choice, IMO.

Didn't Barry McGuigan use that? I had no idea the footy team did too. That would be a unifier.

 

[rascal]

and why is that ?

It's been known as Windsor Park since 1905, just because some IRA scrotes get a bit uppity doesn't mean that it has to change its name.

 

[squonk]

It's been known as Windsor Park since 1905, just because some IRA scrotes get a bit uppity doesn't mean that it has to change its name.

if you say so Ian Junior.

 

[Khalekan]

Dont the Irish rugby team sing two anthems before their game? Always assumed that was a northern one and and a southern one.

This is a very good example of how it should work, Roydo.

They play a few bars of the Irish national anthem in Dublin in recognition of the fact that the game is being played in the ROI.

But the actual anthem they play for the team before the game is the stirring Answer Ireland's Call, a non political song extolling the virtues of the Emerald Isle in a way no Irishman, North or South, Catholic or Protestant, could feel uncomfortable with.

It was written by a man from Northern Ireland, Phil Coulter, to address the problem of Northern Protestants feeling uncomfortable.

A very civilised thing to do and one the soccer authorities in the north should have taken note off and acted upon, IMO.

 

[roydo]

Didn't Barry McGuigan use that? I had no idea the footy team did too. That would be a unifier.

Yeah, his dad sang it in the ring didnt he?

Ironically, that song was written by a bloke who lived in the same town as I do, Portishead, and also wrote Long way to Tipperary. Or Pack up your Troubles. One of them anyrate. Local church has a stained window of him.

Cant recall his name though.

 

[dandydan]

Has it changed though? Is it a welcoming place for all people who'd like to support the N.I. team? I'd like to think it had and wish them good luck.

Bloke I know said the last time he visited it was full of the most violent, bigoted people he had ever met. Mind you he was a paratrooper at the time.

 

[davek]

Dont the Irish rugby team sing two anthems before their game? Always assumed that was a northern one and and a southern one.

I think it's The Sodiers Song (the RoI anthem), then Ireland's Call (a more inclusive one)

 

[rascal]

if you say so Ian Junior.

Why should it change its name?

 

[davek]

Why should it change its name?

Isn't it the house of windsor related, therefore a royalist association.