Football allegiances and tribal identity across the water

FOOTBALL, FICTION & CULTURE CONFERENCE 2014

Paul Breen, author and university lecturer

About my presentation

3 areas of interest –

(a) Inter-national aspect – identities and affiliations with the two Irish national football teams.

(b) Domestic aspect – the long divorce of Ireland’s two football associations – IFA and FAI

(c) Phenomenon of football fans living in Ireland & following the most successful British clubs.

Not so much fiction examined as culture & identity, and a set of academic articles and books.

About me

Grew up in Northern Ireland near the border

In childhood followed Liverpool, Celtic, and both Irish teams – then in late 80s & 90s became part of Jackie’s Army & lost all interest in the North

Did teaching degree in Huddersfield in late 90s, taught English as a Foreign Language overseas & came back to England to live and work in Greenwich

Started following Charlton & wrote a book about it

Research interests – teacher identity

2 teams – 2 cultures

Absence of a middle ground and failure to create a third space (Rapp & Rhomberg, 2012) which in practice may be impossible anyway.

Clash of identities expressed in symbols – flags, emblems, cultural activities, and even sporting affiliations (Hassan, 2002).

Northern Ireland football team represents a working class Protestant epistemology – ‘our wee country’ – and what Bairner (2008) has described as a confused and frustrated sense of post-industrial masculinity.

A cold house for Catholics

Football at a national level

Irish Football Association (IFA) based in the North is the original association on the island, formed in 1882.

It was the FAI which instigated the split in 1921.

Between 1921 and 1950 there were two teams known as Ireland.

Northern Ireland more successful at start, playing in the 1958, 1982, & 1986 World Cup finals.

Republic of Ireland emerged in the late 1980s thanks to Jack Charlton & his 2nd generation players.

A PRISM FOR IDENTITY

Hassan (2002) – The Republic of Ireland team has become, for nationalists, “a forum for the projection of Irish national identity” whilst the Northern Ireland team has been symbolically, and almost exclusively, claimed by the unionist community.

Northern Ireland team has often been used as a vehicle for “the denigration of Irish nationalism and Catholicism more specifically, through regular and sustained vocal opposition to the minority tradition” (ibid).

The question of a United Ireland team

Contrasting perceptions

Nationalists see this as much more than part of what Hassan (2002) refers to as “a romantic desire for a united Ireland” – belief that Ireland as a united country will be more successful culturally.

Unionists see the national football team as theirs in the same way as they see the State as being theirs, and accordingly shaped as they see fit – hence there is no debate in unionism about choice of flags, anthems and symbols, though there needs to be (Hassan, 2002).

History behind this

Attitudes have hardened since the 1920s and especially since the 1970s on the Unionist side in terms of separateness of their identity.

Semantics of the term ‘united Ireland’ to working class Protestant Northern Ireland fan base.

1970s & the case of case of Derek Dougan & the Shamrock Rovers XI playing Brazil.

Bad feelings in the 1980s – Charlton v Bingham

Taoiseach Edna Kenny suggesting a united Ireland team played charity games.

Political symbols on the terraces

The Irish flag – green, white & orange and its associations in the minds of the unionist community

The chanting of sectarian slogans and the singing of loyalist songs at Northern Ireland football matches & terrorist folkore on the terraces as in Bairner (1999)

Supporters’ tattoos – images tying together loyalist paramilitaries and N.I football team –at once a celebration and a ”a cry for help or recognition” (Bairner, 2008)

What it should be about

Recent developments

FIFA 2010 ruling confirmed an eligibility issue which had gone back decades but was not exploited for various reasons –anyone born on the island of Ireland could play for the Republic.

N. Ireland went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but lost the case on grounds that legally all citizens born in Ireland can have Irish citizenship.

Has involved players such as James McClean, Darren Gibson, and Marc Wilson.

Reasons for IFA grievance

Many of these players have come up through the youth system and been developed by that system.

If they don’t want to play for their country then they shouldn’t be allowed to play for anybody else’s.

Northern Catholics are Irish by perception, rather than legality.

Northern Ireland’s most successful periods have coincided with strong Catholic representation.

There is now a Catholic manager Michael O’Neill.

Neil Lennon type of abuse no longer happens – warm Windsor reception for likes of McGinn/McCourt.

Refusal to see the context

Historic Unionist/loyalist failure to understand why majority of Irish nationalists and Catholics do not identify with their ‘wee country’ (McGarry & O’Leary, 1995; Hassan, 2002; Bairner, 2008).

A changing demographic & pressing need to include Irishnessin the symbolism of the state (Hughes, 2013).

Death threats against Neil Lennon & Celtic players in the early 2000s.

Critical examination of identities

Some fiction has touched upon football and the Unionist identity – Sam Hanna Bell ‘The Hollow Ball’ – 1961.

Eoin Macnamee –Resurrection Man (1994) –and The Ultras (2004) look at the roots of & expression of violence in the human psyche

Footballers’ perspectives

Maybe some of the sores of the conflict are too raw for fiction & this has led to a greater output of poetry, crime writing, and autobiography/biography–even thriller comedy (Bateman).

Important examples of ‘Northern’ football autobiographies are Derek Dougan’s (1972) ‘The Sash he never wore’and George Best’s two autobiographies from 1991 and 2002.

Dougan touches more on sectarianism while Best makes some reference to his media portrayal as the drunken Irishman – echoes of Louis MacNeice & immigrant experience.

Influence of domestic football

Since 1921 there are two leagues in Ireland – the League of Ireland and the Irish League.

Each league faces ongoing battles in terms of economics & lack of support. Low attendances compared to games in Britain – relative to town & city sizes – Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Derry.

Irish League has a smaller geographical area, and is mostly built around clubs within 30 miles of Belfast

Recently participation has been more geographically diverse

Lack of Catholic involvement

Two of the oldest and most successful clubs in Ireland had a Belfast Catholic support base – Belfast Celtic (1891-1949) and Cliftonville (1879-present)

Derry City (1928–present) also played in Irish League in 1971 & then withdrew, moving to the League of Ireland in 1986.

Donegal Celtic repeatedly refused entry to league.

This has meant that the two largest areas of Catholic population – Derry & West Belfast had no team in the Irish League for most of the past 50 years.

The story of Belfast Celtic

• Most successful team alongside Linfield –still even today more trophies than Cliftonville.

Catholic fan base but mixed team –10 Protestants and a Jew urban myth.

Belfast Celtic players attacked by Linfield supporters, in full view of police at Windsor Park, on Boxing Day 1948.

They withdrew from the league & this effectively alienated Catholic support base.

Escape to England

Logical for Catholics to follow English clubs but as political underdogs why follow the mainstream in football as opposed to everything else?

Arsenal in the 70s & 80s big Irish contingent.

Liverpool – following from both sides of divide.

Scally (1998) – Manchester United as England’s Catholic club – ethos inspired by Matt Busby

United though also an Ulster Protestant’s club (Bairner, 2008) – the Tommy Doherty era of Jimmy Nicholl, Sammy McIlroy, David McCreery, Tommy Jackson, and Norman Whiteside.

References

Bairner, A. (1999) “Soccer, Masculinity, and Violence in Northern Ireland. Between Hooliganism and Terrorism”, Men and Masculinities, 1 (3): 284-301.

Bairner, A. (2008). the Ulster Boys : reflections on masculinity within Northern Ireland’s Protestant community. Accessed at ttp://hdl.handle.net/10086/16333

Bell, S. H. (1961/1990). The hollow ball. Blackstaff Press.

Best, G. (with R. Benson) (1991) The Good, the Bad and the Bubbly. London: Pan Books.

Best, G. (with Roy Collins) (2002) Blessed. The Autobiography. London: Ebury Press,.

Dougan, D. (1972) The Sash He Never Wore. London: Allison and Busby.

References

Hassan, D. (2002). A people apart: Soccer, identity and Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland. Soccer and Society, 3(3), 65-83.

Hughes, J. (2013). ‘Is the Northern Ireland Peace Process Flagging?’ London School of Economics blog. Accessed at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/30225

McGarry, J., & O'Leary, B. (1995). Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images(p. 206). Oxford: Blackwell.

McNamee, E. (1994/2012). Resurrection man. Faber & Faber.

Rapp, M., & Rhomberg, M. (2012). Seeking a Neutral Identity in Northern Ireland's Political Wall Paintings. Peace Review, 24(4), 470-477.

Scally, J. (1998) Simply Red and Green. Manchester United and Ireland: A story of a love affair. Edinburgh: Mainstream.