Is It Wrong/Contradictory To Follow "Northern" Ireland?

Would be better in the pub or world football, seems like a click bait thread

 

@Mr Shelby @The Prof can consideration be given to move this to somewhere more appropriate. Ta

 

Putting topics in the "right" place really, really, really, REALLY matters to you doesn't it? Maybe you should change your username to "PC Anton", cause you clearly think you're the Talk Celtic police! There has been plenty of Celtic-related chat in the topic now anyway, but like I've said to you before "detective inspector", if the mods wanna move it and it makes you happy it's fine by me.

 

I'm going to attempt to explain this in a clearer and more detailed way rather than drip-feeding it in reply to what other members say. If what I say is already known by people then fair enough but for those that don't know the true history of Irish international football and for those that want to know why I posed the question "Is it now okay in 2025 to support Celtic, the (Republic Of) Ireland AND "Northern" Ireland?" then this is for you....

Back when the first Ireland national team was formed there was no border, there was 1 country called Ireland, and there was no "Northern" Ireland team and no (Republic Of) Ireland team, there was just 1 all-Ireland team and one governing body, the Irish Football Association (the IFA) which was and still is situated in Belfast (there was also a Dublin-based leg too). The only problem with this if you were an Irish nationalist/republican was that both the country, the team and the IFA were under British rule. Despite this, if you were an Irish Celtic fan back in those days there's a VERY good chance you would've supported this version of the Ireland national team because it was the only one, if you were a die-hard nationalist/republican maybe you wouldn't have done due to it being under British rule but I'd guess the majority would've done.

Then when the partition of the country happened, the Dublin-based leg of the IFA decided to split away and form the FAI which included their own league system and eventually, with FIFA's blessing, their own all-Ireland national team. When this happened the IFA was FURIOUS! In thier mind there already was an all-Ireland team, and FIFA shouldn't approve a second one. So they stepped away from FIFA as a governing body and for the next 30 years or so there were 2 all-Ireland teams, 1 was under British Rule which was the Belfast IFA team and one that was not which was the Dublin FAI team.

So I ask those of you reading this this question, if you were a Celtic and a fan of the IFA Ireland team before the partition of the country happened, once it DID happen, what would you then do when the FAI team came along? Switch sides? Abandon the team you'd supported all your life in favour of the new one? Support both? Remember, both teams were all-Ireland, meaning both claimed to represent all 32 counties of Ireland, in the real world the occupied 6 counties were now known as "Northern" Ireland and the other 26 were the Irish Free-State (later the Republic Of), but in football this wasn't the case.

By the 1950s the IFA had rejoined FIFA so both them and the FAI team were under the same umbrella. Meanwhile FIFA had had enough of both teams being called "Ireland" and decided that neither could be called it, the IFA team had to change to "Northern" Ireland and the FAI team to the (Republic Of) Ireland. They also decided that NI could only represent the occupied 6 counties while the ROI would represent the other 26. The FAI keenly accepted this but the IFA rejected it, they wanted to still be known simply as "Ireland" and to rep the full 32 counties. In fact it wasn't till the early 1970s that they finally gave in and changed their name and what they represented.

So imagine you had supported the IFA team during the 1950s to the early 70s, just before they finally gave in and became "Northern" Ireland, the FAI team was now officially the (Republic Of) Ireland and repped 26 of the 32 counties but the IFA team had rebelled against changing their name and what they stood for in favour of being what they always were. So again, ask yourself this question, if you were an Irish football fan during that time, which team would you support? If you had supported the IFA team until FIFA told them to change their name in the 50s would you then ditch them for the ROI? Would you support both? Or would you stick with the IFA team? The ORIGINAL Ireland team?

Once the IFA team finally accepted they were to be called NI and were to represent the occupied 6 counties only, the troubles were in full-swing and things became a lot more straight-forward for Irish football fans. Loyalists/unionists chose NI as their team and nationalists/republicans chose the ROI, there was no longer any confusion. Somebody already said it earlier in the thread, the NI team was hijacked by pro-British, sectarian supporters and the team became known as the same and is still to this day trying to shake that stigma off (although if they REALLY want to do that they need to change their flag and anthem to more inclusive ones).

Fast-forward to today and I feel the NI team is getting back to what it was from when the IFA team was first formed in the late 1800s to before the 1970s. More work needs to be done obviously but a lot has been done already. So once again I pose this question, in fact I'll ask it slightly differently, why is it okay for a Celtic fan to support the ROI team (which is partitionist) but not the NI team (which is also partitionist)? Why not support all 3? The only TRUE way to be a nationalist/republican Irish football fan is to support NEITHER, cause BOTH recognise the border, and to wait for their to be a real all-Ireland team one day (if ever), but very few do this, most choose to bend the rules and support the ROI which as I've already said is just as partitionist as NI, it's just free of British occupation. And a minority support both cause doing so covers the full 32 counties. Politically that might not be the done thing but not everybody's bothered about politics are they? The troubles have been over officially for nearly 3 decades now, Ireland is obviously still healing but it's 2025! I've noticed more and more people that identify as Irish choosing to support the NI team because of where they were born. I'd guess they were born after the troubles ended though.

So after reading all that, if you have, is it now okay in 2025 to follow all 3 or is it still a contradiction like it was during the troubles? All 3 are Irish teams, obviously there are plenty of NI supporters that would disagree with that statement but they're busy having an identity crisis, but there are also more and more that would agree with it. I see supporting all 3 as the same as supporting the Ireland rugby union team, and many Celtic fans do that too.

So there you go.

 

He's done you there @JC Anton

 

Fair play

 

Come on you boys in green



Britain's Green and white



Come on you bhoys in green


Stand up If you love the queen


Britain's Green and white



Woah, Woah, Woah, Woah, Woah, Woah, Woah, Woah...

 

Television event of the year, 2022

 

I got a good laugh rewatching that.

 

Aye like right up the OP's * preferably.

 

Still a work of genius...simple but effective

 

Are you trying to suggest following or playing for NI is the same as your crass example?

 

* this in the bin.

 

A club open to all that follow the very stringent doctorine of what a Celtic fan should think , feel and believe in.

Not as catchy.

 

What makes you say that? I'm entitled to my opinion and I've backed it up with facts, if you disagree with me that's fine, but let's see you back up your opinion too

 

No, not at all, I actually got that example from another post on this very forum

 

Please give reasons for why you disagree with me

 

Bro your likes to post ratio's not getting off to a good start. How you going to catch up with me with a 9 to 1? Terrible start to your TC career, if you need any witty anecdotes then don't hesitate to ask me 'someone who has literally thousands of likes' I'm not the most popular member but I'm definitely up there in the top ten so I know what I'm on about.