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

Thanks but I'm not really interested in likes. I'm more interested in people's opinions that might dispute mine and are based on facts like mine is, so far though very few people have been able to do that which tells me my argument is pretty strong

 

Nice! Hopefully you don't take some comments personally. A strong argument isn't all its cracked up to be in my opinion though no matter what it's based on. I'm just an observer really.

 

Fair enough then mate. No I certainly don't take negative comments personally, if someone resorts to saying things like "shove your opinion up your *" or whatever I just assume they can't actually dispute what I'm saying and saying childish type stuff's the best they can do. Thanks for your words though

 

Do what you want. I'm not Irish or catholic and I couldn't stand amongst the scum in their support but if you can then fair enough. There are probably just as many of the same type of aresholes that follow Scotland, then wave union flags and sing anti-catholic songs when following their club team.

 

You wanted facts, and I told you that there’s an Irish team who represent the 32 countries and who’ve had players from all over Ireland. Black, white and green. Various religions. Fans from all over, including many from the North, and I can tell you as a regular at Lansdowne that nobody gives a * where anyone else came from or what their background is - they’re all there for the team, that’s it. If that’s not a good enough reason for any Irish person to support them, then away off to the Pub Team with them and enjoy GSTK.

 

I don't think it's fair to label ALL NI fans as "scum", SOME certainly are but some good folk follow them too, especially in 2025. Maybe you didn't mean ALL of them though, every team has a few wrong'uns that try and spoil it for the rest.... I was actually gonna ask this about Scotland fans, I might be wrong but I'd guess Celtic have more fans that support Scotland over the ROI, why is it acceptable to support Celtic (an Irish club) and Scotland (a British country and not a bit Irish) but not NI who actually ARE Irish? Makes no sense to me

 

Not all posters have left daft comments on this topic, some have left thought-provoking input, including you. I already do support the ROI, have done over 30 years, but I beg to differ on 1 thing you said about them, they don't rep all 32 counties, they rep the 26 that aren't in NI hence 1 of the reasons I think following both teams is OK, it covers all 32.... I'm brand new to following NI, thought it'd be a passing phase but it's not so I guess I'm trying to justify it in my own head

 

I think that's ballox, we have players from north (James McClean, Shane Duffy, Mark Sykes) south (John Egan) East (Nathan Collins) West (Ryan Manning) etc all play for us. We have fans from all over our beautiful island too. If you try to tell that a person from Derry, Antrim, Tyrone etc that the Irish football doesn't represent them you'd get a slap.

 

You’re entitled to support whoever you like, obviously, but you’re wrong about the ROI not representing the whole 32 counties - the only people on our island that they don’t represent and those who consider themselves ‘British’, and thus don’t want to be represented by the Irish team.

 

How do you know it is acceptable for Celtic to fans to support Scotland if you haven't started a thread called " Is it wrong/Contradictory for Celtic fans to follow Scotland ?" ?

 

I might well get a slap but no matter what any of us think, Derry, Antrim,Tyrone and the other 3 counties that make up NI are OFFICIALLY part of the UK. Players have the right to choose to play for either Ireland team because of the political situation there, just like fans can choose to support either team, but it doesn't change the fact that 6 counties are represented by NI and the other 26 by the ROI. As well as the ROI having players from all 4 provinces they've also had players from England, Scotland, Wales and various other countries, are you gonna tell me those places are represented by the ROI team too? By your logic they are

 

I'm not wrong, I'm not trying to be funny or smart, if the ROI team represented all 32 counties it wouldn't be called the "Republic Of Ireland", it'd be just called "Ireland" like the rugby team, the reason it's called the ROI is cause it represents the 26 counties of the Republic, it's as simple as that. The other 6 are officially represented by NI

 

Because plenty do support them and I've never seen a single example of a Celtic fan questioning it, except me

 

You’re either trolling here or you’re being overly pedantic for the sake of it. If the Irish team doesn’t represent the 32 counties, then, why are they supported by people from all over the island?? Why do players from our 6 northern counties not all play for The Pub Team? If the NI team represent the 6 counties, then, why do a large cohort of football fans in the North not support them? I’m not taking about what’s ‘official’ and what’s not, I’m talking about the actual reality of the situation. You’re turning this debate into a nonsense tbh.

 

The badge of the team known as Ireland

 

I'm 100% not trolling or being pedantic, I'm serious!

The reason people from all over the island of Ireland support the ROI is cause of the political situation in NI. Politics is the same reason some players from the north choose the ROI over NI. And the reason many fans in the north don't support NI again is because of politics. You know as well as I do how complicated the political situation is up north, people can choose to be British, Irish, Northern Irish and various other combinations of the 3. So can players. And the reason people can choose is an attempt by the powers that be in Ireland to LITERALLY try and keep the peace!

I don't want to make this thread too much about politics, the reason I think it's okay for a nationalist to follow NI isn't political, it's because they were the original Ireland team, a team that was all-Irish, a team I would've supported most definitely if I was around when it started. And what it's supposed to be now is a team that represents the 6 counties that are not officially part of the ROI. The reality of the situation POLITICALLY is another matter. And make no mistake about it, I see the island of Ireland as one place, I wish there was no border, and I'm certainly a nationalist. But in footballing terms (and I understand it's not seen this way by everyone) the ROI and NI teams are 2 separates teams that represent 2 different areas of Ireland. Fans and players can choose which one they wanna be part of. It was even said earlier in the topic, there is a minority of Irish nationalists that refuse to support either team because they see both as being partitionist, as in both represent and recognise the partition of the country just by their team names and the fact they aren't all-Ireland. And that's why they choose to support Celtic only because they were founded long before the border and have never changed their view of Ireland being one country.

As I've mentioned already too, after doing a fair bit of research on this topic I realised that in 2025 some nationalists even just choose to support the NI because it's their local team, they still don't like the flag or anthem but they see it as Irish and a representation of them. It's not as straight-forward as being NI is for the Brits only, not anymore anyway. And it wasn't that way before the troubles either.

 

Just to be clear I don't ever refer to the ROI as "the ROI", I usually just say "Ireland" like most do, but the team is still officially called the ROI, it doesn't say it on the badge though obviously but that's what they're called, I wish they weren't but they are. And I wish the island of Ireland, which is 100% still just called Ireland officially, wasn't partitioned, but it is, into NI and the ROI. It's not my choice it's just a fact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_national_football_team

The people that inhabit both NI and the ROI, now that's a different thing like I've already said, that's far more complicated than the football teams.

 

Not supporting either Ireland team because they’re both ‘partitionist’ isn’t as relative as it once was, given that Ireland has players from the 4 provinces. I can’t keep saying this.

The fact that the IFA existed first is neither here nor there either, at this stage.


Support whoever you like, but you’re very obviously in the minority here - and that should answer your original question very clearly.

 

Would you not have supported the IFA team back before the FAI team came along?.... I did say in an earlier post that people that support both teams are in the minority

 

I think that at this stage whether anyone would or wouldn’t have supported them is a moot point.