National Forum

Non-Gaa Forum

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To bruffgael:  "I think why so many support them is because they are anti- establishment."
It might be all a bit more straightforward. Kids attach to these teams at a certain age, if they're winning all round them.

You can nearly tell a person's age oftentimes, by what team they 'support'. If it's Leeds, you're over 70. If you're in your 50s or 60s, you're possibly a Liverpool fan. United's 'new' fans are probably pushing into their 30s and 40s now. There's probably a sprinkling of Chelsea fans in their 20s at this stage, while I'm sure there's a fair few Man City fans in the teenage and national school age groups currently.

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 3560 - 17/05/2024 12:55:38    2545261

Link

Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "It might be all a bit more straightforward. Kids attach to these teams at a certain age, if they're winning all round them.

You can nearly tell a person's age oftentimes, by what team they 'support'. If it's Leeds, you're over 70. If you're in your 50s or 60s, you're possibly a Liverpool fan. United's 'new' fans are probably pushing into their 30s and 40s now. There's probably a sprinkling of Chelsea fans in their 20s at this stage, while I'm sure there's a fair few Man City fans in the teenage and national school age groups currently."
Ah yeah, I think you're right.

Just strange that Ireland didn't see an explosion of Glasgow Rangers fans following their dominance of the SPL in the 90s, yet when Liverpool dominated in the 70s and 80s, people were falling over themselves to follow them.

Both clubs from remarkably similar origins.

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5041 - 17/05/2024 15:21:40    2545295

Link

Replying To ForeverBlue2:  "And even more baffling that they would support Manchester Utd…. that's the equivalent of depressing yourself…!!!"
I don't support either club.

But it's not really baffling that a soccer fan would support Manchester united.
George Best was the sporting equivalent of the Beatles back in the 60s.
The Munich disaster garnered a lot of support for the team too.

There's nothing dark/sinister in United's history that success has compensated for - certainly nothing compared to Liverpool's.

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5041 - 17/05/2024 15:26:31    2545296

Link

Replying To BarneyGrant:  "No, I'd include soap opera, rap, tabloids, etc, etc. Douglas Hyde was correct. The anglicisation of Ireland meant dragging us into an intellectual sewer."
Good to see you stay relevant to the century you live in Barney ;)

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2417 - 17/05/2024 16:51:25    2545309

Link

Replying To Galway9801:  "Ah I don't agree with that at all saffron, I mean if you grew up in an area or spent time there, maybe had ancestry there I'd see why supporting their sports representatives would be natural,it's a healthy way of showing loyalty, but to have no attachment to it whatsoever?
Besides the live and let live mantra works both ways. People are perfectly entitled to find irish people supporting English teams silly,especially when that support sometimes resembles something akin to religious devotion."
Why is it that you can only have a geographical attachment to a club? It's like saying only people from Detroit are Eminem fans when he has a global fan base just like many football clubs. When I lived in Belfast, my local club was Linfield. It wasn't my duty to 'show my loyalty' to them every week when I had zero connection to them or interest in them ever. These passions usually start as a kid at school or from the influence of a parent or sibling and grows from there.

I agree that people are entitled to think what they want of Irish people supporting English clubs but I'm also entitled to call them silly for claiming some sort of armchair ownership of the same club. They are happy enough when it comes to having international superstars on their club's team sheet and wouldn't be too happy if they had to play all local lads when the rest of the division beats them by cricket scores into the lower leagues. So how serious are we meant to take the fickle mob's opinion on someone else's passions that frankly, is none of their business when it boils down to it.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2417 - 17/05/2024 17:40:44    2545313

Link

Replying To cavanman47:  "Ah yeah, I think you're right.

Just strange that Ireland didn't see an explosion of Glasgow Rangers fans following their dominance of the SPL in the 90s, yet when Liverpool dominated in the 70s and 80s, people were falling over themselves to follow them.

Both clubs from remarkably similar origins."
To be fair to Liverpool they seem to have lost their Orange Order connections much earlier. Where Rangers have never let go their sectarianism. By the time the 70's and 80's came around they were signing players like Kevin Keegan and Terry McDermott, you'd imagine from Catholic Irish ancestry. Dalglish had the Celtic connection. Then in the 80s they signed the likes of Ronnie Whelan and host of players who had Irish connections and who played for the ROI. That just would not happen at Rangers during the same period. You think of Alex Ferguson basically forced out of Rangers as a player because he married a Catholic woman. Would the same have happened at Liverpool?

MachaireConnacht (Roscommon) - Posts: 844 - 17/05/2024 17:44:44    2545314

Link

Replying To SaffronDon:  "Good to see you stay relevant to the century you live in Barney ;)"
Cardi B and Eastenders and overpaid barely literate soccer players are obviously the future.

I must catch up. .

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 2740 - 17/05/2024 18:50:26    2545320

Link

Replying To SaffronDon:  "All very "this one time at band camp" evidence there Barney. But do you look down your nose at ALL people with passions that don't align with your own or is it selective to soccer only?"
Mabey if Antrim people and residents of Ireland's second city were more engaged with their native games than the "premier league" circus you might have something to shout about.

tireoghainabu (Tyrone) - Posts: 282 - 17/05/2024 21:12:11    2545330

Link

Replying To BarneyGrant:  "Cardi B and Eastenders and overpaid barely literate soccer players are obviously the future.

I must catch up. ."
I'm not quite sure how a woman from New York with Dominican background teams up with the Brits to Anglicise Ireland or a team of international soccer players for that matter. You're all over the place with thee rants.

I thought the only people who watched EastEnders these days were the old fogies that complain about the younger generations. You must be a more of a Coronation Street man then.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2417 - 18/05/2024 10:06:10    2545344

Link

Replying To tireoghainabu:  "Mabey if Antrim people and residents of Ireland's second city were more engaged with their native games than the "premier league" circus you might have something to shout about."
Good point. Al smoke and mirrors in that place compared to the real Gaels of Ulster,

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 2740 - 18/05/2024 10:30:02    2545349

Link

Replying To SaffronDon:  "Why is it that you can only have a geographical attachment to a club? It's like saying only people from Detroit are Eminem fans when he has a global fan base just like many football clubs. When I lived in Belfast, my local club was Linfield. It wasn't my duty to 'show my loyalty' to them every week when I had zero connection to them or interest in them ever. These passions usually start as a kid at school or from the influence of a parent or sibling and grows from there.

I agree that people are entitled to think what they want of Irish people supporting English clubs but I'm also entitled to call them silly for claiming some sort of armchair ownership of the same club. They are happy enough when it comes to having international superstars on their club's team sheet and wouldn't be too happy if they had to play all local lads when the rest of the division beats them by cricket scores into the lower leagues. So how serious are we meant to take the fickle mob's opinion on someone else's passions that frankly, is none of their business when it boils down to it."
You misunderstood the context when I talked about showing loyalty.

The Eminem analogy is pretty spurious too tbh. Individual rappers and sporting institutions are two completely separate entities and are perceived as such.

Also, regarding your last sentence, everyone on earth, literally every last person, including yourself, has opinions on things that are none of their business.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1784 - 18/05/2024 11:20:31    2545360

Link

Replying To tireoghainabu:  "Mabey if Antrim people and residents of Ireland's second city were more engaged with their native games than the "premier league" circus you might have something to shout about."
Well said.

Bon (Kildare) - Posts: 1951 - 18/05/2024 12:30:45    2545372

Link

Replying To tireoghainabu:  "Mabey if Antrim people and residents of Ireland's second city were more engaged with their native games than the "premier league" circus you might have something to shout about."
Native 'games'? Maybe if Tyrone and other Ulster counties were as 'engaged' with the small ball game our hurlers wouldn't have to go to Leinster to progress their aims.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2417 - 18/05/2024 12:47:04    2545374

Link

Replying To Galway9801:  "You misunderstood the context when I talked about showing loyalty.

The Eminem analogy is pretty spurious too tbh. Individual rappers and sporting institutions are two completely separate entities and are perceived as such.

Also, regarding your last sentence, everyone on earth, literally every last person, including yourself, has opinions on things that are none of their business."
The fact that they're 'separate entities' hardly means that you shouldn't be a fan of one or other, or both, or indeed neither. Especially when you're observing that every last person on the planet can have an opinion. They'll possibly have their own mind and passions too.

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 3560 - 18/05/2024 13:59:16    2545383

Link

Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "The fact that they're 'separate entities' hardly means that you shouldn't be a fan of one or other, or both, or indeed neither. Especially when you're observing that every last person on the planet can have an opinion. They'll possibly have their own mind and passions too."
I agree,, that doesn't go against anything I said in my post.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1784 - 18/05/2024 14:31:20    2545397

Link

Replying To Galway9801:  "I agree,, that doesn't go against anything I said in my post."
PB has just correctly highlighted the initial point that I made in all this. Now you agree with it which is great. So maybe that's why you didn't answer the one question I posed to you, why does an attachment to a club or any passion have to be a geographical one?

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2417 - 18/05/2024 15:40:29    2545408

Link

Replying To SaffronDon:  "PB has just correctly highlighted the initial point that I made in all this. Now you agree with it which is great. So maybe that's why you didn't answer the one question I posed to you, why does an attachment to a club or any passion have to be a geographical one?"
It doesn't have to be geographical, I never said it did, your attachment to the club could just as easily be a figment of your imagination, which I've said already, , we're going around in circles here Saff.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1784 - 18/05/2024 17:59:21    2545431

Link

Son of Offaly Shane Lowry leading the world of golf tonight.

Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2029 - 18/05/2024 21:46:40    2545485

Link

Us beat youse.

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 2740 - 19/05/2024 09:20:12    2545496

Link

Replying To Galway9801:  "It doesn't have to be geographical, I never said it did, your attachment to the club could just as easily be a figment of your imagination, which I've said already, , we're going around in circles here Saff."
The question was in response to you Carragher book reference and you saying that you can understand if they lived there but without doing so there was no attachment. Anyways! Hats off to Galway yesterday in both codes. Deserved victories against my county and the county I now live in. Didn't see the sending off in the hurling but the Derry red was well deserved.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2417 - 19/05/2024 10:09:57    2545502

Link