1 March 2001 Edition
It's only a game, you fenian bastard
BY PEADAR WHELAN
A loyalist threat to soccer star Neil Lennon has once again brought the spotlight to bear on the sectarianism that permeates soccer in the Six Counties.
Lennon, formerly of Leicester City, recently signed for Celtic but just two weeks before his first game with the North's soccer team as a Celtic player threatening graffiti appeared on a Lisburn wall.
`Neil Lennon RIP' was scrawled alongside a figure hanging from a scaffold on a wall near to Lisburn Borough Council's Civic Centre. That the threatening slogan has yet to be removed is an indication of the tolerance with which that type of threat is viewed.
And while the threat could easily be shrugged off because, after all, any maniac can write on a wall the reality is that loyalism has such a grip on soccer in the north that threats against Catholics are very real.
Anton Rogan, from West Belfast, also played for Celtic and faced sectarian abuse and chants from so-called fans when he played for `Northern Ireland'.
Commenting on the threat to Lennon, Rogan says he silenced the ``boo boys'' after his first tackle. Against Poland, Rogan says, ``my first tackle put a poor Polish lad a mile high''.
However this is the fundamental problem about soccer in the North. It is not just a case of the boo boys going to extremes. Sectarianism and Windsor Park go hand in hand and the Irish Football Association (IFA) has denied the sectarian overtones until recently.
The shrinking pool of players capable of performing on the international stage and a run of poor results over the past five or six years, mostly attributable to the fact that young nationalists are opting to play for the `Republic of Ireland' team, has forced the IFA to campaign against sectarianism in local soccer.
The campaign, however, seems to be cutting little ice with nationalists.
Cliftonville supporters still remember how three years ago they were attacked when they travelled away to Portadown, Glentoran and Crusaders.
These protests were related to the Drumcree Orange protests and targeted Cliftonville's mainly nationalist supporters. During a 1991 match at Windsor Park, which is in the loyalist Village area, loyalists lobbed a hand grenade into a stand housing Cliftonville fans.
Most notorious though was that infamous night in November 1993 when the `Republic of Ireland' team travelled to Windsor for a World Cup qualifier. Commentators forced to report sectarian vitriol they hitherto ignored expressed shock as `Northern Ireland' supporters vented their hate filled spleen.
Jack Charlton, shocked at how the North's manager Billy Bingham `conducted' the fans as they belted out The Sash refused to shake Bingham's hand.
But The Sash and that other Orange ditty, The Billy Boys, where the Orangemen are ``up to our knees in Fenian Blood'', are popular with the Windsor Park faithful.
In the North soccer is more than just a game and it isn't the so-called `boo boys' that spoil it. Playing for `Northern Ireland' and supporting them is about making a political decision, especially if you choose to ignore the sectarianism and bigotry that goes along with it.
A loyalist threat to soccer star Neil Lennon has once again brought the spotlight to bear on the sectarianism that permeates soccer in the Six Counties.
Lennon, formerly of Leicester City, recently signed for Celtic but just two weeks before his first game with the North's soccer team as a Celtic player threatening graffiti appeared on a Lisburn wall.
`Neil Lennon RIP' was scrawled alongside a figure hanging from a scaffold on a wall near to Lisburn Borough Council's Civic Centre. That the threatening slogan has yet to be removed is an indication of the tolerance with which that type of threat is viewed.
And while the threat could easily be shrugged off because, after all, any maniac can write on a wall the reality is that loyalism has such a grip on soccer in the north that threats against Catholics are very real.
Anton Rogan, from West Belfast, also played for Celtic and faced sectarian abuse and chants from so-called fans when he played for `Northern Ireland'.
Commenting on the threat to Lennon, Rogan says he silenced the ``boo boys'' after his first tackle. Against Poland, Rogan says, ``my first tackle put a poor Polish lad a mile high''.
However this is the fundamental problem about soccer in the North. It is not just a case of the boo boys going to extremes. Sectarianism and Windsor Park go hand in hand and the Irish Football Association (IFA) has denied the sectarian overtones until recently.
The shrinking pool of players capable of performing on the international stage and a run of poor results over the past five or six years, mostly attributable to the fact that young nationalists are opting to play for the `Republic of Ireland' team, has forced the IFA to campaign against sectarianism in local soccer.
The campaign, however, seems to be cutting little ice with nationalists.
Cliftonville supporters still remember how three years ago they were attacked when they travelled away to Portadown, Glentoran and Crusaders.
These protests were related to the Drumcree Orange protests and targeted Cliftonville's mainly nationalist supporters. During a 1991 match at Windsor Park, which is in the loyalist Village area, loyalists lobbed a hand grenade into a stand housing Cliftonville fans.
Most notorious though was that infamous night in November 1993 when the `Republic of Ireland' team travelled to Windsor for a World Cup qualifier. Commentators forced to report sectarian vitriol they hitherto ignored expressed shock as `Northern Ireland' supporters vented their hate filled spleen.
Jack Charlton, shocked at how the North's manager Billy Bingham `conducted' the fans as they belted out The Sash refused to shake Bingham's hand.
But The Sash and that other Orange ditty, The Billy Boys, where the Orangemen are ``up to our knees in Fenian Blood'', are popular with the Windsor Park faithful.
In the North soccer is more than just a game and it isn't the so-called `boo boys' that spoil it. Playing for `Northern Ireland' and supporting them is about making a political decision, especially if you choose to ignore the sectarianism and bigotry that goes along with it.