Originally Posted by
DannyInvincible
Can rugby genuinely be considered a nationwide sport outside of south Dublin, Limerick and Ulster (mainly east of the Bann)? It isn't an accessible sport for the vast majority of Irish people around the country, is it? Growing up in Donegal/Derry, it didn't really enter my sphere of awareness/consciousness until, aged 13, I happened to catch Ulster winning the 1999 Heineken Cup one Saturday afternoon on RTÉ, and then it was gone again. Being a son of Ulster, I was delighted to see Ulster win that and I felt a sort of innocent pride, but I had no real comprehension of the social dynamic behind the game in Ireland at the time.
I enjoy watching rugby; I think it's a great game for excitement and all that. In fact, I think I would have really enjoyed playing it had we ever done it more than just the once during PE back in school in Derry. I'm sure I've shared this anecdote before, but that week, one lad in my class who was a member of Ógra Shinn Féin had his mother write him a note to excuse him for playing the "foreign game". We all thought it was hilarious, but, indeed, he sat out PE that week. Sure enough, the following week it was business as usual again; back to playing (association) football!
I'm pleased when Ireland win in rugby, but I don't think I'll ever be able to call it "my sport", nor would I feel all that comfortable taking it completely under my wing, so to speak. That's for a few reasons. I'd feel like I was hopping on a bandwagon because I've never had a connection to the game growing up. I'm not fully up-to-speed on the rules; I'd feel a bit embarrassed getting behind a game for which I didn't fully comprehend the rules. Obviously, that's something one can easily do something about - you can have a read of the rule-book - but the "stench" of privilege, to which MacKenna refers, that pervades the game in Ireland (or south Dublin mostly) is also off-putting. There's a haughty sense of superiority about it. I should make clear that that's not to condemn everyone interested or involved in the game with the same brush. Stutts, for example, is from a rugby background (if I'm not mistaken), but you're very grounded and aware of a lot of the bull and nauseating stuff that surrounds it. In Ulster, it was always the sport of unionist privilege and was only ever played seriously by Protestant grammar schools, some of which didn't even have an association football team, as if it would have been "too dirty/common" or something. Foyle & Londonderry College, for example, had rugby, cricket and hockey teams but no football team. Only in the last few years has association football been played in the school. Although pupils from Catholic and nationalist backgrounds do attend in the minority, the notion of Gaelic football being played there would be a pipe-dream. Rugby is shaking off that elitist image now, but for that combination of factors, I just find it hard to call it "my sport", like I do with football. It doesn't remotely stir the same same sort of passions in me.
Football is the truly global sport, which is why, historically, Irish people from all classes, both north and south, have been comfortable affiliating with it. Because it has been a truly global sport for so long, it hasn't had that "British/foreign/garrison/elitist game" stigma to contend with, or at least not in recent times with the possible exception of some ultra-insular GAA folk.
I appreciate the whole privileged and "superior" social scene thing is not necessarily intrinsic to the game, as Stutts says - isn't it considered a sport for all classes and sections of society in Wales (and in Limerick too?)? - but it is something I find somewhat repellent and almost impossible to overlook as it's so consuming and prevalent. I'd feel uncomfortable being completely associated with it as it's just not really "me" or "my thing". Maybe that says more about me than those who follow the game though! I know Stutts refers to possible bitterness, but is it bitterness? Or is it just that it has never really been part of my upbringing/culture so the whole social side of it feels a bit alien to me?
When I see the disproportionate level of celebratory coverage dedicated to it in the Irish media compared to the much more popular and accessible football, maybe that's bitterness I'm feeling then! :p