QuoteAre all the other players in shot from a unionist background? McAuley's the only one I wouldn't be confident on.
Striking image there of him and Baird. Hadnt seen that before and was not really aware of this happening. A thousand words as they say .....
Are all the other players in shot from a unionist background? McAuley's the only one I wouldn't be confident on.
You arent shy around the big questions there CD, fair play to you.Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Danny sets them up, I just knock them down.
Do I inherit CTP's compliment?
I've never heard that McCauley was from a nationalist background. I'm sure it would have come up somewhere along the line if he had been.
I'm sure such shoegazing isn't strictly indicative of nationalist leanings. They could be atheists, sorrowfully lamenting the unlikeliness of the Queen's salvation.
Hardly.
About as likely as someone called Gareth McAuley from the North, being anything but a nationalist?
I'm not from Northern Ireland, so I don't get the message that he sees himself as Irish first and foremost. That may be because I'm not from there.
But again, if, as you say in your blog,
what does this imply regarding McGinn, who hasn't been willing to take the risk of extra competition? What does this demonstrate (if anything) about his allegiance?The fact that some players place the inevitable risks that come with extra competition behind their national identity in their list of priorities is demonstrative of their allegiance.
Easily explained why the players are crapping themselves in that photo. Baird is looking forward to be kicked up in the air by Crusaders' hard men, while McGinn has the challenge of that hotbed of Irish nationalism, Brentford (I hear he's off on a year-long loan). Ealing Green will be able to report progress.
Regarding the likes of Shane Duffy, Marc Wilson or Darron Gibson, I think it shows them in a very positive light, at least, from the perspective of an Irish fan who values shows of commitment (not to get into an argument over the recent "no-shows" thing; the FAI were prepared to take Gibson and Wilson at their word and we know little else). If these players had stayed with the IFA, for example, it's likely they'd all be playing more crucial or pivotal roles with the NI team currently. As it is, Wilson is a peripheral squad player with us, at least for now anyway, and Gibson is a midfield back-up option. Duffy would be getting called into full international squads with the IFA; not missing out on selection for under-19 squads with the FAI. Clearly though, their sense of national identity or allegiance to their nation/identity came up trumps for them and the risk of greater competition became a secondary concern to the dream that was to represent their country, or to at least give themselves a chance of fighting for the opportunity.
What I'm saying for McGinn is that, first, he identifies as Irish over Northern Irish/British, if even he does identify with those entities at all, and, second, in spite of this, he's put what you might call his sense of national allegiance secondary to what you could call more mercenary interests: playing international football for merely playing football's sake; settling for what wouldn't have been his first option because he assumed he didn't have the potential ability to strive for it; satisfied with receiving acknowledgement of ability; heightening his profile and exposure; that sort of thing... What does it say about his allegiance? It says that it's not his primary motivating factor when it comes to deciding what international football team to play for, I'd imagine, and that he is able or content to put his own personal career interests first. It doesn't necessarily contradict how he primarily identifies as Irish. Consider the saying, "it's just a job". Even so, it is obvious that identity is still an issue for those who identify as Irish but settle for playing with the IFA. Otherwise, as Predator mentions, the IFA would never have had to request dispensation from FIFA over the issue of allowing some of their players to travel and be identified on Irish passports alone.
I'm not going to castigate McGinn for his choice. I'm just trying to rationalise it and explain it in the context of someone from a nationalist background. He's entitled to do what he wants if the choice is there. It's his life and career; not mine.
By the way, I don't think I'd ever read the first page of this thread until I happened to open it there now. Highly amused, I was, considering current circumstances, to see Bruce being linked with Fiorentina in the first post from 2008.
Not confident about what?
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
So, does your "name checker identification kit" tell you that McAuley is a Unionist or a Nationalist?
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
Presbyfenian.
Not too many Irish nats. called 'Gareth'.....
What about Garret Fitzgerald, son of a 1916 GPO veteran? The spelling may be different but the name is the same. Schoolboy error, AB!Not too many Irish nats. called 'Gareth'.....
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet" - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
From my own experience, Gareth seems a fairly popular name around Derry. There were three of them alone in my class at what was a Catholic all-boys school and I know of at least three or four others who all would invariably be Ireland or Celtic fans or from a nationalist background. Then, there's Gareth McGlynn who plays for Derry City. I even know a Gary actually; also an Ireland fan. Does Gary count?
And what about Garth Brooks? He once told the live Croke park audience that he loved Ireland.
Except McAuley's from Larne and if you wanted to call your kid "Garrett", why use the Welsh version anyway?
"Gary" is un-related to Gareth, generally.
Can't speak for the good people of Doire mind.....
Not really sure where you're going with that. I grew up with a few Gareths in sunny Catholic Dublin.
It's primarily a Welsh name in my experience, or do you want to deny that as well??
Until this thread have never heard of a single Irish 'Gareth', though acc. to Wiki it's the 87th most popular name in the North....
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks