Which IL is most loved by ROI based football fans?

[Gerrit]

Just out of interest now that I am living "on the other side of the border", I was wondering which IL team(s) are most appreciated by the fans in the Republic... Don't tell "none" as I know there's a fair bit of EL fans that also show a certain interest in the IL.



@ Moderators: can you please make a poll ? The names/options are at http://www.irishfa.com/index/articles.php?id=919&page=Club+Guides#


@ everyone: remember it's a FOOTBALL forum, and this is a FOOTBALL topic ;)

[Stanley Chan]

Glentoran - the peoples club!

[Poor Student]

I only have a very passing interest. In a race between Glens and Linfield I prefer Glentoran. I am intrigued to see how Institute do this year.

[CollegeTillIDie]

As a graduate of History it would have to be Crusaders for me :D !

[Da Real Rover]

Its gotta either be Glens or Cliftonville, whichever hate Linfield the most gets my vote.

[Iorfa]

Larne because of Jimmy McGeough

[holidaysong]

I would look out for Newry Town erm...City :rolleyes: results out of interest due to its proximity. Dundalk vs. Newry would be great in an All-Ireland league... Might be a bit of a Celtic jersey brigade love in though...

[De Town]

Glentoran for em, even got a jersey (thanks LUX ;) :p )

[CollegeTillIDie]

I would look out for Newry Town erm...City :rolleyes: results out of interest due to its proximity. Dundalk vs. Newry would be great in an All-Ireland league... Might be a bit of a Celtic jersey brigade love in though...
Yes although Derry City V Institute might also be a good derby :D

[Speranza]

Derry vs stute is played as a friendly almost every season and its usually a bleak affair. Have a friend who plays for stute and he isn't very hopeful about Pascals French experiment!

Hate the IL especially Linfield, Cliftonville and Coleraine so can;t even think who would be my favourite

[dcfc_1928]

I have always paid particular attention to Glentoran's results.

[Stanley Chan]

Glentoran for em, even got a jersey (thanks LUX ;) :p )


Good man De Town!

Welcome at the Oval anytime, was hearing about Luxs shirt on the way home from Flan-Siro :D tonight

[adamcarr]

Portadown for me!

[glentoranfan]

Its gotta either be Glens or Cliftonville, whichever hate Linfield the most gets my vote.
hmm. That is a tricky one, but I think the Glens might just win that one. :D

I only have a very passing interest. In a race between Glens and Linfield I prefer Glentoran. I am intrigued to see how Institute do this year.

Glentoran for em, even got a jersey (thanks LUX ;) :p )
Good to see so many intelligent people on this forum. :D

[Pablo]

i have to say i have a soft spot for Chimney Corner. the sleeping giant of the north. Other that that it must be the harland and Wolf Welders












:p

[Rovers1]

Has to be Linfield for me,even though i dont have the foggiest about the Smirnoff League,if its still called that

[A face]

I suppose it would have to be Ports .... just cause we played them recently !!

I have never really supported a team in IL but always try and gert a look at whats going on up there.

[Fortuna1886]

Has to be Linfield for me,even though i dont have the foggiest about the Smirnoff League,if its still called that


The league is currently sponsored by the Daily Mirror. And they paid feck all for the deal.

They had a few billboards at selected grounds but worked out they could sponsor the league, get billboars at all the grounds, logo on shirts, in papers and programmes for Less than what they where already paying :(

[drinkfeckarse]

Always liked Glentoran, don't know why though :confused:

[Da Real Rover]

Has to be Linfield for me,
Even after what happened the last time we played them in the showgrounds.

[onceahoop]

Cliftonville for family resons although there's a tug towards the Glens recently. :)

[student]

Always had a soft spot for Coleraine because thats where most of the mathces in the Milk cup were played.

Extremely sad to see what has happened them recently though

[kevincronin2000]

cliftonville for me.

[Battery Rover]

cliftonville for me

Same here

[tiktok]

No real interest, the only results I might look at are Portadown's after we played them in the setanta cup.

[OwlsFan]

Ards: followed them as a kiddie when I liked to have a team in every league in GB and Ireland.

[Wiseguy]

Glentoran for me.A great bunch of fans.The best we ever had in Flancare.

[gheewhizz]

My favourite IL side has to be Glentoran. Super fans and we were well received up in the oval when we played them in the setanta cup. i'd say most longford town fans would agree. some of their fans have been at our league matches and a few of us are going to watch them in the oval when their season starts.

[ThatGuy]

Cliftonville for family resons although there's a tug towards the Glens recently. :)
I don't think anyone in the ROI cares about any northern club to be honest.

[Lux Interior]

My favourite IL side has to be Glentoran. Super fans and we were well received up in the oval when we played them in the setanta cup. i'd say most longford town fans would agree. some of their fans have been at our league matches and a few of us are going to watch them in the oval when their season starts.

Are you coming up with 'denltfc' (aka dinny)?

[paudie]

It would have to be any club except Linfield and Glentoran.

Nothing against those clubs but they've won so match compared to all the other clubs that it's nice to see someone else win a trophy.

[superfrank]

Glentoran. Maybe it's the green....

[onceahoop]

I don't think anyone in the ROI cares about any northern club to be honest.


You'ld be surprised at the amount of people who re clued in to what goes on both north and south.

[Stanley Chan]

My favourite IL side has to be Glentoran. Super fans and we were well received up in the oval when we played them in the setanta cup. i'd say most longford town fans would agree. some of their fans have been at our league matches and a few of us are going to watch them in the oval when their season starts.


Glentoran for me.A great bunch of fans.The best we ever had in Flancare.

Great to hear lads, its an honour!

More than welcome anytime at the Oval, you'll be made to feel welcome by the Glenmen!

East Belfast L.T.S.C.!

[BohDiddley]

A very, very long time ago my mother, for reasons unknown, came back from a shopping trip up north with a pair of Coleraine socks for me! They were, let's say, a conversation piece.
This is my sole (sorry) connection with any team from NI. Also took a shine to Linfied for doing Shels in the SC.

[hoops1]

glenfield distillery for me

[Buller]

Glentoran for me, by a metric kilometer ;)

[CollegeTillIDie]

I have always paid particular attention to Glentoran's results.

Is that because of the whole tribe of Candystripe rejects playing there? :D

[Anto McC]

Cliftonville

[parnell ranger]

Cliftonville,Glentoran,
Strange how a town the size of Strabane has no senior side.
any particular reason?

[Johnnie C]

How could anyone in the 26 be "fond" of l*nfield ??? I really am baffled by that. All they brought to the Setanta Cup Final was sectarian and racist chants together with dodgy flags. They should have been docked prize money but that was never going to happen.

[sylvo]

Look out for Balinamallard United after taking a drive through there once.

[dcfc_1928]

Strabane is more of a GAA town these days.

Most people who follow local football either go to the Brandywell, or head to the dark side (Finn Harps)!



Cliftonville,Glentoran,
Strange how a town the size of Strabane has no senior side.
any particular reason?

[1 9 2 8]

Feck 'em all how could someone love another team in the same country your club is from

[Gerrit]

Technically, sympathising with a club in the North is not the same country, or anyway not the same league ;)




And I don't see what Linfield brought to the Setanta Cup that was that sectarian. I was at Tolka for the final, and they did NOT sing the Billy Boys or any other offending song. There were no riots and the fans of both sides behaved well.

Yes, they waved Union Jacks. Well, it is the national flag of the UK, and Northern Ireland happens to be part of that. Plus, Linfield is a Unionist club so waving a Union Jack is something done at every game, they did not bring those flags just to annoy the Shels fans. So a Linfield fan waving a Union Jack is not more sectarian than the few Irish Flags the Shelbourne fans had. No one took offense to those tricolores or Union Jacks.

On the contrary, Linfield wore black armbands when the Pope died, and 95% of their support declared in public how disgusted they were with those 20 or 30 lads who sang "Billy Boys".

I do not want to go into a politics discussion here, but I'd say there were no sectarian elements in the Setanta Cup, not from Linfield or any other club from North/ROI. It passed without riots and got positive respons from fans on both ends of the border, and even brought football fans from the North and the Republic together (think of the ties between Longford and Glens, how the Ports and Shels fans were happy with the way they were welcomed, etc)

Also, I don't see why a ROI based fan could not be able to like Linfield. It's a sports club just like Glentoran or Cliftonville or Drogheda or whatever, and (luckily) there are also people who don't care about politics and who don't let politics decide which teams to like. The politics aspect is something some people wish to add to it, their choice, but in the end Linfield is a football club just like the other football clubs are on this island.

[dcfcsteve]

Cliftonville,Glentoran,
Strange how a town the size of Strabane has no senior side.
any particular reason?

What ?????? How big do you think Strabane is ??? It's not much bigger than Letterkenny, and give it a few years and L'Kenny will actually be bigger...!

Until Omagh died there were already 2 senior clubs in what is a small county population-wise. Enniskillen is MILES bigger than Strabane - yet why no surprise at the lack of a senior club there.....? :confused:

[Johnnie C]

I don't see what Linfield brought to the Setanta Cup that was that sectarian

How about f*ck the Pope chants during The Sash, and The Sash was sung quite a bit. Monkey chants when Ndo came on. And that lovely dittie about being up to one's knees in Fenian blood. How's that for starters ? All of that was clearly, clearly audible on TV.


Also, I don't see why a ROI based fan could not be able to like Linfield
The above should start to answer that. Also, the clubs no-Catholic policy which they had up to the late eighties. Linfield FC have admittedly cleaned up their act in recent times. The majority of their support base however still remains in the 17th century.

[Da Real Rover]

Also, I don't see why a ROI based fan could not be able to like Linfield. It's a sports club just like Glentoran or Cliftonville or Drogheda or whatever, and (luckily) there are also people who don't care about politics and who don't let politics decide which teams to like. The politics aspect is something some people wish to add to it, their choice, but in the end Linfield is a football club just like the other football clubs are on this island.
The reason that football has become the most popular sport in the world is not because they kick a ball around with 22 men chasing it, it is because football is so much more. A football club acts as a sort of national team for your locality, you take pride in your team just as you take pride in your locality. What makes up a locality is its inhabitants and so the inhabitants views and beliefs are insilled in the football club. You try and tell the Red star Belgrade fans that its just an ordinary football club, they brought down Milosevic and there football ground was the only place in Belgrade where you could shout obsenitys about Milosevic and not get arrested. Just one example out of thousands whereby a football club is a symbol of your locality. Politics feature on the minds of many fans and so politics is brought into football, it is impossible to separate the 2 and when football is just about the sport is when it will die. Now you say Linfield is just a club like the rest, no, no 2 clubs are the same. I look at Linfield as the extreist scum trashed The showgrounds in the 70s because wer Catholic the same club that excluded cathoilcs for the majority of its vile history. Now the day you tell me to forgive and forget about what Linfield did and what there fans continue to do is the day you tell a Jewish person to forgive what the Lazio fans do, there only a minority but you would not expect them to turn a blind eye to the swatstikas or the straight arm salutes or the references to Auschwitz. No difference.

[Green Tribe]

What ?????? How big do you think Strabane is ??? It's not much bigger than Letterkenny, and give it a few years and L'Kenny will actually be bigger...!

Until Omagh died there were already 2 senior clubs in what is a small county population-wise. Enniskillen is MILES bigger than Strabane - yet why no surprise at the lack of a senior club there.....? :confused:

yes, enniskillen is MUCH bigger than wee strabane :eek: i think maybe that GAA is much more popular in Fermanagh, in the catholic schools/areas and the protestant schools are more into rugby there.

[Green Tribe]

Look out for Balinamallard United after taking a drive through there once.

:eek: That fine place Sylvo! :eek: :D