Scottish football

[galwayhoop]

hmmm, when was this? 1890 or something? Stop living in the past.

it is a club which was formed by an Irish priest to generate funds for the impoverished immigrants form Ireland who settled in the Glasgow area following the famine. The club has retained it links with the Irish diaspora for well over a hundred years. If you have lived overseas, or have children born overseas, the link is much more clear. A high majority who support the club would be either Irish or claim genuine Irish ancestry.

Do not confuse Celtic supporters with genuine Irish 2g/3g links to the IRA/Sinn Fein supporting 'fans' who parade around the streets of Drogheda/Dulblin/Navan and throw stones at Orangemen in Dublin. Those who confuse wearing a Celtic jersey with supporting the IRA. Apples and pears.........

[galwayhoop]

Irrelevant though.

We're talking about spectator sports. There's a huge difference between someone going out for a swim at the local lesisure centre or a quick round of golf than someone donning a scarf and going to an EL or GAA game.

I go to Terryland every second week, I go to Irish International soccer matches, I watch local Galway local soccer matches, I keep up to date with the juvenile soccer in Galway. I am a soccer supporter.

If Galway get to the All-Ireland final in either football/hurling I go to that too. If you asked me to name the Galway football/hurling teams from 1-15 I would probably know about 10 on each team.

The bottom line is that there are many so-called GAA supporters like me who swell CP toward the business end of the season.

Soccer is a bigger sport in terms of interest and playing figures than the GAA.

However, your point about soccer being the only game in scotland is true. Even apart from spectators, who are generally cross-sport anyway, the real problem/dilema is with players. A country of our size could only hope to excel at one sport, be that, Rugby or Soccer. I firmly believe that the reason so many of our top level soccer players are on the smaller size is the the bigger guys have gone off to play GAA or Rugby. Top level sportsmen like Paul O'Connell, Brian O'Driscoll, Darragh Ó Sé, Kieran Donaghy, Dan Callaghan would probably excel at any sport they happened to concentrate on from an early age.

The didn't choose soccer and have excelled in their chosen field. It is a fact of life I'm afraid.

While we are a country close in size to Scotland we will never hope to have continous success at international level as we play too many sports!

[bennocelt]

His name was actually Brother Walfrid but it was a long time ago. Many foreign clubs were founded by Englishmen yet for some strange reason most English people support an English club.


the irish disapora had completely different experiences to the english who emigrated, as you should know

[bennocelt]

wow brother walfrid, big whooop, an irish man formed the american navy but yet i dont see thousands flocking to that,
,


the point was that it isnt a myth, there is a relationship between celtic fc and ireland, whether you like that or not:rolleyes:

american navy? yeah funny!

[CollegeTillIDie]

Scotland may have a population only 20% higher than ours, but what people seem to forget is this. Professional football as we know it, was invented by Scottish people and the first paid players in England were imported from Scotland. So they have a tradition going back to the 19th Century.
Thanks partly to The Football Trust in the UK Scottish grounds gained a lot of state aided investment to improve their facilities in the 1980's and 1990's.

I think there are two different strands in those who '' support'' cross channel football in this country. Those who actually go, are not in my view the biggest problem. You stand a better chance of getting them to go to one or two ELOI games in the summer than the other grouping. The many thousands who think ''supporting'' their team consists of buying a replica shirt and shouting at a TV screen while swilling pints..... THEY ARE THE REAL PROBLEM! They don't go to games in either England or Scotland, never mind Ireland. And they are the biggest non attending so called expert critics of the domestic product.
Mind you, as I have said before in other fora... when your Chief Executive Officer of your Football Association is a fan of a foreign club, and your Prime Minister is too, what chance do you have?
The Chief Executive of the SFA has not to my knowledge ever confessed to supporting Sunderland.
Nor is Scotland's first minister a huge fan of Rosenborg Trondheim !

[Hibs4Ever]

Quick question for those here that say they support celtic because of the "Irish connection". Why not Hibs?

[Lim till i die]

Quick question for those here that say they support celtic because of the "Irish connection". Why not Hibs?

Because Hibs are crap

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but you're not as likely to get sectarian sing songs out of the Hibs fans as the majority of them are Protestant??

See, no fun whatsoever :)

[Hibs4Ever]

Because Hibs are crap

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but you're not as likely to get sectarian sing songs out of the Hibs fans as the majority of them are Protestant??

See, no fun whatsoever :)


If you're not gonna give a normal response why bother at all :rolleyes:

[Lim till i die]

If you're not gonna give a normal response why bother at all :rolleyes:

I genuinely hand on heart think that those are the two main reasons

And I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me.

Do you honestly think if Hibs had the 239 titles or whatever it is that Celtic would still be the bigger club with the Oirish??

[Hibs4Ever]

I genuinely hand on heart think that those are the two main reasons

And I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me.

Do you honestly think if Hibs had the 239 titles or whatever it is that Celtic would still be the bigger club with the Oirish??



So your answer is gloryhunters then?

[Lim till i die]

So your answer is gloryhunters then?

Coupled with ridiculous Republicanism obviously