Booing the NI Anthem

I was at the front of the singing section for the first half, and there was about three rows of idiots in front of me who booed GSTQ, and gave abuse to various subs from the Northern team - "playerX sh*gged a fenian", etc - and generally made a disgrace of themselves. They started doing the huddle/poznan in the first half and kept trying to get me, and the few lads sitting around me to turn around and do it too. And then they missed the third goal.

I moved to the back of the singing section at half time to get away from them, and I noticed one of the loudest left early in the second half.

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Originally Posted by MariborKev

What stand are you in?

I've seen Rangers tops in the North and South Stands on my visits to Windsor.

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Kop. Undoubtedly there must be a few, but the numbers are so small that I've never seen one myself.

So Owls Fan, are Tets, GSpain, Myself and all the others here who agreed, making this up.............?

I've seen plenty of non-green & white via fans of the North, inc.plenty of R*ngers and anti-Irish/'fenian' stuff, so what??

Even know a two-faced eejit who sells such tat.

It's hardly rocket science and would expect no different....

See the lad with the Ulster Flag in the ROI support? Not the NI flag now, the Yellow and Red Ulster flag. Wondered who he was supporting :)

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

So Owls Fan, are Tets, GSpain, Myself and all the others here who agreed, making this up.............?

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Owls gave his impressions and an account of his experience, whereas you are are a certified wummer. I´d regard his account at least as valid as anyone elses. Probably more so, on account of his wisdom, experience and generally has no axe to grind (outside of the RTE panel).
I would agree with his observation of the OWC fans, that their behaviour has improved remarakably over the decades and they almost act like normal fans these days.

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

Give it a few weeks and we will "doing the Poznan" aswell

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Looking at photo's on extratime.ie this did happen last night too

And would also agree with geysir, their behaviour has relatively 'improved'....

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Originally Posted by Hibs4Ever

Looking at photo's on extratime.ie this did happen last night too

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Jesus Wept :(
These "fans" wont be happy until we have a Tommy Burns Stand in LR, wear Hoops and sing songs about our father joining the Ra!

Personally think the booing of anthems is very childish but I also think it's possible to blow it out of proportion. GSTQ got a half-hearted booing last night that died out after about 20 or 30 seconds. Last time I saw the Scots and Welsh about 60,000 of them lustily booed GSTQ out of the stadium for the full duration of the anthem. Not big or clever but maybe a sense of perspective needed. End of the day it's difficult to control large groups of teenagers at games who like many teenagers just want to act the mickey at all times and they tend to stand out even more when the attendance is as low as it was last night.

The scots boo'd our anthem too, if I remember right.

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

Jesus Wept :(
These "fans" wont be happy until we have a Tommy Burns Stand in LR, wear Hoops and sing songs about our father joining the Ra!

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They've already changed the team socks to accomodate that ;)

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

Jesus Wept :(
These "fans" wont be happy until we have a Tommy Burns Stand in LR, wear Hoops and sing songs about our father joining the Ra!

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Now you're talking :D

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

they have not taken off and never will. they are only sung by the singing section. keep to songs / chants that the majority of fans actually know and the atmosphere will improve

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You can't honestly believe that. Since the Brian Kerr era no chants, even those that everyone knows e.g. COYBIG, FOA, One Road etc, have gone around the ground except the odd time on big game occasions.

The few who actually wanted to sing decided to do something proactive about it. I can't believe the negativity here towards the SS. There has been and will continue to be genuine attempts to come up with originals and source chants from places other than Britain. In fairness, there inevitably has to be some plagarism when you only play a couple of times a year; it make sense to use songs/chants that people have already heard so it can kick immediately without several games practicing. Regardless of where the tunes come from would you prefer a return to 2/3 years ago when friendlies were played in eerie silence?

I love going to all our games again. While I wasn't there last night (in China), a couple of idiots shouldn't be allowed taint the achievement to date. I think to some extent the reaction here is because it's something yous feel seperate from. But it's not a YBIG thing, it's an Ireland thing. It's not an exclusive club so get involved, the SS always needs more vocal bodies!

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Originally Posted by geysir

Owls gave his impressions and an account of his experience, whereas you are are a certified wummer. I´d regard his account at least as valid as anyone elses. Probably more so, on account of his wisdom, experience and generally has no axe to grind (outside of the RTE panel).
I would agree with his observation of the OWC fans, that their behaviour has improved remarakably over the decades and they almost act like normal fans these days.

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I was in the East Stand last night and agree with Owls Fan that there was worse on show at our games with Northern Ireland in the 1990 and 1994 qualifiers than there was last night. I was disappointed with the booing of the anthem but it seemed to be limited to a small section of the south stand and did die out pretty quickly.

Any sectarian stuff from the SS wasn't audible on the East Stand but I have no doubt that a small elements of our support do lower themselves to that level occasionally. However the suggestion from An Ceannaire that it was a "large minority/ small majority" is just untrue.

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

See the lad with the Ulster Flag in the ROI support? Not the NI flag now, the Yellow and Red Ulster flag. Wondered who he was supporting :)

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That's a Basque flag

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Originally Posted by Beavis

You can't honestly believe that

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i do actually.
i am 100% supportive of what the singing section is trying to do. however, in my opinion it has worked best when it sticks to what the fans already know. The "we love you" song was introduced over two years ago but has never spread beyond the singing section, neither has the paul mcgrath song and the "just cant get enough" song probably wont either. just constructive criticism for what its worth.

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

i do actually.
i am 100% supportive of what the singing section is trying to do. however, in my opinion it has worked best when it sticks to what the fans already know. The "we love you" song was introduced over two years ago but has never spread beyond the singing section, neither has the paul mcgrath song and the "just cant get enough" song probably wont either. just constructive criticism for what its worth.

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You don't know what's going to take off unless you try it. New songs have to be tried, it was boring not too long ago with just endless "come on you boys in green", which is slightly boring as it is, so fair play they're trying new things and attempting to get them off the ground and more power to them.

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Originally Posted by Beavis

I can't believe the negativity here towards the SS.

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Neither can I. Lovely bunch of lads.

http://www.germaniainternational.com...mages/fin2.jpg

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

So Owls Fan, are Tets, GSpain, Myself and all the others here who agreed, making this up.............?

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Were you at the game?

You're living in dreamworld if you think that some fans are not going to boo GSTQ. 700 years of history is not going to be wiped out in a few years. As others have said, some people started to boo (a few hundred I would say at best) and it soon faded away as the anthem continued. A group of Nordies turned their backs when our anthem was played. Was I insulted? Not at all. If that's the way they want to behave, so be it.

Have you travelled to away games as a matter of interest? Anthems of away teams are usually whistled down by the opposition. We are by far and away the most respectful set of fans for opponent's anthems and that hasn't changed because of last night? I might be correct in saying that in rugby up to a number of years ago they used to play only the home anthem to avoid trouble. Times have moved on.

Now, what "controversial" topic do you want to start next?

p.s. I am seeing a doctor following the shock of hearing a few Irish fans boo GSTQ.