Originally Posted by
brine3
Jesus, Ireland has suffered from emigration for centuries. It means that we have an overseas pool of players who are proud to pull on the green jersey and represent their homeland. Other football teams would kill for such a resource.
I myself have not lived in Ireland since 1986. Probably since before some of the whingers on this thread were born.
Sure, it would be great if we could turn back the clock and undo everything that caused emigration. There'd be 30 million people living in Ireland. We'd have four Richard Dunnes and five Damien Duffs.
Limiting the current Irish team only to those that are born and bred on the island of Ireland is like punishing ourselves twice over for emigration.
And so what if some of them are confused about where their allegiance lies. If they have an English father and an Irish mother then of course they are going to feel torn. It's only natural. It's all a part of being en emigrant. It's why Mark Lawrenson says "we" when talking about either Ireland and England. I never had a problem with that. But some little-Irelanders do.