Whats the biggest derby in Irish football

[CvilleRovers]

rovers bohs nothing else comes close

[ndrog]

Drogs v Duns is a huge game for all concerned .And if they get out of the graveyard next season its gonna attract massive crowds .Hopefully they dont though

[Greenforever]

As previously posted it depends on how you judge it, personally I would say Cork / Cobh and Derry / Harps would be far bigger in terms of what % of the local population will go to the game, or take some kind of interest, know the result etc.

While some will say it's Rovers / Bohs what %of Dubliners will even know it's on on the day of the match, I'd guess a much smaller % than say that of Corkonians for their derby etc.

Also for the benefit of all clubs in the league it would make a lot of sense to make sure all the above games were televised if they are likely to attract full houses as that alone looks better on the telly.

[ciaraa]

As previously posted it depends on how you judge it, personally I would say Cork / Cobh and Derry / Harps would be far bigger in terms of what % of the local population will go to the game, or take some kind of interest, know the result etc.

While some will say it's Rovers / Bohs what %of Dubliners will even know it's on on the day of the match, I'd guess a much smaller % than say that of Corkonians for their derby etc.

Also for the benefit of all clubs in the league it would make a lot of sense to make sure all the above games were televised if they are likely to attract full houses as that alone looks better on the telly.

also bohs rovers has too much scum element tagging along. cork-cobh, harps-derry and drogs-gundalk are much better derbies because you dont have that element (well maybe a small bit but nowhere near that dublin derby) and like greenforever says, the locals turn out in force more.
plus the last couple of bohs rovers games that i've seen have been boring drab auld matches.
overhyped match if you ask me.

[bellavistaman]

last night was class, 4,500 there atmosphere was electric, passion everything bar the result and football, next 2 should be better.

[bigmac]

This comes up every year

True - this was up not that long ago in a question about which team you most like /want to beat.
IIRC most Blues fans said that Cork was never on our radar until the last few years and has been mainly built up by the hurling rivalry. Over the previous ten or fifteen years the "derby" match for Waterford was agianst Kilkenny. If you want to go back further than that, then any of the varous Cork incarnations have been our closest rivals geographically, but they went in and out of existence so much that there wasn't time to build up any decent sort of tradition.
Despite it not being anything close to a derby, the rivalry built up with Rovers in the late 60s / early 70s is still present, although watered down a bit by nostalgia.

Now there is no real derby for the Blues - as someone said, only if the majority of both sets of fans coexist can it be called a derby. Liverpool ManU is most definitely not a derby - grudge match/big rivalry yes, but Liverpool's derby game is Everton and ManU's is Man City.

[The Man Himself]

True - this was up not that long ago in a question about which team you most like /want to beat.
IIRC most Blues fans said that Cork was never on our radar until the last few years and has been mainly built up by the hurling rivalry. Over the previous ten or fifteen years the "derby" match for Waterford was agianst Kilkenny. If you want to go back further than that, then any of the varous Cork incarnations have been our closest rivals geographically, but they went in and out of existence so much that there wasn't time to build up any decent sort of tradition.
Despite it not being anything close to a derby, the rivalry built up with Rovers in the late 60s / early 70s is still present, although watered down a bit by nostalgia.

Now there is no real derby for the Blues - as someone said, only if the majority of both sets of fans coexist can it be called a derby. Liverpool ManU is most definitely not a derby - grudge match/big rivalry yes, but Liverpool's derby game is Everton and ManU's is Man City.

eff off,
you havent a clue what your talking about.
but theres one thing your right about' liverpool v man utd is not a derby, its now called a walk over.

[Lim till i die]

Pike v Balla

Absolutely no contest.

South v North
Green v Blue

Attendances in the thousands

No debate, nothing else comes close

[dcfcsteve]

Rovers v Bohs is the angriest derby. The nastiest. And the one with the most potential for violence. But it is certainly not the biggest.

The biggest is surely all about the crowd, as unless each team has more than 11 players each on the pitch, there is no other variable to its size involved.

And on that basis it is City v Harps. No other derby consistently pulls in the crowds that games in the North West do.

End of story (even if this topic is brought up about every 6 months on here...)

[Lim till i die]

Rovers v Bohs is the angriest derby. The nastiest. And the one with the most potential for violence.

Another man who hasn't seen Pike v Balla

[BohDiddley]

Rovers v Bohs is the angriest derby. The nastiest. And the one with the most potential for violence. But it is certainly not the biggest.

Rather interesting how many people here are scrambling to deny or dilute or just defame the Bohs v Rovers derby.
With some of these posters, we don't need a tabloid press to do down League of Ireland.

[Bluebeard]

True - this was up not that long ago in a question about which team you most like /want to beat.
IIRC most Blues fans said that Cork was never on our radar until the last few years and has been mainly built up by the hurling rivalry. Over the previous ten or fifteen years the "derby" match for Waterford was agianst Kilkenny. If you want to go back further than that, then any of the varous Cork incarnations have been our closest rivals geographically, but they went in and out of existence so much that there wasn't time to build up any decent sort of tradition.
Despite it not being anything close to a derby, the rivalry built up with Rovers in the late 60s / early 70s is still present, although watered down a bit by nostalgia.

Now there is no real derby for the Blues - as someone said, only if the majority of both sets of fans coexist can it be called a derby. Liverpool ManU is most definitely not a derby - grudge match/big rivalry yes, but Liverpool's derby game is Everton and ManU's is Man City.

On the mark. I'd never see the Cork game as anything more than a recent rivallry to be honest. I'm all for hyping the games to get a crowd in, but the reality is that there is no real history between these clubs and it isn't a derby in any real sense - at best simply a rivallry, where the less successful team, whoever it may be at the time, sees there being some "unfinished business" every time they meet until the tables are firmly turned. This might become the case with Wexford and ourselves too I suspect.

On a related note, surely the Sligo Derby/Rivallry would be with Finn Harps, not Galway, as that is where there was a traditional enmity?

[placid casual]

the rovers vs bohs mickey is bigger than everyone elses mickey !!

[dcfcsteve]

Rather interesting how many people here are scrambling to deny or dilute or just defame the Bohs v Rovers derby.
With some of these posters, we don't need a tabloid press to do down League of Ireland.

Tabloid me arse.

Name me one other EL derby with a greater history or propensity for violence ?

[dcfcsteve]

Another man who hasn't seen Pike v Balla

Very good. Now Pike off ya Balla(x)....

[BohDiddley]

Tabloid me arse.

Name me one other EL derby with a greater history or propensity for violence ?

You want help constructing little league tables of violence for excitable pinheads to froth over?
I don't go to derbies to observe violence, and, although I am a relatively recent eL convert, if I did go for that purpose I'm afraid I would have failed.
Sorry to disappoint.

[Réiteoir]

the rovers vs bohs mickey is bigger than everyone elses mickey !!

if there's one thing us supporters of the "Big Club"™ and the "Most Famous Club in the League"™ agree on - it's that of the biggest derby in the League.

If we are to start disallowing derbies due to the "violence" that surrounds them then we'd better discount the Old Firm shindig (remember seeing a police charge sheet after one such game a few years ago - which listed amongst the offences committed by one set of fans a "cleaver attack"), CSKA - Spartak in Moscow, and 98% of all derby matches in Argentina and Brazil.

Bohs - Rovers is the biggest rivalry and derby in the South - no question

[osarusan]

The biggest is surely all about the crowd, as unless each team has more than 11 players each on the pitch, there is no other variable to its size involved.

And on that basis it is City v Harps. No other derby consistently pulls in the crowds that games in the North West do.

But you have to factor in the fact that Harps and Derry have played far less frequently than Bohs and Rovers, and so there is more of an element of novelty involved.

Would Harps and Derry derbies maintain current attendance figures if they played every year?

[Réiteoir]

Plus the biggest derby has to be competitive.

iirc on the graphic on MNS a couple of weeks ago - Harps have only won something like 2 out of 53 meetings.

Hardly awe-inspring is it?

[bohs til i die]

Bohs V Shamrock is only a hatred thing. If you're talking about attendance then Derry V Harps was big this year. Bohs V Shamrock could never get a crowd that size.

Have a look at youtube for some of the cup games from the 93-94 season. 2nd replay had about 10000 at it
Cup semi final in 2001 had 8000

Other games since then have had big attendances, but the regularity of them puts people off especially with the unfriendly welcome most fans get when they arrive at the ground to be searched.