This completely understands demographics*.
NI is heavily urbanised East of the Bann, much less so to the West. Which is not unlike ROI, where the East/South is heavily urbanised, but the West/North much less so.
E.G. in ROI the Border Counties (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo), Western counties (Galway, Mayo, Roscommon) and Midland counties (Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath) comprise 12 counties with only 1.14 million inhabitants, spread over half(?) the total area. Meaning the other 14 counties have 3.62 million inhabitants (2016 stats):
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpub...reland2017/nt/
Indeed Dublin and the Mid East counties of Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wicklow have over 2 m. people i.e. more than all of NI, but in an area approx. half the size of NI i.e. v.heavily urbanised.
Or look at it another way, ROI has 22 towns/cities with a population over 20k, comprising 2.28m people, whereas NI has 13 such towns/cities, comprising 870k (incl. Derry!)
In short, ROI has far more people living in urban areas than NI, no matter how you count it. The fact that it
also has a large area to the North/West which is sparsely populated, and where GAA reigns, does not change this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._by_population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._by_population
* - People often think of Australia as having very low population density. Whereas the great bulk (90%?) of its 24m population lives in a relatively small number of towns/cities on the East Coast or Perth/WA, leaving 90% of the country virtually empty. Meaning the Australian population is actually extremely urbanised.
This is also misleading, in two respects.
First, a pyramid is about more than just the top 3 tiers. So if you go down through the Intermediate and Junior tiers, you'll see that they include clubs from every section and area of NI. E.G. the Fermanagh & Western FA operates in a very rural, Nationalist majority area. Yet it still comprises 32 separate clubs in 3 divisions, plus 3 reserve divisions, plus youth, women and girls leagues etc. There is actually more Nationalist participation than Unionist, including GAA players who play both codes; also players from across the border.
Or, if you take eg schools competitions, the MacRory Cup is the premier GAA schools competition in Ulster. In 2022 it had 16 entrants, two of them from ROI and all Catholic Maintained Grammars. Similarly, the Ulster Rugby Schools Cup had 20 entrants, all Controlled (i.e. Protestant or Mixed) schools, very predominantly Grammar. Whereas the football equivlent, NISFA Schools Cup, each year has over 120 entrants, from all over NI, city and country, and including Controlled, Maintained, Integrated, Grammar, Comprehensive and even Gaelic language!
The second respect is that football is not just defined by the crowds* that the Senior clubs attract. It also includes players, managers, referees, administrators and volunteers, also sponsors and advertisers etc
Just look at the team sheets from this match between Institute, the "other" team in Derry (originally called the Presbyterian Institute, and currently playing in the Brandywell), and Ballinamallard, a small Protestant village in otherwise Nationalist majority Fermanagh:
Institute:
John Connolly, Jay Riley, Shaun Leppard, Rhys McDermott, Conor Quigley; Aidan McCauley, Mark McFadden, Liam Walsh (Cormac Burke 80); Ian Parkhill, Caolan McLaughlin (Gareth Brown 36), Brendan McLaughlin.
Ballinamallard United:
Rory Brown, Dean Curry, Mark Stafford, Richard Clarke (Ronan McKinley 84), Aaron Arkinson, Evan Tweed (Christopher Kelly 31), BJ Banda, Joshua McIlwaine, Darragh Byrne, Reece Byrne (Callum Moorehead 84), Sean McEvoy (Patrick Ferry HT).
Referee:
Mr Shane McGonigle
Obviously you can't always go by names, bit it is clear that the big majority of those are from the Nationalist community, incl. a number who are from ROI!
Or take Managers: Coleraine and Larne, for example, are both strongly Unionist towns, but are managed by Oran Kearney and Tiernan Lynch. While the NI Football League's Chief Executive, their first ever, is Gerard Lawlor (ex Cliftonville), while Linfield's General Manager is Dubliner Pat Fenlon.
But in any case, even if you were correct - and you're not - in characterising Football in NI as being a Unionist/Prod sport, pretty much only played in urban areas, then you might conclude that the real "football population" of NI is barely 1 million i.e. 20% of that of ROI, rather than 40%. Yet we can still maintain a healthy pyramid, making it even less explicable why ROI cannot.
* - Note, too, that 20% of admission prices in NI are lost to VAT, unlike in ROI. Were NI clubs able to keep that, they could reduce prices to attract more fans and/or invest it in better facilities etc.
OK, I'll happily accept "pushed out" or whatever term you prefer, since it doesn't change my point. Which was that DCFC's permanent switch to the LOI was a huge loss to NI football, but we've withstood it. Whereas Cork being relegated to the First Division for a period is nothing like eg their leaving the LOI to play in another country entirely.
Let's overlook for the moment the fact that Larne are currently 8 points clear at the top of the table with half the season played, the whole point of the pyramid is that it has successfully encouraged and facilitated new clubs from new areas of NI which never had Intermediate, never mind Senior, clubs before, while providing healthy competition via Promotion & Relegation, as individual clubs progressed or declined. Consequently the "attrition" rate of NI clubs going bust, before having to reform, or even disappearing entirely, is rather less than that in ROI.
P.S. I don't say any of that in order to "big up" the IL, never mind "do down" the LOI - the LOI has also many strengths from which the IL could learn. But the example of the IFA/IL in introducing, expanding and upgrading the pyramid over 20-odd years has undoubtedly been of great benefit in raising standards in the game in NI. And imo, were the FAI/LOI to do the same, it should prove equally beneficial south of the border.
QuoteOriginally Posted by EalingGreen
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