Irish UK Club Football Bangwagon Jumpers -Irish Footballs Number 1 enemy

[BohsFans]

That survey is desperate.

If it's specifically aimed towards Irish people than it's a joke.

[kingdom hoop]

If it's specifically aimed towards Irish people than it's a joke.

It is yeah, good few giggles worth in it. kinda encapsulates the issue nicely I think

[Jerry The Saint]

22. Does Sunderland's Irish links provide you with an incentive to support the team? Click one box only.

I am devoted to Sunderland and almost everything else in my life takes second place

I am devoted to Sunderland and it plays a very important part in my life

I am committed to supporting Sunderland, and balance my commitment with other areas of my life

I follow and enjoy supporting Sunderland but other commitments take priority

I casually follow Sunderland if it fits with other commitments

Is it just me, or does it seem like those answers don't fit the question Poorly phrased anyway.

25. If you answered yes to question 24[Would you like to see Sunderland have a bigger presence in Ireland?], what type of activity would you like to see. Rank in manner of importance. One being most important to you and 7 being the least important.


Friendly matches


community support programs


football camps for youths


Lifelong Learning (adult education programs)


School visits


Disability activities


Road Safety awareness

I hope people vote for Road Safety awareness - bring Roy over every couple of weeks to teach kids to stop, look and listen.

[NY Hoop]

Filled it out. Ticked other for a lot of them and put in "I'm not english".

Hope to win the jersey. Firstly I was thinking of burning it and putting the display on youtube but unfortunately there is a distinct lack of humour towards that sort of thing nowadays.

Instead will auction to the highest bidder, probably some barstool ****, and give the money to Rovers.

Question 15 sums it up really: "Which of the following activities, if any, do you do?"

"Watch matches on TV"


KOH

[dcfcsteve]

Is it just me, or does it seem like those answers don't fit the question Poorly phrased anyway.

I loved that Question 22. Asks you how important something about Sunderland is to you, and then bludgens you into saying it's in some way important, even if it's not.

If the author of that survey is indicative of the calibre of MBA students we're pumping out in Ireland these days, then I'd stop spending and start saving right now, as lean times are only a graduation away....

[hoops1]

There is no room for 2 UK Irish Clubs wearing red and white

[dcfcsteve]

There is no room for 2 UK Irish Clubs wearing red and white

I'm sure your buddies in Cliftonville will have a special way of thanking you for pointing this out to them.....

[Raheny Red]

I was, as you can imagine, pretty amazed when I saw the following on my college e-noticeboard;

Have you got an email address for him? If so, reply to him with the link for this thread

[monutdfc]

I hope people vote for Road Safety awareness - bring Roy over every couple of weeks to teach kids to stop, look and listen.

Will Niall Quinn take that module:
Lesson 1: Have a few pints
Lesson 2: Drive so erratically on the M50 that another driver phones the gardai
Lesson 3: Deny everything
Lesson 4: Hope that your sample manages to get lost in the system

[Billy Lord]

Calcio Jack has a point but it also exposes the clear difference between a fan of Irish football and an Irish football fan. For one it is a question of local identity and pride, for the other it is a consumer choice. Supporting a club in Britain because they have an Irish link seems bizarre. And it only seems to happen at successful clubs, or clubs on the up.
For example, Scottish clubs Celtic and Hibs both have a strong Irish background, but the more successful club enjoys mass support in Ireland while the other only gets a trickle. If Celtic, for example, were a bog-standard Scottish D2 side would they be so popular in Ireland?
No. For some reason, most Irish people want to latch onto something that's British, but has an Irish accent, and that is or is about be successful.
It's definitely one for the psychologists.

[Fingal hoop]

Calcio Jack has a point but it also exposes the clear difference between a fan of Irish football and an Irish football fan. For one it is a question of local identity and pride, for the other it is a consumer choice. Supporting a club in Britain because they have an Irish link seems bizarre. And it only seems to happen at successful clubs, or clubs on the up.
For example, Scottish clubs Celtic and Hibs both have a strong Irish background, but the more successful club enjoys mass support in Ireland while the other only gets a trickle. If Celtic, for example, were a bog-standard Scottish D2 side would they be so popular in Ireland?
No. For some reason, most Irish people want to latch onto something that's British, but has an Irish accent, and that is or is about be successful.
It's definitely one for the psychologists.

Id say Celtic enjoys more support because Hibs did try to diffuse their Irish past -they tried to make Celtic take down the tricolour & they also took the harp of their gates. Maybe the Irish in Glasgow had a harder time than the irish in Edinburgh & thats why Celtic clung to their roots thus making them more appealing to people here - Who knows- Id be more concerned about Irish people following teams with no links to the diaspora which is a lot more bizarre

[Steve Bruce]

I'm sure your buddies in Cliftonville will have a special way of thanking you for pointing this out to them.....

Or indeed yourselves

[dcfcsteve]

Or indeed yourselves

Indeed ! Though we don't pretend to be different things depending on who we're supporting for or against.

[Steve Bruce]

Indeed ! Though we don't pretend to be different things depending on who we're supporting for or against.

To be honest I haven't a clue what your getting at. But if it is political pm me. I've had enough pm warnings lately

[BohsPartisan]

most Irish people want to latch onto something that's British, but has an Irish accent, and that is or is about be successful.

Similarly British people latched onto something Irish that has a British Accent and was for a while relatively successfull but was dropped like a hot potato when the success dried up - Pierce Brosnan.

[Steve Bruce]

Similarly British people latched onto something Irish that has a British Accent and was for a while relatively successfull but was dropped like a hot potato when the success dried up - Pierce Brosnan.

For a second there I thought you where talking about the Republic of Irelands 94 World cup team

[BohsPartisan]

For a second there I thought you where talking about the Republic of Irelands 94 World cup team

You are actually on to something there. I remember a lot of English people were obsessed with Ireland in that world cup.
Mind you a lot of Jamaican shirts were sold down here in 98.

[Calcio Jack]

Calcio Jack has a point but it also exposes the clear difference between a fan of Irish football and an Irish football fan. For one it is a question of local identity and pride, for the other it is a consumer choice. Supporting a club in Britain because they have an Irish link seems bizarre. And it only seems to happen at successful clubs, or clubs on the up.
For example, Scottish clubs Celtic and Hibs both have a strong Irish background, but the more successful club enjoys mass support in Ireland while the other only gets a trickle. If Celtic, for example, were a bog-standard Scottish D2 side would they be so popular in Ireland?
No. For some reason, most Irish people want to latch onto something that's British, but has an Irish accent, and that is or is about be successful.
It's definitely one for the psychologists.

Don't agree re it being one for the psychologists.... hate to use cliche type response...but this is just another example of the global villiage/global market linked to our open economy...as I said earlier it goes with the territory... or would anyone prefer that we went back to being a banana republic ruled by the Catholic Church who ran the Goverment and made sure that the mantra was "foreign bad, Irish good.." .... oh my goodness its just struck me.. the ghost of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid is alive and kicking and has taken over the minds of some of some officials within the GAA

[Steve Bruce]

You are actually on to something there. I remember a lot of English people were obsessed with Ireland in that world cup.
Mind you a lot of Jamaican shirts were sold down here in 98.

I lived in England at the time, you wouldn't believe the support the Republic got from the English people. Little do they know 90% of this island wouldn't want england to win the toss at the start of the game let alone the world cup.

[Dr.Nightdub]

The other morning in work, two guys who have practically no interest in LoI were talking to me about the Drogheda match. One of them is a staunch Dubs fan first and foremost, who recently shelled out €900 to bring his kid to a CL match in Anfield for a last-minute birthday present. Both were sufficiently gripped by what they saw on a minority-interest channel to stick with it for the whole 120 minutes and sufficiently engaged by it to talk about it the following day.

A couple of reasons I mention this:
1. Providing a spectacle of reasonably good quality on the pitch will attract people's interest
2. TV exposure is a huge help
I know it's a tiny sample of two but it does suggest that there's an audience of casual football fans (as opposed to football casuals) who CAN occasionally be woken out of their slumber.

While we are making progress on points 1 and 2 above, the stumbling block that'd stop me trying to persuade yer GAA man to come down to Richmond is that someone who's used to going to Croker regularly (or Anfield occasionally, or Old Trafford occasionally or any ground in England occasionally) is not going to get beyond the disparity in facilities / infrastructure.

All three - standard of product, TV exposure to a wider audience and infrastructure - need to be developed in tandem. Trouble is the infrastructure part needs someone with deep pockets.

Everyone's giving out about Quinn, going "Why wouldn't he invest in the LoI?" Wrong question, folks. It should be "Why WOULD he?" People are being naieve if they expect him or any other wealthy Irish person to invest in the LoI purely on the basis of geography or national affinity. That's not how investment works - Bulmers didn't launch a lager here to compete with all them fizzy foreign beers, they launched Magners cider in the UK cos that's where the bigger potential return lies. Quinn & co saw a potential return from investing in Sunderland and if they can keep Sunderland in the EPL for a while, they'll reap the rewards. Such an opportunity simply doesn't exist here, not in the same time scale anyway, so moaning about them investing in Sunderland is pretty pointless.

Stampp talked a lot about the non-financial aspects of Quinn's decision to pump money into Sunderland. The same applies to Kelleher and Pats (btw Charliesboots, everything you said about Mulryan and land in Sunderland can and has been said about Kelleher and land in Inchicore. Glasshouses, stones, mate. I know we share the same views about Special K, so I'm not having a go - just pointing out the inconsistency, that's all).

Kelleher is unusual in that he isn't putting money into Pats just for the financial return, there's an emotional dimension to it too, similar to Quinn's emotional attachment to Sunderland being a factor in him investing there. I know it took Andy O'Callaghan a very long time, probably over two years, to even just identify a potential investor like Kelleher. It took a further eight months and two attempts before he was persuaded to come on board.

For the sake of the rest of youse, and indeed the League in general, I hope other clubs' boards are working their way through the Irish version of Who's Who to identify potentially similar investors. Rovers have taken a bit of a different tack in terms of dependence on SDCCC / the government, Bohs and Drogheda seem to have at least identified tangible solutions even if neither has come to fruition yet, but I don't see much sign around the rest of the League of anyone trying to locate other golden geese.

Muttering darkly about Niall Quinn isn't going to re-invigorate anything other than the stereotype that LoI fans actually ENJOY being bitter, twisted and defeated. If Quinn chooses to wear his disco pants in Studio 54 rather than down the parish hall, so what, they're not the only trousers in town.