Good point about the penalty kick and history in Ireland. I just never saw that much interest in football when I lived there in the 70s and 80s - it all seemed to be about the 2 main gaelic games, so I wondered if there was really the same depth and history of passion and support for the football teams. But tbh, I just don't know.
The abrupt response to your last point - and don't jump to take this the wrong way - is that, viewed as a Sunderland supporter, it really doesn't matter much. As I said before, it's a traditional club with deep local support - at the end of the day if a few hundred fans come from Ireland to join 40000 mackems it's absolutely great and we'll really enjoy having them and hope they'll stay, but if they don't - well they'll be missed, but a few hundred isn't going to make much difference to the club, is it?
Bookmarks