Bratislava

[Desyf]

I'm told that it goes against the constitution to put anything on the Tricolour.

I'm presuming this includes, "Hello Mum", or "Paddy's Bar, Ballygonowhere" etc.

Personally I don't see anything wrong with it at football matches though I can understand why people wouldn't like to see the word Chelsea on it.

But I can also understand the bloke who carries that around with him.

If you are an Irishman born in England it's great to show your pride in your Irish nationality by taking a tricolour around the grounds of England when you follow your local football team. Many, many people in England do not like to see a tricolour hanging in their ground and abusive incidents or worse can happen so it would be easy to take the flag down, take it home and lock it in a draw.

Think about that. The owner of one of these flags can be abused in England for the tricolour whilst following his football club, and then when he goes away to support his country, he can get abused then too.

Sounds like good fun to me.

[NY Hoop]

Fair enough.
The steward from Aalborg who was talking to me seemed to be taking more of an interest in the bloke with the Tourettes, but then I can hardly blame someone for going mad at an attempt to take, rip down, whatever, his flag.

Personally I agree with GSpain about this. Foreign clubs (as opposed to foreign towns) on flags should be excluded from Ireland games. And as I know the bloke who owns this flag, he knows my feelings. Not only because I particularly dislike Chelsea (and English football in general is not far behind) for a number of reasons, but it's just ridiculous.

But then we have this little thing called freedom of speech. You know, I'm sure Tourette boy's mate's 'Long Kesh' GAA top may offend a few people, and it can hardly be considered, in the literal sense, to have any connection to the side I was watching that day. Why he didn't wear his Galway United shirt, I don't know. Anyway, I don't know what kicked it all off. Maybe some people were bored of seeing Ireland win 4-0 away yet again.

Tourettes??

Every time I see the Long Kesh guy I ask him where his GUFC top is too! But he had the top with him on the trip and his big Galway flag........



KOH

[fergalr]

Babysis next time that happens smile and take the clowns pic on your phone! Also ask him what club he supports.

So the nutter who has a go at an English-born Irish fan is a clown ....

No idea who shams are but it was the chelsea clown that was taken away by the stewards at one point.
KOH

.... and the English-born Irish fan is a clown ....

I travel with 3 other lads and we have all commented on the amount of muppets now travelling to irish games.

.... and as for the muppets ....


And we think the FAI is a circus

[wooman]

ive been living in London the past few years and usually go to watch ireland games in O'neills or waxy o connors if im not at them. Always get chatting to different english lads who are in supporting Ireland and I couldnt have a better word to say about them

[sylvo]

Aw poor sylvo, you'll just have to dress like a girl next trip and ingest 100 helium balloons

What only 100, we'll need more then that.

[sylvo]

The incident with the flag in Aarhus and peoples stories from Bratislava are getting mixed into one, can the mods maybe split the thread please and maybe give this story from Aarhus a tread of its own.

If people are going to disagree over English clubs being written across the Tricolour, it would be better sort it out here on the forum, rather then having words with each other face to face and having what we had in Denmark with local stewards and other fans having to intervene.

[gspain]

Agreed...Partick Thistle are nothing really to crow about!!.......ps Happy Birthday!!

i was actually thinking of the team Thistle stuck 4 past in a League Cup final but Partick are not an appropriate team to put on a tricolour either.

I don't think any British club is appropriate to put on a tricolour. However I also don't agree with intervening and trying to take the said flag down.

[Desyf]

But most of the people who would react in that aggressive manner to an English club's name on an Irish flag surely can't read or write and wouldn't be on a board like this ?

Most of the descriptions that I've seen of these characters aren't too clever and there does seem to be a consistent factor running through a lot of them.

They are f#cking thick.

Unless in this particular case they just don't like Chelsea.

If they are questioning somebody's right to follow Ireland just because of an English accent, this somebody that they probably have never met and know sweet fa about, then I question their intelligence and knowledge of their own country's history.

The best reaction would be to ignore them but sometimes that just is not an option.
I'm not too sure how I'd react in that situation but it can't be easy.

[Ash]

Just getting away from the flag issues for a moment, I just had a funny
flashback to Bratislava ...

Schloomp and meself were having a feed of drink in the Dubliner on the
Friday and ended up chatting to a gang of lads from Dublin. One of them
was the cut out of Staunton so naturally we slagged him off about it for
ages.

Saturday we saw him and he didnt look too healthy and had a fierce shakey
hand. Let a roar over to him "Hey, mini Stan" and he came over to us going
on about 2 drunken cnuts who had been calling him that the night before

Then he thought that I was Schloomps father
(Usually people think we're brothers!!!)
(We're not related at all btw!!!!)

[NY Hoop]

So the nutter who has a go at an English-born Irish fan is a clown ....


.... and the English-born Irish fan is a clown ....


.... and as for the muppets ....


And we think the FAI is a circus

I'll make it easy for you. Anybody who slags off anyone with a foreign accent who supports Ireland is obviously an ignoramus. Through the years I've met a few with english accents who would know more about the league here than the natives.

However if anyone, no matter where they are from, brings a tricolour with chelsea (a notoriously anti Irish club) to an Ireland game they can expect abuse.

Clear?


KOH

[eirebhoy]

Myself and four of my mates absolutely loved Bratislava and are planning on goign back soon, I walked around the so called bad part in the suburbs wearing an Ireland jersey and all i got was handshakes. Met loads of locals and went to a party in a ballymun flat type place with all my friends. Maybe its the Irish fans who fell out of the Dubliner and without knowing it (coz they were so drunk) started singing rebel songs in the locals faces, trying to annoy them. They were the ones who woke up with black eyes. Beautiful clean city, cheap drink, great public transport, fantastic looking women! The opposite of Dublin!!

Prague is a sleazy s hit hole! Great buildings though..

Is there anyone that actually liked both cities?

We were in the karaoke dungeon bar on the friday night.

I think we ended up there most nights in Bratislava. The first night we were there was the best because nobody knew about it. By the Sunday night it was absolutely jammers. Sweat pumping out of everyone.

The hotel we were checked into was a right old s*** hole. It was the 15 storey building around the corner from tesco.

We stayed there too. All you want is a place to sleep anyway. THe staff in there were fantastic though. Really nice.

[Desyf]

We stayed in an apartment block behind Tescos almost in their carpark. It looked derelict from the outside and had been up till quite recently I reckon but they have started renovation work on each floor in turn.

Wasn't bad really.

I enjoyed both cities but then again I didn't have any horrible experiences in either, apart from the f#cking football !!

Prague is way better to visit though, so many places to eat and drink it was unbelievable.

[lopez]

...chelsea (a notoriously anti Irish club)...

They have (or did have) some notoriously anti-Irish supporters, but on what basis would you compare the club itself with Glasgow Rangers, which did discriminate against the (Catholic) Irish?

Ken Bates banned Terry Last and co from Stanford Bridge despite them being cleared on appeal in 1989. The attack on the author of the Chelsea Independent Fanzine in Prague, led by the notorious ex C18 gimp Will Browning, followed him actively criticising the loyalism and fascism of certain fans. And I did say 'had' because I'd find it hypocritical of the likes of Last, Browning or their neo nazi associates, following a side now owned and managed by Jews. Oh wait for it, it was owned by a Jew before Bates took over.

In contrast, there are many 2G Irish and blacks that support the club. I suppose they start at an age when the political ideologies of Last and Browning are a bit too complicated to make them choose a less 'anti-Irish' club.

Saying all that: I hate Chelsea.

[Green Tribe]

What only 100, we'll need more then that.

Well now you're probably right, more like 10,000

[Green Tribe]

D

Then he thought that I was Schloomps father
(Usually people think we're brothers!!!)
(We're not related at all btw!!!!)

heh heh, that's class, actually yous do look a little alike, I'll send yous that pic i took of yous in your matching hats!

[Sligo Hornet]

Just getting away from the flag issues for a moment, I just had a funny
flashback to Bratislava ...

Schloomp and meself were having a feed of drink in the Dubliner on the
Friday and ended up chatting to a gang of lads from Dublin. One of them
was the cut out of Staunton so naturally we slagged him off about it for
ages.

Saturday we saw him and he didnt look too healthy and had a fierce shakey
hand. Let a roar over to him "Hey, mini Stan" and he came over to us going
on about 2 drunken cnuts who had been calling him that the night before

Then he thought that I was Schloomps father
(Usually people think we're brothers!!!)(We're not related at all btw!!!!)

Two nightmares in one........poor Ol' Ash!!

[Superhoops]

However if anyone, no matter where they are from, brings a tricolour with chelsea (a notoriously anti Irish club) to an Ireland game they can expect abuse.

Clear?


KOH

Is this the same Chelsea who John Dempsey, Paddy Mulligan, Andy Townsend, Tony Cascarino and Damian Duff played for?

And the same Chelsea who last year signed the brightest talent of his age group, Conor Clifford?

Real anti-Irish policy in force there

[NY Hoop]

Is this the same Chelsea who John Dempsey, Paddy Mulligan, Andy Townsend, Tony Cascarino and Damian Duff played for?

And the same Chelsea who last year signed the brightest talent of his age group, Conor Clifford?

Real anti-Irish policy in force there

Obviously I meant the fans and you dont understand what they're like. What part of london you from then?

Again:

Here's an extract form Patrick West's "Beating them at their own game".

In the late 1970’s and 80’s, the London [Chelsea] club’s fans were notorious not only for displays of hooliganism, but for elements who attached themselves to the far right and indeed the Loyalist cause. When Chelsea’s first black player, Paul Canoville, made his debut in April 1982, coming on as a substitute against Crystal Palace, he was met with a chorus of boos, hisses and racist chants – from his own fans.

During these dark days, many of the team’s supporters, by wearing, “No Surrender” scarves and hats, and chanting anti-Irish slogans, openly aligned themselves with Glasgow Rangers and Linfield with some creating an organisation called the “Blues Brothers”, linking all three clubs.
Songs such as “No Surrender to the IRA”, “Hello, Hello, We Are the Billy Boys” and – neatly combining two prejudices for the price of one “I’d Rather Be a Darkie than a Tim” were sometimes heard.

Unlike Liverpool, Arsenal or Millwall, who had a sizeable contingent of Irish and second-generation Irish fans, and Irish players, Chelsea were regarded not merely as not an “Irish team” but as a positively anti-Irish team.
I remember standing in “the Shed” at Stamford Bridge as a teenager in the late 1980’s and having to listen to the man next to me spend the ninety minutes shouting abuse at Tony Cascarino, calling him a “f__king Fenian *******” whenever the Millwall player (who, incidentally has no Irish blood in him and was later to play for Chelsea) touched the ball.

Until the 1980’s the club’s only Irish-born Republic of Ireland internationals had been Dick Whittaker, who played once for Ireland in 1959, and Pat Mulligan, a defender who spent three years at Chelsea between 1969 and 1972.
On the other hand, Chelsea had always employed the services of Irish northern Protestants, pre- and post-war, from Johnny Kirwan, who turned out for Ireland in 1906, to Sam Irving, wing-half back of the 1920’s and 1930’s, and a moustachioed Kevin Wilson in the 1980’s. Their only Irish manager to date is Ulsterman Danny Blanchflower.



KOH

[supasparx]

Obviously I meant the fans and you dont understand what they're like. What part of london you from then?

Again:

Here's an extract form Patrick West's "Beating them at their own game".

In the late 1970’s and 80’s, the London [Chelsea] club’s fans were notorious not only for displays of hooliganism, but for elements who attached themselves to the far right and indeed the Loyalist cause. When Chelsea’s first black player, Paul Canoville, made his debut in April 1982, coming on as a substitute against Crystal Palace, he was met with a chorus of boos, hisses and racist chants – from his own fans.

During these dark days, many of the team’s supporters, by wearing, “No Surrender” scarves and hats, and chanting anti-Irish slogans, openly aligned themselves with Glasgow Rangers and Linfield with some creating an organisation called the “Blues Brothers”, linking all three clubs.
Songs such as “No Surrender to the IRA”, “Hello, Hello, We Are the Billy Boys” and – neatly combining two prejudices for the price of one “I’d Rather Be a Darkie than a Tim” were sometimes heard.

Unlike Liverpool, Arsenal or Millwall, who had a sizeable contingent of Irish and second-generation Irish fans, and Irish players, Chelsea were regarded not merely as not an “Irish team” but as a positively anti-Irish team.
I remember standing in “the Shed” at Stamford Bridge as a teenager in the late 1980’s and having to listen to the man next to me spend the ninety minutes shouting abuse at Tony Cascarino, calling him a “f__king Fenian *******” whenever the Millwall player (who, incidentally has no Irish blood in him and was later to play for Chelsea) touched the ball.

Until the 1980’s the club’s only Irish-born Republic of Ireland internationals had been Dick Whittaker, who played once for Ireland in 1959, and Pat Mulligan, a defender who spent three years at Chelsea between 1969 and 1972.
On the other hand, Chelsea had always employed the services of Irish northern Protestants, pre- and post-war, from Johnny Kirwan, who turned out for Ireland in 1906, to Sam Irving, wing-half back of the 1920’s and 1930’s, and a moustachioed Kevin Wilson in the 1980’s. Their only Irish manager to date is Ulsterman Danny Blanchflower.



KOH

It's now 2007, let it be ffs. I'm tired of this debate.

[Moscow Mule]

It's now 2007, let it be ffs. I'm tired of this debate.

Echo Supa.

Time to move on and focus on the match as a collective, inclusive set of supporters.