Unsurprisingly (the world did not end when God Save The Queen was played at Croke Park yesterday. England fans sang the anthem, Ireland fans maintained a respectful silence. The Republican Sinn Fein protest outside the stadium amounted about 150 idiots and throwbacks.
And then there was a Rugby match. The score? Ireland 43 – England 13!
Showing posts with label Rugby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rugby. Show all posts
24 February 2007
Rugby, anthems and controversy
Croke ParkNot only should today’s England-Ireland match be a great game it will be also make history. This is the first time the fixture is being staged at the GAA stadium at Croke Park rather than at Lansdowne Road which is currently being redeveloped. The GAA had to make a significant rule change to allow “foreign” sports (ie, British ones) to be played there . Croke Park was also the site of a massacre by British forces in 1920 (see this previous post for some brief details of the first “Bloody Sunday”).
However, even if Ireland were to trash England (A result I would applaud despite having a birthplace and an accent that should place me firmly in the England camp!) or England were to rise to the challenge (like the French did two weeks ago) and best Ireland, today’s match is more likely to be remembered for the playing of a national anthem than the rugby itself.
Even though it has apparently been played at Croke Park before without comment (during 2003’s Special Olympics in 2003) England’s use of the National anthem has stirred up a degree of ill feeling. The prospect of an English rugby team being greeted by an Irish army band performing God Save the Queen is still apparently too much for some.
J J Barrett, the son of a famous Gaelic sportsman announced earlier this week that he would withdraw his father's medal collection from the museum at Croke Park in protest at the decision to play the British national anthem this weekend.
"I cannot reconcile the provocative words of God Save The Queen being sung in the very stadium where Michael Hogan and others died at the hands of crown forces on Bloody Sunday," he wrote in a published letter. "… I believe the GAA should have foreseen this problem when they rented out Croke Park and instead insisted on an England's Call type of musical prelude. If we accept alternative anthem, Ireland's Call, as a mark of reconciliation, (because the Ireland team represents the whole island of Ireland it does not use the Irish national anthem, a Soldier’s song) then surely the English followers could forego the playing of God Save the Queen as a reciprocal gesture?"
Meanwhile Republican Sinn Féin, a small dissident faction opposed to the peace process, is planning a protest near the ground. But not everyone feels so strongly about the anthem issue. Michael Hogan, nephew of Mick Hogan, a footballer who was killed during the first Bloody Sunday, has called on Irish supporters to respect the English team’s national anthem before the start of the game.
“The English team and supporters are our guests for the weekend, so we will have to welcome them. We have to respect their anthem as well. If the Irish team was over in Twickenham, they’d respect our anthem. I haven’t anything against them (the English team). Sport is sport. It all happened before our time. We’re a different generation now. We have to move on in this day and age.”
To be honest I do not care for the God Save the Queen. It is a tedious dirge and a Soldier’s Song, is not an awful lot better. I personally think the England team could find a far better anthem but their choice is their choice and to should be respected. It is not intended as a slight to the memory of a terrible event that took place at Croke Park 87 years ago. Like the vast majority of other people who will be watching today’s match my real interest is in what will be happening in the 80 or so minutes after the anthems are played!
23 February 2007
Failing the Rugby Test.
I won’t even start talking about Norman Tebbit’s old cricket test: It’s not a case of not supporting England in test matches, I don’t have the slightest interest in a game that can last five days and still end in a draw. Okay it has a few great moments but an awful lot of bloody tedious hours.
Even though I was forced to play Rugby at school I do enjoy watching a good match and I do hope tomorrow’s England – Ireland match will be a good one. As for which side I’ll be wanting to win? The following badge will give a clue:
Even though I was forced to play Rugby at school I do enjoy watching a good match and I do hope tomorrow’s England – Ireland match will be a good one. As for which side I’ll be wanting to win? The following badge will give a clue:
13 February 2007
A Hain, a wreath and the first Bloody Sunday
Lansdowne Road, the home of Irish rugby (The Irish rugby team represents the whole of the island) and where the Republic’s Football team plays its home internationals, is undergoing a major renovation and will be unavailable for use until 2009. In the meantime the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has allowed both teams to use its ground at Croke Park.
That the GAA has allowed rugby and football matches to be played at Croke Park required a change in its rules: until 2005 there was a ban on “foreign” sports using GAA grounds (The ban seemed to be against Football and Rugby and I suppose Cricket and Hockey too. Croke Park had been the venue for an American football match in the 80s). The first British “foreign” sport to be played there was the Ireland – France Six Nations rugby international which France won 20-17
Ireland plays England there on 24 February. According to Sunday’s Observer (Not sure how I missed it, I can thank Gert for highlighting it) at the Northern Ireland Office is considering plans for the Secretary of State, Peter Hain, to lay a wreath at a memorial to Gaelic sports fans shot dead by British forces inside the stadium in 1920 and issue an apology from the British government for what has become known as the first Bloody Sunday massacre.
Briefly, 21 November 1920 was a particularly bloody day during the Irish War of Independence. On the morning of 21 November, IRA teams acting on the orders of Michael Collins mounted an operation aimed at destroying the British intelligence network in Dublin. The operation was successful and 14 agents were killed.
In the afternoon 5000 spectators had gathered in Croke Park to attend a football match between Dublin and Tipperary. A police force was given the task of surrounding the venue with the stated intention of searching all males leaving the stadium. Shots seem to have been fired at the police convoy as it arrived at the stadium. The police entered the ground and fired into the crowd. 14 people died, either shot or trampled to death by fleeing spectators.
November 21 was a disastrous day for British rule in Ireland. Not only was British Intelligence in Ireland crippled the deaths at Coke Park increased support for the republican government.
The proposals to lay a wreath are opposed by Irish rugby veterans and Unionist MPs. Hard line republicans are unsurprisingly disgusted that a British “foreign” sport would be held at Croke Park in the first place.
Former Ireland international Trevor Ringland said that the proposal posed great dangers for peace and reconciliation. Ringland, who runs the anti-sectarian 'One Small Step' campaign in Northern Ireland, said: 'The fact that this game is being played at Croke Park, thanks to the generous decision of the Gaelic Athletic Association, will have positive ripple effects for the future. But plans for a wreath-laying ceremony and the apology will only mix sport with politics. It will bring the politics of the 20th century into the attempts at reconciliation in the 21st century. The government should think again before going ahead with something like this.'
Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson accused the Northern Ireland Office of “'monumental stupidity”. 'Whoever thought up this bright idea ought to consign it now to the dustbin of history. Rugby has always been a community where politics and sports do not mix. I sincerely hope this plan is dropped immediately, as it would outrage thousands of rugby fans, not only in Northern Ireland but also across this island.'
English fans may well encounter republican protests at the game. The breakaway nationalist group Republican Sinn Fein (RSF), which opposes the peace process, has confirmed it will picket the match. The political allies of the Continuity IRA said playing the game at Croke Park - the home of Gaelic sports in Ireland - was part of a process to 'normalise the occupation of Ireland'. Des Dalton, RSF's vice-president, said: 'The political symbolism of inviting the national team of a country which forcibly occupies part of Ireland to Croke Park is something Irish republicans are determined to publicly protest against.'
What to say about tall of this? I am glad that the GAA has overturned its anachronistic rule against rugby and football matches being held at its grounds . Doctrine and dogma aside, it will surely be a very profitable venture for them. As for the wreath - will it undo what happened nearly 90 years ago? Of course not. Can it be anything else other than an empty gesture? . I somehow get the feeling that the only thing laid to rest will be the proposal itself! I hope it is a good game and failing the cricket test, sorry, rugby test I hope Ireland are victorious! As ever I wish old throwbacks like the RSF went the way of the dinosaurs.
That the GAA has allowed rugby and football matches to be played at Croke Park required a change in its rules: until 2005 there was a ban on “foreign” sports using GAA grounds (The ban seemed to be against Football and Rugby and I suppose Cricket and Hockey too. Croke Park had been the venue for an American football match in the 80s). The first British “foreign” sport to be played there was the Ireland – France Six Nations rugby international which France won 20-17
Ireland plays England there on 24 February. According to Sunday’s Observer (Not sure how I missed it, I can thank Gert for highlighting it) at the Northern Ireland Office is considering plans for the Secretary of State, Peter Hain, to lay a wreath at a memorial to Gaelic sports fans shot dead by British forces inside the stadium in 1920 and issue an apology from the British government for what has become known as the first Bloody Sunday massacre.
Briefly, 21 November 1920 was a particularly bloody day during the Irish War of Independence. On the morning of 21 November, IRA teams acting on the orders of Michael Collins mounted an operation aimed at destroying the British intelligence network in Dublin. The operation was successful and 14 agents were killed.
In the afternoon 5000 spectators had gathered in Croke Park to attend a football match between Dublin and Tipperary. A police force was given the task of surrounding the venue with the stated intention of searching all males leaving the stadium. Shots seem to have been fired at the police convoy as it arrived at the stadium. The police entered the ground and fired into the crowd. 14 people died, either shot or trampled to death by fleeing spectators.
November 21 was a disastrous day for British rule in Ireland. Not only was British Intelligence in Ireland crippled the deaths at Coke Park increased support for the republican government.
The proposals to lay a wreath are opposed by Irish rugby veterans and Unionist MPs. Hard line republicans are unsurprisingly disgusted that a British “foreign” sport would be held at Croke Park in the first place.
Former Ireland international Trevor Ringland said that the proposal posed great dangers for peace and reconciliation. Ringland, who runs the anti-sectarian 'One Small Step' campaign in Northern Ireland, said: 'The fact that this game is being played at Croke Park, thanks to the generous decision of the Gaelic Athletic Association, will have positive ripple effects for the future. But plans for a wreath-laying ceremony and the apology will only mix sport with politics. It will bring the politics of the 20th century into the attempts at reconciliation in the 21st century. The government should think again before going ahead with something like this.'
Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson accused the Northern Ireland Office of “'monumental stupidity”. 'Whoever thought up this bright idea ought to consign it now to the dustbin of history. Rugby has always been a community where politics and sports do not mix. I sincerely hope this plan is dropped immediately, as it would outrage thousands of rugby fans, not only in Northern Ireland but also across this island.'
English fans may well encounter republican protests at the game. The breakaway nationalist group Republican Sinn Fein (RSF), which opposes the peace process, has confirmed it will picket the match. The political allies of the Continuity IRA said playing the game at Croke Park - the home of Gaelic sports in Ireland - was part of a process to 'normalise the occupation of Ireland'. Des Dalton, RSF's vice-president, said: 'The political symbolism of inviting the national team of a country which forcibly occupies part of Ireland to Croke Park is something Irish republicans are determined to publicly protest against.'
What to say about tall of this? I am glad that the GAA has overturned its anachronistic rule against rugby and football matches being held at its grounds . Doctrine and dogma aside, it will surely be a very profitable venture for them. As for the wreath - will it undo what happened nearly 90 years ago? Of course not. Can it be anything else other than an empty gesture? . I somehow get the feeling that the only thing laid to rest will be the proposal itself! I hope it is a good game and failing the cricket test, sorry, rugby test I hope Ireland are victorious! As ever I wish old throwbacks like the RSF went the way of the dinosaurs.
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