Engerland!

One of life’s little pleasures is to receive a message out of the blue from a long lost friend. This happened to me around Christmas 2001, when one of those old fashioned airmail envelopes arrived at my parents’ house. It was from a friend that I worked with in Luxembourg several years earlier who had found an old letter from me when she was moving house.

For younger readers, that’s how we used to communicate with each other in the 90’s. You might have somebody’s landline, but we were rarely home in those dance filled days, so the best way of getting a message to them was through an old fashioned letter in the post.

Anyway, we started using a new- fangled communication method called e-mail and even got to meet on one occasion. She was English and a devout Christian, so we spent most of our day together in St Paul’s Cathedral in London, mouthing sweet nothing’s to each other in the whispering gallery.

My memory is hazy, but I think I might have harboured romantic intentions, but obviously not strongly enough to do anything about them.

Our email exchanges continued up to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea. Ireland and England both qualified for that competition and she mentioned in an exchange that she’d be cheering for Ireland in our match against Spain and said she presumed that I’d reciprocate when England were playing Denmark. I replied that 700 years of history prevented me from supporting England in any endeavour.

I was then subjected to what would now be called ‘ghosting’. I haven’t heard from her since.

I mention this because it highlights the sensitivities English people feel towards the lack of support from Ireland for their national football team.

There are some in Ireland who see this as our problem. That we have a national chip on our shoulder or that it shows common currency with the extremists who supported the IRA during the troubles. They argue that a modern, self-confident country wouldn’t feel the need to dislike their neighbours. The people who put forward this point can be found arguing for Ireland to re-join the Commonwealth and proudly display mugs with the image of Princess Diana on their mantle-pieces.  

I think this argument misunderstands the nature of sport. That it is all about liking one team and having a rivalry with another. It also misunderstands the nature of International sport. The key part of this word is “nation”. We fly flags, sing national anthems, kiss badges but then try to pretend that the events have nothing to do with the history of the countries involved.  

This is a particular problem with England. They have a colonial past and have left a trail of misery across Africa, Asia and Ireland. And in the old Empire countries that were populated by European settlement, they have made themselves unpopular by using the young of those countries as cannon fodder in their various wars. I’ve lived in Australia and New Zealand and they choose England as the country they would most like to see lose at sport, if only because the English patronised and humiliated them in the early days of the Empire.

There is an assumption that if you hold a sporting bias, then you must hate the people who support those teams. I support Louth in Gaelic Football, Wexford in Hurling, Carlton in AFL and Arsenal in English football. As a result, I dislike Meath, Kilkenny, Collingwood and Tottenham Hotspur. I know many people who support these teams and while I enjoy winding them up and they like winding me up, I don’t dislike them as people. Some of them are my best friends.

Only my English friends seem to have a problem with this sporting rivalry. It’s ironic, when they have no problem laughing at German losses.

I wonder what the reasons for this are? I sometimes think that English people have a soft spot for Ireland. That we are the young cousin, that despite a few rebellious years, are still fondly looked upon. They love our sense of humour, admire our music and flock to our pubs.  And maybe they can’t except when that beloved younger cousin laughs at your pitfalls.

But maybe it’s just that old fashioned lack of proportion that sometimes happens in sport. I mentioned that I’m a Wexford hurling fan. While we have an enmity towards Kilkenny, it’s not reciprocated. They have ten times as many titles as Wexford and as a result they see us an irritant and not a rival. Even more frustratingly, they’ll patronise Wexford fans on the few occasions we beat them. We’d much prefer it if they hated us.

England must feel the same towards us. We had a few good years in the 80s and 90s but they don’t really see us as a threat. We struggle to make tournament finals whereas they are always looking to win them.

This doesn’t happen in Rugby. Ireland are on a par with England, if not better, and as a result, no English fan expects support from Ireland.

I might be wrong of course. Maybe I do harbour some deep seated republican sympathies. I bristle at Ireland being included in the “British Isles” for example and particularly when people describe it as “just a geographical description”. I also get annoyed when commentators talk about The British Lions instead of their proper title of British and Irish Lions.

Rationally, I accept that I come from an island that has a long intertwined relationship with its neighbour. My surname, for example, has English roots. There is a lot at play. History, politics and the normal rivalries that come with sport. I try to take all this into account and to be as fair-minded as possible. But that didn’t stop me emitting a guttural roar and leaping out of my seat and punching the air when Harry Kane smashed that penalty over the bar against France.