Brolly does more than bite!

Ah here Mick clutching at straws now!

Ha ha Mick that comment made me laugh . If it was angry Nationalists they don't know their Football anyway.
Its not the two targeted players Mc Court and Mc Ginn are a loss to the ROI side .Last time i checked Mc Court was playing for Celtic reserves and Mc Ginn for South Londons finest Brentford

Your personal feelings on Joe Brolly and the GAA aside Mick, rather than 'resting your case', how about you debate the points of his article and point out where he is wrong?

Ha ha I notice on the NIreland board which cough cough .which I am "banned" from posting on nobody is prepared to dissect Brollys comments and point out whnre they believe he is wrong! Its Elephant in the room time with the focus deflected to the GAA!

OK ,I will tell you how the Brollsters article is flawed ( I cant believe you guys think its suitable journalism in any way)
Its meant to be an article about how Michael O'Neill is going to stop players defecting to the Eire team.
The first 2 paragraphs talk about the following
The 12th July
FDP Bands
The Shankill Road
NI unofficial anthem (is it really)
The Greysteels Murders

What in da hell is that to do with the NI team guys really?
Its really about pinning any ole sho'ite unto NI to make them look as bad as possible.
Not balanced ,no mention of how much the NI fans have adored Jennings,Rice,Armstrong,O'Neill ,McCourt etc over the years.
Its all no negative and unbalanced its just a bitter hatred of all things Northern Irish.
Its like saying I saw Sean Kelly in a ROI shirt therefore all ROI fans are bombers.

Well answer this Mick, you claim to be a ROI supporter, how come you don't support NI?

Why would I ?

Why do Reds fans from West Belfast support them and not DC?

You'd have to ask them.

Two simple questions:

1) Why do you support the ROI?
2) Why do you not support NI?

Surely an answer to those questions isn't too much to ask given that you're on here passing opinion on other people's views?

Er Mick, he isn't giving a 'balanced' view nor would I imagine he is claiming to, he's giving his opinion (in what I assume is his weekly opinion piece column) on why he thinks Nationalist don't support and are increasingly opting not to play for NI. He's giving his opinion on why he thinks Michael O'Neill ISN'T going to stop players defecting to the Eire team. Now, I agree it isn't ground breaking or indeed even original and I doubt Brolly is expecting a Pulitizer for it but to quote a line from it 'the reality is that the two cultures remain firmly segregated'. And that is the gist of the article anyway, it isn't some sort of expose on the IFA, it's basically about why NI have no meaningful support in the Nationalist community and the knock-on effect of players growing up supporting the ROI taking the logical next step and playing for them. The Billy Boys was indeed NI's 'unoffical anthem' for many years and he is simply putting in context where else you were likely to hear it apart from Windsor - ie somewhere you would not want to be if you were a Nationalist. He mentions Greysteel because NI supporters mocked the victims during the 1993 qualifier v ROI, hardly something that was likely to endear the NI team to a Nationalist community that already avoided going to their games like the plague!

In fact the photo that accompanies the article (not from 30, 20 or even 10 years ago but from one of NI's most recent internationals) probably explains his article better than I ever could, which is basically that the NI team represents the Union. And that isn’t me criticising them btw, each to their own and all that.