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.
Brolly does more than bite!
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posted on 27/1/12
Why do Reds fans from West Belfast support them and not DC?
posted on 27/1/12
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?
posted on 27/1/12
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.
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