The Court of Arbitration in Sport finds in favour of the FAI over players born in 06

[Amach na Casca]

A couple of observations on this.
During what was known as the "Home Internationals" which continued up to the 1980's there was a lot of uncertainty amongst the home support in Windsor Park whenever NI played Scotland. It was always a source of amusement when the team numbers were being announced over the tannoy when John Greig or some other Rangers player was named a massive cheer went up whilst any Celtic player from Scotland was roundly jeered. Unfortunately the jeering also extended to any Catholic players on the NI team. This included the so called fans favourite Pat jennings who was regularly the target of coins being thrown from the home support. The hero worship of jennings was latterly in his career, particularly after his World Cup exploits.
Another oddity which I heard from a BBC broadcast of an item on George Best was the crowd chanting "Ireland, Ireland" at windsor Park in the late '60's. The chant of "Northern Ireland" was of more recent vintage.

Yep norn iron fans abusing their own teams players, what a classy bunch. What right minded Taig would want to play for that shower I ask you. At least the door is now ajar for a mass exodus to play for the republic. Happy days.

[pinemartin]

great decision today for irish football. means all these guys can play for the country of their birth.yeeeeessssssss

[rockofcashel]

If I was born in Brazil, and both my parents were Brazillians then yes that would pretty much make me Brazillian. It would be utterly bizarre to believe otherwise no?

well the youngster in todays case, was born in Ireland

[Portstewart]

well the youngster in todays case, was born in Ireland

And McGeady and McCarthy?

Born and bred Scots no?

[British Citizen]

These players switching their allegiance to a foreign country are showing only their own blinkered sectarian views.

Yet again though, it's all the prods fault.... lol

[rockofcashel]

These players switching their allegiance to a foreign country are showing only their own blinkered sectarian views.

Yet again though, it's all the prods fault.... lol

Not at all.. they consider themselves Irish, they want to play for Ireland.. what;s the problem

[British Citizen]

Not at all.. they consider themselves Irish, they want to play for Ireland.. what;s the problem

Well how's it Unionists fault then?

If they are Irish and want to play for Ireland surely there's nothing we can do to change their mind?

[Portstewart]

Not at all.. they consider themselves Irish, they want to play for Ireland.. what;s the problem

So we can't laugh at them for not actually being Irish then?

Does it offend you as much as pictures of Thierry Henry the Northern Ireland legend?

[Portstewart]

What about this one?

[pujols]

It kills me to read this divisiveness in relation to Irish football.

I have always wanted NI to do well when not in direct competition with the ROI. 1982 against Spain is one of my favourite footballing memories.

Whether or not a UI team is ever a possibility, it behooves us to get behind each other when we can. I have been to almost as many games at Winsdor Park as I have Lansdowne and while it can be pretty rough there, I have also heard some pretty nasty chants in Landsdowne as well. I remember one about good King Billy which I won't repeat here.

It's time to put this history behind us.

Whichever side a player chooses to play for, I will support them.

Football is more important than politics.