It’s strange that Michael O’Neill is banging on about Catholicism and doesn’t once talk about Irishness.
In an outrageous interview with the Irish Daily Mail, O’Neill accuses the FAI of only being interested in Catholics when recruiting players from Derry, Antrim, Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Down. Catholics.
He talks about having a problem when the FAI come in for teenagers from the north. He doesn’t stop to consider that they’re only taking Irish men to come play for the Republic – they’re taking their own men.
But when the manager of the Northern Ireland senior football team comes out and has a little whinge about the FAI approaching players – their compatriots – you get worse follow-ups in reaction to it.
You get people saying that it’s okay for Catholics to play for Northern Ireland and, yes, it is. But it’s also okay for Irish people to play for Ireland.
And, then, you get idiots taking it further still and saying that footballers born in the north should only be allowed to play for the north and that’s that.
Michael O’Neill quite correct to call out the sectarian agenda of the FAI. Players born in NI should play for NI, or not play at all.
— Jamie Bryson (@JamieBrysonCPNI) March 4, 2018
Let’s just abandon the Good Friday Agreement, shall we, because Michael O’Neill is losing out on players. Losing out on Irish players, for that matter.
In fact, Northern Ireland complaining about Irish men joining the Republic is about as futile as Ireland bemoaning Jack Grealish’s decision to give it a go with England. Jack Grealish is English. His mum is English, his dad is English and, whilst it’s frustrating because Ireland invested time and money into him at underage level, the bare bones of the matter are that he’s English and given the choice, it’s not difficult for him to choose England over Ireland.
Likewise, it’s understandably annoying as f**k, especially for coaches in the IFA, when players they’ve developed from no age then go on to declare for the Republic. Of course you can have sympathy for people who are doing great work for Northern Ireland but, just like Grealish is English, the reality is that those players switching to the Republic are Irish.
Honestly, what can you really expect? They’re working with players who have an allegiance to a different nation – socially, culturally, politically – and they’ll move when they get the call so it’s not so much a risk as it is a foregone conclusion.
And the situation has added difficulties because players in the north are automatically in the Northern Ireland Schoolboys system and, from there, get picked up by Northern Ireland international teams. It’s not their fault that they wound up in that process – if anything, the FAI standing idly by and allowing it to happen, instead of picking these boys up sooner, is neglecting a massive, massive proportion of talented Irishmen on the island.
Why Northern Ireland can only lose – @ConanDoherty speaks with Darron Gibson's Northern Ireland under-16 coach https://t.co/1LFXbdRnW7
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 24, 2017
Then Michael O’Neill comes out and stokes the flames in a piece with the Irish Daily Mail.
“The FAI only ever approach one type of player: Catholic,” he said.
It’s honestly hard to fathom what O’Neill is talking about here. The Republic of Ireland attract Irish players – a lot of them are Catholic, just like a lot of Catholics now consider themselves Northern Irish.
And what even is the point? Does he want the FAI to be non-discriminant in its approach and just go after everyone in the north and try to take players away from Northern Ireland who aren’t actually Irish? If we humour his loose generalisations, does he want the FAI to approach both Catholics and Protestants?
Remember – it’s absolutely crucial that everyone remembers this very basic matter – the Good Friday Agreement 20 years ago meant people in Northern Ireland legally had a right to be Irish nationals with Irish passports with free travel to and from the six counties. So there are the guts of 900,000 people up north who consider themselves Irish and they are politically allowed to do that, even though they are growing up under the rule of the United Kingdom.
That means a lot of the footballers Michael O’Neill is bemoaning the loss of – Catholic or not – are Irish who have every right to play for their country and who their country has every right to come calling for. In fact, the only crime is that they don’t do it sooner and allow these Irish people to become the subject of controversy every single time.
Being from the north and supporting the Republic isn't a choice; it's just who you are http://t.co/oA1HazYJBx pic.twitter.com/ivIDcyW3PO
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 7, 2015
“I don’t have a problem with James McClean,” Michael O’Neill said. “He was 22 years of age, he knew what he wanted. I have a problem when it’s a 16, 17 or 18 year old having to make a decision on his international future.”
So, is the idea to try and tie down players who apparently don’t know what they want yet?
Is the problem with approaching 16 and 17-year-olds that they’re more impressionable?
Why’s it any better that Northern Ireland would try to influence someone of that age and the Republic can’t? Especially when the player in question is Irish – in heart, in mind and in right.
“I can list you 10 players who have made that decision and have never represented the Republic.”
Right… then… go back and get those players. What’s the issue?
They’re uncapped. Their international careers haven’t been ruined. They’re still available.
If they don’t think they’ll play for Ireland – their country – they might represent the north, like a lot of Irish people have done and are doing.
“I hope that Martin and I can get some sort of gentleman’s agreement whereby if a young boy has represented Northern Ireland at age 17 to 21, the FAI don’t ask him to change.”
Honestly, it isn’t the worst idea and, actually, what would happen there is that players who want to play for the Republic just wouldn’t represent Northern Ireland at that age.
Under the old rules, had Darron Gibson played in UEFA competition for Northern Ireland at under-17 level, he’d have been tied to them – so he didn’t play even though he was asked and that sped up the whole thing when he was switching teams. He’s from Derry, he’s Irish and he would’ve preferred to play for the Republic so putting a stipulation like that in place would actually make things a lot clearer.
Irish people wouldn’t declare for the north so frivolously if it had lasting consequences and maybe the FAI would be more active in taking younger men on board sooner rather than risk losing them forever.
But this whole thing is just a matter of a Northern Ireland manager complaining about losing out on players who see themselves as Republic of Ireland men.
And the fallout from his inflammatory observations once again threatens the identity of Irish people in the north and allows others to hop on board to spout nonsense in complete ignorance of the most important agreement of the peace process.
What’s most disappointing is the FAI failing to even comment on the situation when Ireland has so many countrymen inside those borders needing someone to stand up for them now more than ever.
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