Our conflict with the Brits shows no signs of abating

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

Back in the last century, a quartet of English visitors walked into a pub in Kinsale hoping to cheer on their national football team in a European Championship tie with Sweden – only to be greeted by an entire pub roaring on the Scandinavians.

Thinking they’d inadvertently stumbled onto an Ericsson staff outing or the like, they enquired as to what part of Sweden these people were all originally from.

To which the reply: “Yerra, we’re not Swedes at all; we’re just up for anyone that’s ever playing against England.”

And while this came as something of a shock to them, the reality is that it could have happened in any Irish pub – because through invasions and plantations, troubles and strife, we’ve always had a dysfunctional relationship with our nearest neighbours.

On one hand we may proclaim an aversion on the back of historical injustices done to our four green fields and yet we live our lives vicariously in their wake.

Hate may be too strong a word, but they are the oldest of enemies – and yet they have always been our biggest influence as well.

Later that same evening, and emboldened with drink, a few of us tried to rationalise this attitude for our visitors who had no idea that we represented anything other than the Land of One Hundred Thousand Welcomes.

They even said that, once England were out of any sporting tournament, the Irish were everyone’s second favourite team – and they loved to see us do well.

Equally, they couldn’t grasp how someone wearing an English jersey was Public Enemy Number One when the same player was a hero in a Liverpool or Manchester United top.

And yet deep in our psyche there is a gene that is triggered every time we get a white jersey with the three lions or the red rose; a Pavlovian response to the old enemy.

Read Dave’s column in full in this week’s Connacht Tribune.