Centre Publications

Sport and Community Relations in Northern Ireland
John Sugden and Scott Harvie (1995)

Sport and the Community

Sport, whatever the background in which it takes place, cannot be isolated from the rest of society. Ireland’s recent history provides many examples of sporting events which have been marked by sectarian confrontations. However sport can do more than merely reflect political and cultural divisions. There is evidence that taking part in competitive sports can inflame militant feelings amongst both participants and spectators. (2) Conversely, in certain circumstances, it is held that sport can help improve communications and cement existing ties between individuals and groups from different and potentially conflictual backgrounds.(3) The way competitive sport has developed in the context of Northern Ireland’s divided society highlights the multi-faceted nature of the relationship between sport and the community.

1.1: The origins and early development of sport in Ireland

1.1.1 - Gaelic Sport

Gaelic games, nowadays identified with hurling, handball and football, are considered to have been an integral part of Irish community life for more than 2,000 years. From the 15th century onwards and particularly in the wake of the plantation of Ulster and the union of Britain and Ireland, all aspects of Gaelic culture including sport were subject to some degree of repression and persecution.

During the early 19th century it appeared that Gaelic sports might disappear from everyday life but as Irish political aspirations revived they were actively promoted as vehicles for nationalist ideals. Ironically this followed the example set in Britain where sport was closely associated with nationalism and used to boost patriotic fervour at home and strengthen colonial rule throughout the Empire.

1.1.2 - Sports with British Associations

In Ireland sports such as cricket and rugby football were introduced by the British community, especially upper-class elements in the army or government administration. Cricket was first played in the late 18th century and after the Act of Union in 1800 spread widely through Ireland, although it tended to develop more quickly beyond Ulster. At this time a number of prominent nationalists were involved in the sport but as their cause gathered momentum and cricket was labelled a ‘foreign’ game many clubs outside of Belfast, Dublin and the Anglo-Irish pale disbanded.(4)

Cricket clubs were also instrumental in organising the earliest games of rugby football. The first rugby club in Ireland was established in 1854 at Trinity College Dublin. Again some nationalists were to be found playing the sport but this phenomenon was less marked than in cricket, possibly due to the fact that rugby developed at a time when disaffection with the Union and interest in Gaelic culture were rising. Rugby tended to be played by Protestants or, at least, supporters of the Union and this enabled nationalists to portray the game as an alien activity. The administration of the game in Ireland was initially divided between unions in Belfast and Dublin but they were united by the formation of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), based in Dublin, in 1879.(5)

Although related to the native Irish sport of hurling, hockey became established in Ireland in a similar way to rugby and cricket. A number of clubs played all three sports and hockey was far more popular in the north and east of Ireland where anglophile interests were strongest.(6) The game of golf in its modem form also came to be associated with upper-class elements in the Army and British administration when it was introduced in Ireland via a network of private golf clubs towards the end of the 19th century. (7) However, perhaps due to the individual nature of the sport and its early Celtic origins, golf was not affected to the same extent as cricket, rugby and hockey by the Gaelic cultural revival.

1.1.3 - The Development of Gaelic Sport

1.1.4 - Football

Towards the end of the century such sporting ideals were challenged by the rapid growth of association football. Like rugby and cricket, football, as a kicking rather than carrying game, owed its origins to English public schools. However, in contrast to these sports which continued to be dominated by the middle and upper classes, football quickly became a popular pastime amongst the working-class of Britain’s developing urban-industrial society.(9)

Within Ireland the fact that industrialisation and urbanisation occurred most rapidly in the north-east corner helps explain why football was first taken up as a mass sport in Ulster, spreading from Scotland in the wake of its growing popularity there, not least amongst Irish immigrant labour. Their participation in the game at the time it was being organised and codified in mainland Britain gave rise to some controversy and political influences comparable to those at work in the GAA were sometimes brought to bear. In Scotland a side formed by Irish Catholic immigrants in Edinburgh, known as Hibernians, was banned from organised competition as they were not considered Scottish enough. (10)

The Irish Football Association was set up in 1880 and was based in Belfast as it was there that the first football clubs were emerging. Two of these; Linfield and Belfast Celtic, soon became associated with distinctive sectarian labels, parallelling the development of Rangers and Celtic in Glasgow and becoming icons for their respective Protestant and Roman Catholic working-class communities.

However, whilst Rangers and Celtic were based in different areas of Glasgow, Linfield and Belfast Celtic were situated in close proximity to one another in Belfast. Glentoran, based in the east of the city was, like Glasgow Rangers, associated with the largely Protestant community built up around the ship-building industry.

1.1.5 - Cycling

As the nationalist movement forced Home Rule to the forefront of the political agenda and divisions over the issue deepened, sport in Ireland became increasingly polarised between those organised by the GAA and those which had British associations. One exception was provided by cycling, perhaps again due to the stage at which it developed and its international origins.

Cycling became a popular pastime throughout Ireland in the second half of the 19th century and in 1878 the Irish Cycling Association (ICA) was established to administer the sport. However, cycling also began to feature at sports meetings organised by the GAA. In the charged political climate of the time conflicts soon arose between rival groups of cyclists, especially since the ICA tended to be composed of unionists and moderate nationalists from urbanised areas whilst GAA cyclists were largely rurally based and reflected the more hard-line views of their political leadership.(11)

1.2: Sport during the Home Rule crisis

The period during which the struggle for Home Rule dominated political debate throughout the British Isles was marked by the consolidation of the sporting apartheid that had grown between nationalist and unionist communities in Ireland.

1.2.1 - Gaelic Sport

Gaelic sport was an integral part of the Irish nationalist movement and demonstrated not only deepening hostility and anger towards the symbols of British rule but also evidence of the internal divisions afflicting its politics. Control of the GAA became a major feature of the factional struggle between constitutional nationalists and those who advocated the use of physical force.(12) The Association was implicated in the Easter Rising of 1916 and its members and supporters, many of whom were interned, suffered widespread harassment from the security forces as the political conflict in Ireland heightened thereafter. This culminated in events surrounding a game played at Croke Park, Dublin, in November 1920 when Black and Tans fired into the crowd at a Gaelic football game, causing a stampede which resulted in 13 deaths.

1.2.2 - Sports with British Associations

Sports which were the preserve of the anglophile community also became enmeshed in the political turmoil. In 1914 the most prominent rugby club in Ulster, North of Ireland, cancelled its fixtures to enable its ground to be used for the training of Protestant paramilitary forces who were being mobilised to form the vanguard of the fight against Home Rule.( 13) Because of his associations with the Crown forces the IRFU President was shot dead on the day of the Easter Rising.

1.2.3 - Football

1.3: Sport in Northern Ireland after Partition

The political settlement which brought about partition allowed Northern Ireland to remain under British control but granted a substantial degree of autonomy to its devolved parliament and government. Deep social divisions between its Protestant majority and Roman Catholic minority became politically entrenched through the institutions and practices of the Unionist government at Stormont. Threats, real or imagined, to the existence of the new state from the nationalist community were countered through institutionalised sectarianism and widespread discrimination.

1.3.1 - Sports with British associations

Sports responded to the changes in the political environment in different ways. Those with British associations which were dominated by the middle to upper class sections of society tended to retain the all-Irish administrative structure which had operated before partition. In the case of cricket it was not until 1923 that the controlling provincial bodies were united.(14) However problems remained, as demonstrated by rugby union where feelings in the north ran high concerning the flying of the Irish flag at international matches. In 1925 the IRFU decided to use its own flag rather than the Tricolour at such fixtures but southern members were dissatisfied with this solution and the flag issue continued to cause controversy, despite pragmatic responses on the part of the Irish union, sanctioning the flying of the Irish flag at Dublin internationals and the Union Jack at those matches staged in Belfast.

1.3.2 - Gaelic Sport

Since the GAA had been at the heart of the nationalist movement it was caught up in the midst of the conflict which broke out between factions supporting and opposing the political settlement of 1920. However, once the civil war was over, it helped integrate the opposing camps and act as an important cultural and ideological focus for society in the twenty-six counties. Conversely, in Northern Ireland the GAA, given its continued rhetorical support for Irish unity, was seen as a channel for opposition to the unionist regime. Particularly in respect of its ban on participation by members of the security forces the GAA aroused feelings of hostility amongst Protestant politicians and within the loyalist community.

1.3.3 - Cycling

The sports which attracted wide support not only throughout Ireland but across both community traditions in the new Northern Irish state, suffered the most obvious problems in the era following partition. The struggle between the GAA and ICA for control of cycling was initially resolved by the formation of a new all-Ireland body, the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland (NACA). A series of disputes soon arose between its central council and the representatives from Ulster, leading once more to controversy over the flying of the Irish flag at international events.

1.3.4 - Football

In the wake of partition, association football was afflicted by growing divisions and hardening attitudes between clubs north and south of the new border. The Leinster Football Association led the breakaway which resulted in the Dublin based League of Ireland and Football Association of Ireland (FAI) taking control of the game in the Irish Free State. For some time after this split the Northern Irish authorities continued to select players from all thirty-two counties for international duty and to call the side ‘Ireland’, effectively refusing to recognise the division, whilst the FAI was subsequently to seek rulings from the world governing body to sanction its international side as the only legitimate ‘Irish’ team.(16)

As for the game within Northern Ireland, the charged political atmosphere of the early 1 920s saw Belfast Celtic withdraw from all competitions. Their nationalist identity, at a time when there was considerable local unrest in addition to the ongoing civil war in the south, made their matches, particularly against Belfast’s major Protestant clubs, a likely source of sectarian-motivated violence.

However the club resumed competition in 1924 as the political situation became more stable. Over the next two decades Belfast Celtic were to dominate the game in Northern Ireland, winning 10 from a possible 18 league championships. There are no reports of major disturbances at their games despite sporadic sectarian violence elsewhere in society such as riots in Belfast in 1935. During this period Celtic players were frequently selected for international duty; their officials held various honorary positions within the IFA and Irish League, and Celtic Park was regularly used as a neutral venue for cup finals. Albeit uneasily, senior football in Northern Ireland between the wars does seem to have assimilated both communities in a way which was potentially significant. However, it is an isolated and limited instance, as subsequent events were to demonstrate.

1.4: Post-war developments in sport and community relations

1.4.1 - Sport and Education

Sports already established as the preserve of one community or another continued to lead separate existences bolstered by Northern Ireland’s divided educational system. Children at state schools were taught rugby, hockey and cricket whilst the sports curriculum of grant maintained (Roman Catholic) schools was dominated by hurling, camogie, and Gaelic football.(17)

1.4.2 - Gaelic Sport

Difficulties arising within such sports were largely symbolic, reflected in legislation enacted by Stormont in 1954, outlawing displays of the Irish Tricolour within Northern Ireland. Whilst Gaelic sports fixtures were an obvious target for such a measure, there appears to have been more concern at the flying of the Irish. flag by sections of the crowd at international rugby fixtures in Belfast.(18)

1.4.3 - Sports with British Associations

The passage of the Flags and Emblems Displays Act itself spawned further conflict as southern players threatened to boycott a rugby match in Belfast unless the Irish flag and anthem were used. Only a promise that all future internationals would be staged in Dublin (which would have taken place for practical reasons in any case) resolved the dispute.(19)

1.4.4 - Cycling

Where sports enjoyed wide participation from both communities political influences were more conspicuous and problems more substantial. After the war Irish cycling had separate, officially recognised governing bodies north and south of the border but the two organisations were able to cooperate together in order to enter a joint Irish team in international competitions.(20) However, the NACA remained in being and unofficially continued to organise cycling on an all-Ireland basis, maintaining support through its associations with the GAA.

The issue of participation at international events was a source of particular grievance and a series of incidents occurred during the 1950s and 60s. At the World Amateur Cycling Championships in Rome in 1955 an unofficial, pro-nationalist team tried to line up alongside the official Irish team leading to bitter arguments breaking out, equipment being sabotaged and, predictably, fighting.(21)

1.4.5 - Football

Sectarian incidents began to arise at Linfield-Derry City fixtures and attacks on players at a cup tie in Belfast in February 1955 prompted an IFA inquiry. It attributed the cause of the trouble to "the foolish action of the Derry City player", (22) alleging that a religious emblem had been waved to the crowd. Whilst the game was still widely played by and sometimes between teams from both communities, soccer at senior level in Northern Ireland appeared increasingly to be a Protestant preserve, reflected in the restrictive employment practices at certain clubs.

1.5: Sport and the Northern Ireland conflict

During the 1960s the chain of events which precipitated the current social and political conflict in Northern Ireland was set in motion.

The growth of the civil rights movement which appeared at first to represent a form of social protest on a par with developments in Europe and the United States was restricted and reshaped by the exigencies of Northern Ireland’s political environment. The end-result was open conflict between elements from different communities, prompting the direct intervention of the Westminster government, initially in the deployment of its army and subsequently in the prorogation of the Stormont parliament and the imposition of direct political rule.

In the process pressure for civil rights gave way to longer standing nationalist demands, the most extreme of which were given expression by republican paramilitary violence, countered by hard-line loyalist forces. These elements have persisted to the present day in a society deeply divided along sectarian lines. Meanwhile the nature of the conflict has shifted from mass disturbances towards more institutionalised guerilla warfare on top of a polarised community structure.

1.5.1 - Sport and Community Divisions

Sport has been played out against this backdrop of social division and political confrontation and during the course of the present conflict has been portrayed at different times by different interests as a healer, threat and victim. Successes enjoyed by Irish sportsmen and women such as Mary Peters, Barry McGuigan, Dennis Taylor and both national soccer squads have been hailed, especially in the popular media, as helping to bring people from both communities together in their support. However, in all cases, evidence of a lasting contribution to improving community relations outside the sporting arena has been scant and in certain instances, direct attempts to use sporting successes to promote community relations objectives have been counter-productive. The use of peace symbols at boxer Barry McGuigan’s world championship bouts were interpreted cynically in some nationalist quarters leading to McGuigan being dubbed ‘Barry the Brit’.

The GAA, due to its traditional nationalist orientations, integral role in the cultural life of the Roman Catholic community, and emphasis on a common Irish identity, has, despite its eschewed political neutrality, been accused of promoting divisions within Northern Ireland.(23) Its clubs and individual players have on occasion been targeted by loyalist forces who have considered them to be part and parcel of a ‘pan-nationalist’ threat.

Official funding for the GAA has been forthcoming through the Department of Education for Northern Ireland (DENI) and the Sports Council for Northern Ireland but has been limited by the continued existence of Rule 21 which excludes members of Northern Ireland’s security forces from joining.(24) This rule means that Gaelic organisations are treated by the government as clubs with restricted membership. As such they are only entitled to between 50% and 33.5% grant aid towards the cost of facilities development. There is also a perception amongst the Gaelic fraternity that financial support has also been affected by political circumstances and that some funds were withheld during the 1981 Hunger Strikes.

Suspected associations between members of the GAA and republican elements have led to individuals and clubs coming under scrutiny from the security forces and weapons finds at Gaelic sportsgrounds have deepened mistrust. In Crossmaglen the take-over of part of the local GAA ground by the British army has added to the hostility towards them in the Catholic community.(25) Conflicts have arisen with unionist councils over the provision of facilities for Gaelic sport and their refusal to acknowledge local successes.

The victories of Down, Donegal and Derry in all-Ireland competitions have seen Gaelic football receive increased media coverage in Northern Ireland, but, for the most part, the Protestant community has shown limited interest. Indeed, as the profile of Gaelic football has been raised in Ulster so too has there been an increase in the number of sectarian attacks on Gaelic clubs in the 6 counties. Derry’s progress in 1993 was reported to have induced some soccer followers to set aside long-standing differences between the two codes (26) but, given the local soccer club’s background, such support remained almost entirely Catholic in composition.

1.5.3 - Sports with British Associations

Conversely those sports with long-standing anglophile associations such as cricket, rugby and hockey have continued, by and large, to be preserves of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. This situation has persisted despite the fact that all three sports are organised on an all-Irish basis. Whilst examples of open sectarian conflict arising around these sports, such as in the burning of Cliftonville cricket ground in North Belfast in 1972, are extremely rare, problems have continued to arise over matters of national symbolism and procedures for international selection.

Despite the fact that rugby football in Northern Ireland is largely a Protestant sport, selection for the Irish team has apparently presented few difficulties to players from the north. Friction has from time to time surfaced, however, as allegations of bias in the selection process in favour of southern based players have been made. Overall, the latent strength of British influences and traditions in the sport, and the fact that players and administrators are predominantly drawn from middle-class social backgrounds where cultural and political loyalties appear more easily divorced, has assisted assimilation. An all-Irish league structure for club rugby is now in being.

Nonetheless the issue of flags and anthems can still prove awkward. For the inaugural World Cup in 1987 the Londonderry Air was adopted instead of the Irish anthem and it has been noted that when this was reversed for the subsequent World Cup in 1991, the only players observed to sing the anthem were those indigenous to the Republic of Ireland.(27) The game has still to make any significant breakthroughs in terms of participation by the Catholic community in the north but the IRFU has tried to broaden rugby’s feeder system by developing mini-rugby at primary school level.

Recently, however, international selection, particularly where Olympic participation is concerned, has become an extremely problematic area.

In the past, in keeping with the sport’s pragmatic image, hockey players from Northern Ireland were eligible to compete for either Ireland or Great Britain and, in the men’s game, for both. As the Olympics issue became more pressing and top Ulster ladies hockey players opted for Great Britain after having played for Ireland, attitudes hardened and in certain cases individuals were suspended from playing hockey in Ireland.

In men’s hockey the institution of a qualifying process for the 1992 Olympics threatened to cause controversy not only over individual player’s decisions as to which nation, they should compete for but also in respect of the requirement for the Irish Olympic team to use the national flag and anthem.(28) As a result the Ulster branch of the IHU opposed entry to the Olympic process and subsequently has been reported to be reluctant to follow rugby’s example and sanction the creation of an all-Ireland league.(29) Top players in both games now have to choose between representing Ireland and Great Britain, a choice which given the sport’s middle-class Protestant background has tended to bring sporting, cultural and political aspirations into conflict.

1.5.4 - Cycling

The ‘Troubles’ have had most direct impact on sports where participation stretches across both the sectarian divide and the class spectrum. Cycling, like hockey, has suffered from external pressures concerned with changes in international rules governing national associations and in attempting to address these long-standing political disputes have been inflamed. Ironically such an outcome has followed efforts at reconciliation between the different bodies responsible for Irish cycling.

In 1979 the Irish Cycling Tripartite Committee was set up as a forum within which differences between the cycling associations would be worked out and joint racing ventures organised. The Northern Ireland Cycling Federation (NICF) continued to affiliate to the world body as an independent entity and to pay its own fees. New regulations subsequently stated that only one fee would be accepted from each designated nation and in 1986 the NICF’ s fee was rejected with Irish international affiliation passing to the tripartite committee.(30)

Proposals followed for an amalgamation but whilst accepted by the two southern based cycling organisations, they provoked a deep split in the ranks of the NICF. A decision to accept the proposed amalgamation was challenged in the High Court and later overturned, leading to a further breakaway by interests supporting the change who subsequently affiliated to the new all-Ireland body, forming the Ulster Cycling Federation (UCF) on a nine county provincial basis.

Since 1988 cycling in Northern Ireland has been split between the two groups and a substantial measure of political and personal bitterness has sustained the division. Whilst official funding through the Sports Council has been channelled into the officially recognised UCF, local, unionist councils have chosen to support the NICF. The divisions in cycling help illustrate how sport can become inextricably bound up in Northern Ireland’s political conflict.

1.5.5 - Football

No sport has been more susceptible to such influences than football. At the height of the sectarian conflict clubs and players associated with the different communities became ever more polarised, particularly at senior level. Protestant support for Derry City, whose ground is situated in the Catholic Bogside estate, dissipated following the civil disturbances of the late 1960s and rioting during and after a match with Ballymena United including the burning of the opposition team bus led to Brandywell being closed in 1971 and to Deny’s eventual withdrawal from the Irish League.

In Belfast, Distillery had to vacate their ground in Grosvenor Road due to its sensitive location. As it bordered strongholds of the two communities it was liable to be caught up in the mass disturbances of the day. What remained of nationalist soccer support in the city turned to Cliftonville, in which area sectarian violence led to what had been a mixed community becoming, at least in the vicinity of the Solitude football ground, almost exclusively Catholic.

For security reasons Cliftonville were banned from hosting matches against Linfield. As the political conflict deepened with the introduction of internment, ‘Bloody Sunday’, and the institution of direct rule, the Northern Ireland side were forced to play home fixtures in England and in season 1972/73 no clubs were entered for European competitions "because of civil unrest".(31)

As the shape of the conflict changed international competition returned to Northern Ireland but the sport seemed increasingly to be associated with the Protestant community. The vast majority of clubs attracted largely or exclusively Protestant support bases due to their locations and/or traditions whilst Roman Catholics were not to be found on either the terraces or the playing staff of certain clubs. The national squad has always included players from both religions. However its home is at Windsor Park in the heart of a working-class, loyalist area of Belfast and its matches have been played out before crowds in which the symbols and trappings of Protestant heritage are clearly displayed.

The extent to which the sport could be a victim of the wider conflict was demonstrated by disorder surrounding Dundalk-Linfield and Cliftonville-Celtic fixtures in 1979 and 1984, which followed the violent deaths of Lord Mountbatten and Sean Downes respectively. In contrast the success of the Northern Ireland squad in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, with players from both communities prominently featured, provided glimpses of how sport could cross the sectarian boundaries, albeit in a tenuous and transitory way.

In recent years cross-community initiatives have been undertaken at youth and school levels of the game. However at higher levels many of the barriers to cross-community integration remain. In the early 1980s discussions took place about the possibility of Derry City re-entering Irish League soccer and representations were made (from both sets of supporters) about restoring the Cliftonville-Linfield fixture.