Louts prove need for a Northern Irish anthem

ONCE again Northern Ireland supporters shouted “No surrender” in the middle of the national anthem before the Switzerland match at Windsor Park (and I witnessed this again myself in the pub before the second leg).

I’m not really sure how this is going to attract people from the Irish nationalist community. Perhaps somebody could explain this to me?

However, it is obvious to me that there are some people who will never stop this loutish behaviour during the playing of the national anthem, so surely the best thing to do is not to give them the opportunity in the first place by not playing God Save The Queen, but instead the IFA adopting a really revolutionary attitude: playing a Northern Irish anthem instead.

Playing Welsh and Scottish anthems seems to be good enough for all the Welsh and Scottish national teams. I am sure it would be good enough for the Northern Ireland team as well.

While I have no preference as to what this could be — Danny Boy is used at the Commonwealth Games — so I’m sure it could be used for the football team as well (until/unless somebody can come up with something better).

Or is the IFA too worried about what unionists might say (these same unionists who seem to want Northern Ireland to be nothing more than a ‘Little England’)?

NORTHERN IRISH NATIONALIST Carrickfergus, Co Antrim