Why, as a Nationalist who witnessed their hooligan shame first hand, I still think we should back England

THREE years ago the English soccer team came to play a friendly international against the Republic of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium. My youngest son was lucky enough to get picked as one of the 22 mascots for the game. But when he marched out onto the pitch, to the surprise of his siblings he wasn’t wearing the Irish colours, but was decked in a full England kit, as mascot to Jordan Henderson, the Liverpool player who also played in last night’s World Cup game for England against Colombia.

The happiest person to see this was his uncle Ian, my English brother-in-law, who was watching the match at his home in London. Within minutes of the anthems finishing – and before the game had even started – he had sent us a screen-grab photo of the television pictures of Harry standing in front of Henderson as President Michael D Higgins went through the handshake rituals.

Ian was delighted to see his nephew in an English jersey and I, despite my diehard Irish nationalism, was more than happy to see my son kitted out that way as a sign of respect to our visitors.

The game itself was very poor and pedestrian, but it was played out with mutual respect between the fans. It was a complete contrast to 1995 when I ended up on the Lansdowne Road pitch, as I had been among the fans who had to flee from the upper deck of the old West Stand, as English hooligans ran riot 27 minutes into a game that had to be abandoned.

Sovereign

Things have moved on so much since then, and not just the reduction of the hooligan element among the English fans. Relationships between our countries have improved markedly.

The most obvious example of this was the creation of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which has done so much to reduce the previous toxicity of relationships between the sovereign states. Reciprocal state visits in recent years – that of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland seven years ago, and of President Higgins to England after that – have done much to normalise and emphasise good relations between the two countries.

And despite the historical divisions, there has been so much that has united us over the years: our interests in British television (consider Love Island as the latest example, with hundreds of thousands of Irish people watching the nonsense nightly and enjoying it as much as their British counterparts) and sport, especially club soccer in England, being the most obvious tell-tales of this close bond.

But there are many more reasons for most of us, at a personal level, to express support for England. Most of us have no relatives in any of the other countries competing in the World Cup (apart, of course, from the new Irish who have come from many of the competing countries). We travel to England to see them, or they come home to us. It is reckoned that one in six English people – at least – has a direct birth-line to Ireland.

The most prominent example of all is the English captain Harry Kane.

Four years ago – as his career seemed likely to be at a level below the top tier of English soccer and just before he made the breakthrough at Tottenham Hotspur – there were hopes that he could be persuaded to play for Ireland instead of England. Kane’s grandfather emigrated from Letterfrack in Co. Galway, deep in the Gaeltacht, but his own father and other members of the family have been regular visitors to the area.

Kane is proudly English but his Irish heritage is part of what made him, too – and is one of the reasons why many of us would like to see this English team go far in this World Cup.

So yes, yesterday, I made the conscious decision to cheer for England. And yesterday afternoon I sent Ian a pre-match text wishing him and his own son, my nephew Daniel, both die-hard English soccer fans, all the best during the World Cup game his country was playing against Colombia. He was just about to get another text towards end of last night’s 90 minutes, offering congratulations and best wishes for the remainder of the tournament, before Colombia scored their late, undeserved equaliser that sent the game into extra time.

That said, this magnanimity did not come easily. Last night, while I hoped England would win, a small part of me – one that I know I need to extinguish – relished the possibility that they could lose and do so in a fashion that would allow us Irish to mock and jeer their unreal expectations. When the Colombians equalised, I tweeted that ‘for the first time ever I feel sorry for England’, and was met with a barrage of expletive-laden abuse from people who had no sympathy for England whatsoever.

That wasn’t a surprise, however. A survey published this week suggested that 17% of Irish people would be cheering for England during the rest of the World Cup. That is small support from a close neighbour, although I would be interested to know how many Scots or Welsh have been supporting their fellow members of the United Kingdom.

Indeed, I wonder how extensive the support is for England in the six counties of Northern Ireland, even among those who are unionist.

Superiority

There are many reasons for these sentiments. Most prominent is the sense of superiority and unreal expectation that becomes prevalent among the English during every soccer tournament and which often tips over into preening arrogance, seemingly unencumbered by recognition of the extent of previous failures.

Worse, this English team has been playing some pretty poor football, and has been very lucky in that it has benefited from one of the easiest runs of games possible, against some awful teams, thanks to a fortunate draw – and rather than realising that, the cheerleaders have been building up England as world beaters despite a lack of substance.

But, in truth, would we have been any different had we been in England’s position going into last night’s game? Would we not have shared the same expectations and dreams had we even qualified for Russia? Did we not have debates in 2002 about whether we could have reached the final had Roy Keane stayed with our squad?

We suffer our own delusions. When we go to Rugby World Cups, despite repeated failures, we expect our national team to deliver more than it ever does. While we have a track record of current success heading into next year’s RWC, there is already a sense that some people – not Joe Schmidt or his team, thankfully – are getting ahead of themselves when discussing the possibilities of our winning the actual thing.

So let’s celebrate the fact that the English won on penalties last night and will have further opportunities to progress in this World Cup. Generosity is a good trait in a neighbour, so let’s enjoy their success. Well done England, and best wishes against Sweden in the quarter-final.