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Abstract
In international sport in recent years there has been a growing tendency for sportspeople to represent a country other than the one in which they were born. Most international sporting bodies allow people to represent either the country of their birth or one to which they have an attachment through ethnicity, residency or marriage. This article explores the senses of national identity and belonging felt by sportspeople competing for a country other than the one in which they were born and grew up. It does so through a focus on the case of the Republic of Ireland soccer team since the 1980s. It examines perceptions of national identity amongst the so-called ‘Anglo’ contingent, players who were born in Britain but were eligible to play for Ireland under FIFA rules relating to parentage. The article is based on self-evaluations recorded in newspaper and magazine interviews and in players' ‘auto’ biographies. It further examines the reactions by various individuals outside Ireland to this phenomenon and the views of Irish fans towards player eligibility and selection.
The article places this work in an analytical context of sport and nationalism, with particular emphasis on the complex relationships between sport and nationalism in Ireland. The article argues that there is evidence of significant attitudinal differences between players; that players' attitudes are by no means uniform but range from the ’careerist’ to the ’nationalist’ position. Responses to this phenomenon have been sharply divided between those who view it as a dilution of the authentically Irish nature of the team to those who see it as a pragmatic response to an otherwise limited player pool.
Notes
1 CitationBolger, ‘In High Germany’, 97.
2 CitationAnderson, Imagined Communities.
3 CitationDuke and Crolley, Football, Nationality and the State.
4 In general, ‘soccer’ is used throughout this paper in order to distinguish the game from the specifically Irish sport of Gaelic football. However, please be aware that many of the quotations we use will still refer to ‘football’.
5 CitationSack and Suster, ‘Soccer and Croatian Nationalism’, 35.
6 CitationBairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization, 177.
7 CitationCrolley, Hand and Jeutter, ‘Playing the Identity Card, 107–28.
8 N. Quinn, ‘Ireland are not Holland, and Kerr Must Realise This’, Guardian, 7 October 2005.
9 For a rare example see CitationTuck and Maguire, ‘Making Sense’.
10 Quoted in The Irish Times, 9 October 1999.
11 See for example CitationGellner, Nations and Nationalism; CitationHobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780; CitationSmith, Nationalism; CitationOzkirimli, Contemporary Debates on Nationalism; CitationGuibernau, Identity of Nations.
12 For various insights on constructions of ‘nation’ and ‘other’ see CitationGruffud, ‘Remaking Wales’; CitationPenrose and Jackson Constructions of Race; CitationWinichakul, ‘Siam Mapped’.
13 The regulations governing ‘eligibility to play for representative teams’ are set out in section VII, articles 15–18 of the FIFA Statutes (CitationFIFA, FIFA Statutes).
14 Quoted in A. Hussey, ‘ZZ Top’, Observer Sport Monthly, April 2004. See also CitationDauncey and Hare, France and the 1998 World Cup; and CitationMignon, ‘French Football’.
15 See B. Oliver, ‘New World Order’, Observer, 20 January 2008.
16 CitationEarle and Davies, One Love, 108.
17 ‘FIFA Rules on Eligibility’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/3523266.stm
18 See FIFA Circular Letter no. 901, Zurich, 19 March 2004, available at http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/ps_901_en_90.pdf
19 FIFA, FIFA Statutes, Statute 2e.
20 B. Andoni, ‘Kosovo “Declares War” on Albania…In Sport’, The Bridge 6, 2007. Available at http://www.bridge-mag.com/pdf/vol6/bridge06.pdf
21 Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization; CitationLanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball; CitationMcGovern, ‘Globalization or Internationalisation’.
22 CitationPoli, ‘Denationalization of Sport’.
23 CitationMcGarrigle, Complete Who's Who; CitationWard, Republic of Ireland; CitationHayes, Republic of Ireland.
24 For a discussion of the potential advantages and disadvantages of these sources see, amongst others, CitationMillward, ‘True Cosmopolitanism’.
25 CitationCronin, Sport and Nationalism in Ireland.
26 See for example CitationBoyce, Nationalism in Ireland; CitationMacLaughlin, Re-Imagining the Nation-State.
27 CitationSugden and Bairner, Sport, Sectarianism and Society; CitationFulton, ‘Northern Catholic Fans’; CitationLennon, Man and Bhoy.
28 See CitationBairner, ‘Political Unionism and Sporting Nationalism’.
29 CitationGarvin, Evolution of Irish Nationalist Politics, 149.
30 Amongst many accounts see CitationMacLaughlin, Ireland.
31 One estimate suggests that in 1991 there were over 830,000 Irish-born people living in Britain, with of course many more second or third-generation Irish as well. CitationCourtney, ‘A Quantification of Irish Migration’.
32 See CitationRouse, ‘Politics of Culture and Sport’.
33 The Gaelic Athletic Association, www.gaa.ie/.
34 CitationDoak, ‘(De)constructing Irishness; CitationCronin, ‘Global, Parochial’.
35 For more on the complexity of rugby and national identity in Ireland see CitationTuck, ‘Making Sense of Emerald Commotion’.
36 Amongst many newspaper accounts see G. Mair, ‘Why it's Time to Take a Stand on Anthems’, Belfast Telegraph, 23 August 2007.
37 CitationHannigan, Garrison Game; CitationRyan, Boys in Green.
38 See a series of articles by E. Malone: ‘Gibson is Not One for Turning’, Irish Times, 7 September 2007; ‘Delaney Upbeat on FIFA Proposal’, Irish Times, 7 November 2007; ‘Some FIFA Members More Equal Than Others’, Irish Times, 13 November 2007.
39 CitationMcGovern, ‘Irish Brawn Drain’.
40 All aircraft of the national airline, Aer Lingus, are named after saints, and when the airline supplied one of its planes to fly the team home from their World Cup campaign in Italy in 1990, it was temporarily renamed ‘St Jack’.
41 Terry Mancini quoted on QPRnet.com, www.qprnet.com/interviews/mancini.shtml.
42 CitationCascarino with Kimmage, Full Time, 16.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid., 80.
45 Neil Fewings, Clinton Morrison's agent, quoted in M. Walker, ‘McCarthy Eyes Palace Striker’, Irish Times, 13 January 2001.
46 Clinton Morrison quoted in N. Moxley, ‘Morrison Yet to Decide on Future’, Irish Times, 27 January 2001.
47 Quoted in B. Doogan, ‘Morrison Puts Down New Roots to Strike Happy Balance’, Times Online, 13 October 2002. Available at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/article1170663.ece.
48 Quoted on www.ireland-mad.co.uk, 31 January 2006.
49 See I. McCullough, ‘Back of the Net’, Irish Post. Available at http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irishpost/sport/Backofnet.asp.
50 C. Lally, ‘Kerr Handed Over “Vile” Racist Hate Mail to Gardai’, Irish Times, 20 January 2006; L. O'Connor, ‘Race Thugs Smash Zat's Irish Dream’, Sunday Mirror, 10 February 2008.
51 CitationAldridge with Jawad, My Story, 203. Of course, the population of the Republic of Ireland is lower than the 5 million mentioned by Aldridge – between 3.5 and 4 million would be a more accurate figure at that time.
52 Ibid, 145.
53 Kevin Kilbane quoted in E. Malone, ‘Young Guns Go For It’, Irish Times, 13 November 1999. Kilbane is referring to the winning goal scored in the Republic of Ireland's first-ever match at the finals of a major international soccer tournament, the 1988 European Championship finals in Germany. Not only was this Ireland's first such game, it was also against the ‘old enemy’, England.
54 Kevin Kilbane quoted in B. Pierce, ‘Kilbane Showing His True Colours’, Irish Examiner, 17 November 1999.
55 See CitationRowan, Team that Jack Built; CitationWest, Beating Them.
56 Martin Keown, all quotes from M. Walker, ‘In Defence of the Realm’, Irish Times, 13 May 2000.
57 Quoted in the Irish Independent, 24 March 2001.
58 CitationMcCarthy with Dervan, Ireland's World Cup 2002, 227.
59 All quotes from CitationTownsend with Kimmage, Andy's Game, 74–8
60 Andy O'Brien, all quotes in the Irish Times, 13 January 2001.
61 See T. Humphries, ‘Granny Rule is Mother of Dependency’, Irish Times, 23 January 2006.
62 Quoted in Ludzik, ‘Kitson: I Could Answer Ireland's Call’, Irish Examiner, 27 January 2006.
63 White, ‘Wily Waddle's Dextrous Dribble Dazzles Amid the Drivel’, Independent, 20 June 1994; headline in the Observer, 23 June 2002; reader's letter in the Observer, 23 June 2002.
64 S. Claridge, ‘Scouting Report’, Guardian, 3 April 2007.
65 See D. Alexander, ‘Bhoy Who Would be King’, Times Online, 4 April 2004. Available at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article1055553.ece.
66 Quotes in this section taken from a range of on-line soccer forums (www.extratime.org; http://footieheads.com; http://www.pieandbovril.co.uk; http://www.spaotp.com; http://www.peoplesrepublicofcork.com). See also T. Humphries, ‘Identity is a Sense of Place Not Birthplace’, Irish Times, 10 January 2005.
67 It is also highly probable that the more vitriolic responses emanated from supporters of Celtic's arch-rivals Rangers.
68 T. Humphries, ‘Granny Rule is Mother of Dependency’, Irish Times, 23 January 2006.
69 See, for example, CitationBurdsey, ‘If I Ever Play Football’.
70 CitationKirby, Gibbons and Cronin, Reinventing Ireland.
71 See CitationFree, ‘“Angels” with Drunken Faces?’.
72 Bolger, ‘In High Germany’, 97.
73 West, Beating Them, 207.
74 See special edition, Irish Geography 41, no 2 (2008).
75 T. Humphries, ‘Identity is a Sense of Place Not Birthplace’, The Irish Times, 10 January 2005.