Oh dear T.E., touched a wee nerve have we? I made a post which was clearly in good humour and in the spirit of this messageboard. You replied with 2 posts full of bile, insults and inaccuracies which does you little credit. You seem to be suggesting that all Linfield supporters are sectarian - an accusation which the vast majority of them, including myself, would find extremely offensive. Bully for you, escaping from a background which sounds rather unhappy and going to a rugby school. Unfortunately, you seem to have retained some degree of inherent bitterness which you'd be better trying to keep to yourself.
As for your history lesson, you have been obviously listening to the jealous ramblings of those who support clubs other than Linfield. I've heard it all before. So just to clarify things - the original south stand was paid for by Linfield except for one end of it, the cost of which was shared by Linfield and the Belfast Corporation. Hence it was formerly called the Council Stand, The other end was the Balmoral Stand, paid for by Linfield and previously situated elsewhere. I'm sure everyone can work that bit out. The first stand paid for by the IFA was the North Stand. Yes, that's the one which lost lots of seats every time it contained Glentoran fans. Furthermore the last Agreement between Linfield and the IFA i.e, before the rebuilding of Windsor Park, had to be favourable to Linfield simply because the club were finding it impossible to maintain the whole ground and had it valued for sale. A new, smaller, stadium was to be built instead, (Incidentally on a site which is well known in rugby circles). This would have left the IFA without anywhere to play home international games and so there was a deal which allowed Linfield to remain at Windsor Park. My uncle and a close family friend were involved in the discussions.
Now, that old chestnut, Linfield and Catholics! Linfield had Catholics playing since the War. Indeed there was a Catholic manager . This stopped largely because of the troubles and was partly the disgraceful behaviour of 3 big Linfield Supporters Clubs, but also of elements on the Irish republican side. I was involved in an attempt to sign 2 of the best midfielders in local football - one from Cliftonville and one from Glentoran. I suspect you could work out who they were. One received a visit one night from a man in a balaclava suggesting that it would be a bad idea to play for Linfield. Shamefully, the then Linfield Board actually asked the permission of the 3 biggest Supporters Clubs to sign the other player. Permission was refused. I gave up any role I had with the club at that stage, although I remained a fan of the players.
I will not comment any more on all this. It is a rugby forum. I only mentioned the Glens in jest and was amazed at your reaction. It would be nice if you would withdraw your generalised comments about Linfield people - comments which are sort of sectarian.
Promenader - that's why I'm now with a somewhat bigger and better team. We defeated Shakhtar Donetsk away last week and are still on cloud nine
![cheers :cheers:](./images/smilies/icon_cheers.gif)
Soldiers who wanna be heroes number practically zero, but there are millions who wanna be civilians