Norn Iron / Ulster

[UncleFester]

Hello everyone , this is my first effort on the forum after many years of visiting....Go easy on me please. I really enjoy the banter on the board even some of the whingin about "flegs!!!" There was a post from baggy the other day sleggin off some bloke called ultra vires which had me in stitches...quality ...anyway i digress.

i watched the match in the Errigle yesterday , an establishment with advertising at Ravenhill i believe. The place was packed , in fact you couldnt get in upstairs. Obviously we were disappointed with the scoreline but aside from that I was really disappointed with the attitude of some of the bar staff who were cheering on any leinster score. There were 3 or 4 numpties standing behind us cheering too , which is fair enuff , i'll just put it down to them being morons, i certainly didnt detect a linstaa accent. It was only 2 of the barstaff cheering and they werent overly loud , however i just thought it was bad form. I'm sure the bar owner raked in a fortune off the back of people like me attending his premises yesterday and on manys a Friday night and I hope he would offer some "re-training" to his staff (maybe a boot up the h0le would suffice).

I'm not from what some might say is a traditional rugby background but I support my own wherever they come from. I can only think of 2 reasons why anyone would feel this way about their home team , their either WUM's or worse still they're carrying a grudge... (i'll not use the B.[igot] word...oops maybe I just did). I dont expect these guys to support Ulster Rugby , maybe at some point in the future they will, but if I took the p**s outta my customers in work , i can assure you i wouldnt be in business too long.

I will finish by saying there mustve been a thousand people in the place yesterday and 99% were dead on..not that i spoke to them all. Oh, and I hope this doesn't sound too "flegish"..... Mon Ulster!!

http://uafc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14728


I'd say Voodoo has hit the nail on the head for the root cause of what took place.

Bigotry - specifically anti Northern Ireland bigotry.

I have friends who are involved in the gaa, who were clambering over themselves to get to Ireland rugby international matches, however, when it comes to Ulster Rugby, they couldn't give a funkey's muck. I put this solely down to not wanting to support the professional rugby team based in Northern Ireland.

[Setanta]

feck em!!

[big mervyn]

I put this solely down to not wanting to support the professional rugby team based in Northern Ireland.

There's also the problem with those who go out of their way to identify the team solely with Northern Ireland.

[UncleFester]

I put this solely down to not wanting to support the professional rugby team based in Northern Ireland.

There's also the problem with those who go out of their way to identify the team solely with Northern Ireland.

Ulster Rugby is a professional team based in Northern Ireland. Foolish to even attempt deny that. The club themselves don't have a problem with it.

Ulster Rugby participates in the Heineken Cup and RaboDirect PRO12, and provides the biggest regular supporter numbers for a true 'sport for all' in Northern Ireland. Ulster Rugby, with it's playing and administrative staff based at Ravenhill in Belfast, is the only sport running a full-time professional team based in Northern Ireland.

Also, who cares where the supporters come from?

[Cap'n Grumpy]

I put this solely down to not wanting to support the professional rugby team based in Northern Ireland.

There's also the problem with those who go out of their way to identify the team solely with Northern Ireland.

Ulster Rugby is a professional team based in Northern Ireland. Foolish to even attempt deny that. The club themselves don't have a problem with it.

Ulster Rugby participates in the Heineken Cup and RaboDirect PRO12, and provides the biggest regular supporter numbers for a true 'sport for all' in Northern Ireland. Ulster Rugby, with it's playing and administrative staff based at Ravenhill in Belfast, is the only sport running a full-time professional team based in Northern Ireland.

Also, who cares where the supporters come from?

Unc - you're missing Merv's point. Yes Ulster is a pro team based in Belfast/N.I./UK, but it is not SOLELY a pro team REPRESENTING N.I. - it also represents three counties from RoI (or Eire, Free State or Ireland/Southern Ireland depending on your age, background and whatever other name you may prefer to call RoI by. )

[UncleFester]

If that's Merv's point then he doesn't have one.

Ulster Rugby doesn't "represent" any area. They're a professional rugby team playing in professional club competitions.

[OneMore]

I'll be honest, this is off topic, but do you not think with the recent inflation in the number of posters here, the number of idiots has increased disproportionately more than the number of sound posters?

I'll admit that measuring this is somewhat subjective, but it's my impression. Maybe the clowns just stick out more.

[eeyore]

If that's Merv's point then he doesn't have one.

Ulster Rugby doesn't "represent" any area. They're a professional rugby team playing in professional club competitions.

I'm struggling to work out what point you're making and why? Is the name and location of Ulster rugby therefore an irrelevance?

[UncleFester]

If that's Merv's point then he doesn't have one.

Ulster Rugby doesn't "represent" any area. They're a professional rugby team playing in professional club competitions.

I'm struggling to work out what point you're making and why? Is the name and location of Ulster rugby therefore an irrelevance?

I'd say it is relevant to those who don't support Ulster Rugby due to it being from Northern Ireland. That is what the original poster is getting at from what I can see. Are you suggesting that is not the case?

[OneMore]

I would suggest that the concept of 'Northern Ireland' is a complete irrelevance with regards to Ulster Rugby. Traditionally Ulster was a representative provincial team, made up from the 9 counties. That's not to say that no Ulster Rugby fans tie the rugby team Northern Ireland, because they do, through their use of emblems, for instance. I don't think anyone objects to UR because they are based in the north. More likely some people are put off by some UR fans, and their attitudes.

Man, this seems familiar...

[big mervyn]

You're right about the posters OneMore - a plethora of Newbies most of whom seem to launch straight into a fleg/nationality debate.

SUFTNIM will never work anyway.

[UncleFester]

I would suggest that the concept of 'Northern Ireland' is a complete irrelevance with regards to Ulster Rugby. Traditionally Ulster was a representative provincial team, made up from the 9 counties. That's not to say that no Ulster Rugby fans tie the rugby team Northern Ireland, because they do, through their use of emblems, for instance. I don't think anyone objects to UR because they are based in the north. More likely some people are put off by some UR fans, and their attitudes.

Man, this seems familiar...

Traditionally Ulster was a representative provincial side. Past tense as you say.

Time has now moved on since professionalism. The team is now called "Ulster Rugby", full-time, they have their own staff, own website, their own logo and their own identity. Does this matter to most Ulster Rugby fans - I doubt it, it had to happen if we were ever to compete.

What Ulster fans identify Ulster Rugby with or as isn't the issue with first post on this thread though?

I think you're right though about people being put off by some attitudes by the way. Not any sectarianism or such like as I've never heard anything like that at Ravenhill, but more the "we don't want those kind of people" snobbery attitude.

[ColinM]

Two things on perception,

1 Rugby in all parts of Ireland is predominantly focussed on certain sections of the provinces, Dublin for the ladys, Cork and Limerick for the Turnips, Belfast and the big grammar schools in the North, the strong schools connection sees the playing base rooted traditionally in the protestant middle classes. This is being worked on of course and success breeds respect and the swelling of the playing base in untouched areas.
2 The use of the word Ulster and the red hand emblem amongst the Fife playing FGAU brigade. Again the success of the team and the spreading of the game will encourage more positive asssociations with the word.

Onwards and upwards. Once we are consistently beating the Turnips the red jerseys up here will turn white or blue, and in turn beating the Mexicans regulaly will turn more of the blue jerseys white.

The ROI soccer jerseys are worn up here as political flegs but the red and blue rugby jerseys very very much less so and there isnt a big amount that needs done to turn them white

[UncleFester]

You're right about the posters OneMore - a plethora of Newbies most of whom seem to launch straight into a fleg/nationality debate.

SUFTNIM will never work anyway.

Now Mervyn, I know you don't believe that!

Could equally be some "old faces" with new logins. Remarkable how a "new" poster is straight into a nationality debate.

Nationality debate? Nationality of what or who?

Ulster Rugby, with it's playing and administrative staff based at Ravenhill in Belfast, is the only sport running a full-time professional team based in Northern Ireland.

That is a direct quote from the Ulster Rugby website.

The bit in bold is what some people seem to have an issue with.

[Mummer]

You're right about the posters OneMore - a plethora of Newbies most of whom seem to launch straight into a fleg/nationality debate.

SUFTNIM will never work anyway.

Now Mervyn, I know you don't believe that!

Could equally be some "old faces" with new logins. Remarkable how a "new" poster is straight into a nationality debate.

I think it's a good idea to always have an old fleg/anthem type "black hole" thread as it can act as the proverbial turd for flies/light for moths/lightning rod for you know what/distraction* (*delete as appropriate) so as to give the rest of us space to talk about rugby...