North-South divide cast shadow over 70s and 80s

Tiocfaidh Armani

Being a Gaelic footballer or hurler wasn't easy in the '70s and '80s in the Six Counties. We were automatically associated with trouble by the security forces, who had their own ways of making life as difficult as possible.
The most common form of harassment was the 'boot and bonnet' routine. You would be asked where you were going and once you mentioned Gaelic football or hurling you were told to pull the bonnet, open the boot and stand on the side of the road for as long as they deemed fit. The checkpoints were annoying, but there were more sinister forces at work too. The threat from loyalist paramilitary organisations was constantly there.

One particular incident scared the hell out of me. I was driving out of Lurgan after training one night when a car came right up behind me. It was so close that I sensed something wasn't right. I knew it wasn't a police car, so I decided that under no circumstances would I allow it to overtake me. If I let it get ahead, it might block the road and I could be forced out of the car. After that, who knows?

It followed me for several miles, trying to get past at every opportunity, but I held my ground.
I was terrified, but felt that my best chance was to stay ahead, which I managed to do until we came closer to Crossmaglen, at which stage my pursuers veered off on another road at high speed.

I told the county board what happened and it was decided to split up training for a while. The boys from the south of the county trained in Carrickcruppin, while the rest went to Lurgan or Armagh.

It was a tough time being a GAA man in the Six Counties, which made Armagh's advance to the All-Ireland final in 1977 such a newsworthy event. We saw ourselves as being the same as every other county and never sought to play the victim card. For all that, a lot of people in the South didn't understand us.

Very few county teams from the South overnighted north of the border when they came up for League matches, instead staying in Monaghan or Dundalk and driving north on Sunday morning. It was understandable, I suppose, but it did tend to create a 'them and us' situation. Attitudes changed over the years, but the North-South divide didn't disappear for everybody. One of the few times as Armagh manager I really lost my temper as manager was in a league game against Laois in Portlaoise.

A bit of a scuffle broke out near the sideline with players and officials becoming involved. It wasn't anything too serious and ended fairly quickly, but not before one Laois man, who was part of the official party, had a right go at us.

He squared up to John Rafferty and called us 'orange bastards'. Now, on a league table of stupidity that would take some beating and, while I should have laughed at it, I was infuriated. I felt like laying him out with a punch, but managed to restrain myself.
In fairness to Liam Kearns, who was managing Laois at the time, he came to me afterwards and apologised. He didn't have to, because he hadn't done or said anything wrong and could hardly be blamed for someone else's stupidity.

It was an isolated incident, but it showed that even in a new century there are still people who have no real grasp of the relationship between North and South.
- Joe Kernan

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/northsouth-divide-cast-shadow-over-70s-and-80s-2907778.html

GAAman

A good read from Joe Kernan, that story about the car is a fairly common one i have heard it from a good few older gaels from armagh derry and tyrone. The thing about the laois man calling them orange bastards, does he really think this ignorance does not go on to this day?

In playing here in derry many times have i been called a "Free stater, sellout, west brit" etc etc i usually laughed it off and my response was to rattle the back of the net and tell them "There's yer f*ckin sellout!" Yes that was mainly players but at least twice management were the ones hurling the abuse so i made sure to make my way over to their dugout after a good score

Also did you intentionally put those links in your post or is there an infection?

DoctaDee

Lookin for directions to Brewster Park was an enlightening and illjudged experience for us once.

Tiocfaidh Armani

GAAman wrote: »

Also did you intentionally put those links in your post or is there an infection?

I just copy and pasted, they followed me!

Gophur

The six-counties' supporters don't do themselves many favours, either. Their conduct at matches against teams from the Republic of Ireland is nothing to be proud of.

premierstone

Gophur wrote: »

The six-counties' supporters don't do themselves many favours, either. Their conduct at matches against teams from the Republic of Ireland is nothing to be proud of.

Fishing section is that way ->

DoctaDee

premierstone wrote: »

Fishing section is that way ->

LOL.... very good !

I've nothing but the highest regard for the northern supporters - Tyrone being the ones we've come across most often and have always had a great bit of banter with them

cruiserweight

Gophur wrote: »

The six-counties' supporters don't do themselves many favours, either. Their conduct at matches against teams from the Republic of Ireland is nothing to be proud of.

Care to elaborate or are you just trolling? If you are trolling then do not post in this thread again or I will ban you

The_Kew_Tour

I remember being in the Canel End when Derry won the AI against us in 1993. I was only 10 at the time

Canel end was meant be Cork side, but I say about 20-30% of people were from Derry. Anyway before the match started I had a decent view with me being small my Dad was worried that I would not see the game. Anyway on come a bunch of Derry lads aged between 25-30 and stand right in front of us. Few seconds later one of them turns around and sees me little upset that would not get full view. They first apoligised to me and my Dad and two of them got me and put me up in there shoulders. They ended up putting me on the rail at front of terrace and I ended up having savage view so much I saw myself on TV when saw replay( was delighted you know 10 year olds).

The banter they had with my Dad and few Cork supporters was fantastic and when Cork got early goal they were more then gracious in admiring it.

What I most remember though is when they won they were in tears and were very sympathetic with Cork fans who in fairness were sporting as always and wished the better team well on the day.

It meant so much to people in North at time just like it had to other team like Down and most recently Armagh and Tyrone.

It made me realise for first time what sport can do and how it can have such impact on people feelings.

Gophur

cruiserweight wrote: »

Care to elaborate or are you just trolling? If you are trolling then do not post in this thread again or I will ban you

I was not trolling, just stating an opinion. Why should I be banned for stating an opinion?

If it's evidence you want, just go to any Ulster match between two counties from the different jurisdictions. (For some reason they are less vocal with opponents from outside Ulster)

cruiserweight

Gophur wrote: »

I was not trolling, just stating an opinion. Why should I be banned for stating an opinion?

If it's evidence you want, just go to any Ulster match between two counties from the different jurisdictions. (For some reason they are less vocal with opponents from outside Ulster)

What exactly is your experience? What you wrote was more of a statement rather than an opinion. For such an inflammatory statement, you need to back it up with evidence, which you have failed to provide so far.

Fr Tod Umptious

Gophur wrote: »

The six-counties' supporters don't do themselves many favours, either. Their conduct at matches against teams from the Republic of Ireland is nothing to be proud of.

I have meet many of them in the US, during GAA matches.

It has really put me off people from NI, they were almost exclusively a**holes every last one of them.

Huge chips on their shoulders, and their support of the games was all about 'the cause' to them, feck all to do with sport.

Tiocfaidh Armani

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I have meet many of them in the US, during GAA matches.

It has really put me off people from NI, they were almost exclusively a**holes every last one of them.

Huge chips on their shoulders, and their support of the games was all about 'the cause' to them, feck all to do with sport.

You must have meet different ones to me then:rolleyes:

DoctaDee

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Gophur wrote: »

The six-counties' supporters don't do themselves many favours, either. Their conduct at matches against teams from the Republic of Ireland is nothing to be proud of.

I have meet many of them in the US, during GAA matches.

It has really put me off people from NI, they were almost exclusively a**holes every last one of them.

Huge chips on their shoulders, and their support of the games was all about 'the cause' to them, feck all to do with sport.

Which again relates back to the OP and the persecution GAA followers experienced in the North. Remember the guy that was shot from an army post while going to attend a GAA match (Aidan MacAnespie)? Without going political on this I'm sure you'll agree that it has to polarise opinions ..