Ireland vs Israel - To play or not to play, that is the question Read OP for Mod Warning

As Ive said before, we should advocate for human rights being respected in all situations. As a militarial neutral country, we should not involve ourselves with any side in any conflict. When you support one side of a conflict, you only serve to expand and lengthen that conflict. I also dont agree with aligning ourselves with anyone who does not respect human rights and democracy.

I disagree. We've our own record of violence at the hands of a powerful state and we were happy to recieve advocacy and indeed support from whoever offered it to us.

Irelands neutrality and its advocacy of peace has served us well - we should not compromise this by taking sides in far away conflicts.

Surely calling for non-military action against a genocidal state is the ultimate promotion of peace?

As for sport - I think it should be kept conpletely seperate from politics. Sport is great for building bridges between people. National sports bodies are not allowed be political - the likes of the IOC and FIFA have strict rules on this. And the place to raise issues is within the sports bodies established mechanisms. I do not like it when people with little or no interest in a particular sport advocate that those who participate in the sport should become political advocates.

This point is worthy of a thread in its own right. Sport and politics have long been intensely intertwined. Ive already given examples of the use of the poppy in UK sport, the military in US sport, particularly the NFL. Contests between countries which were fomerly or are currently at political loggerheads (think of the emption around some Irish fixtures with England for example) And in fact soccer, has a long history of tribalism and aggressive/defensive behaviors amongst some fan bases (Firms/Ultras etc)

And I dont know if you are speaking about me, or anyone else in particular talking about (those with little or no interest in sport) but I can assure you that is not the case. Some of my fondest childhood memories are around sport events and I have vivid memories of experiencing the joy of Houghton v England in 88, or McLoughlin v Northern Ireland in 94 and many more. One of the people advocating for Palestine on this thread is a regular fan at Landsowne for Irish matches so I reject the premise of that point. We saw plenty people talk about sport for seemingly the first time when they were saying Macabi Tel Aviv fans should be allowed to Birmingham last Autumn.

Not exactly. It started with Poland refusing to play them in a play off game and the two possible opponents who they might meet after that game, Sweden and Czech Republic, also saying that if they were asked to play them, they would refuse.

So it started with a single team first saying they would not play them. Ireland could be that first team. Would others follow? Possibly. Probably not in the case of Austria, possibly not in the the case of Kosovo. But is doing the right thing dependent on whether you are doing it alone or with support?

Don't know what part of the country you live in but I'm pretty sure that every city in Ireland has had several marches or gatherings in support of Palestine over the last couple of years and every large town has also had at least one at some point also.

I find it hard to believe no one you know cares about it.

To be honest I find that war a bit boring as well.

Isn't that interesting. Thanks for telling us.

for every one these marchers, there are so so many more who couldn’t give a fiddlers, though; and also, quite a percentage of the actual marchers don’t really care either.

Says who?

What evidence have you to support this view?

But it's interesting to see you think Ireland being occupied for 800 years is merely "tiresome" rather than something that dramatically impacted the country.

Here's another example of the reality that sports and politics do overlap.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/feb/20/werder-bremen-cancel-us-trip-minnesota-ice

However, the Bundesliga club decided to cancel the visit amid growing concerns about the actions of ICE, after two US citizens were shot dead by federal agents in Minnesota last month.

“It is correct that we cancelled a planned trip to Minnesota in the United States. There were sporting, economic and political reasons for this,” a Werder Bremen spokesperson said.

“Playing in a city where there is unrest and people have been shot does not fit with our values. Furthermore, it was unclear to us which players would be able to enter the USA at all due to the stricter entry requirements.”

This story aside, I'm pretty sure this World Cup this summer will be one of the most political we've ever seen.

And its Trump and to a lesser degree, Infantino who will be the cause of making it like this.