The Garrison Game
Image by Fergal of Claddagh
There is probably no nation on earth as besotted with field sports as Ireland is. The All-Ireland football and hurling championships are the two largest amateur team events in the world. The private schools nurture rugby and there is also a large following for the provincial and national teams in this discipline. Most Irish men support an English soccer club avidly. However, the domestic soccer league is localised and not that spectacular at all.
Older heads often refer to soccer as “The Garrison Game”. In towns that hosted a large British garrison there is still a soccer team to this day. Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk, Sligo, Cóbh [Navy], Cork, Galway, Waterford and Longford all have long histories of soccer in their towns. Soccer is probably the most popular sport in Ireland at the underage and schoolboy levels but the local leagues do not translate into a successful professional game. The fact that the best players all go to the English league has a natural detriment for the game at home. With a population somewhat akin to that of Scotland, there are enough Irish players in the top leagues to make two top teams at home. However the Irish league does not have its two teams as the Scottish league does.
This is partly because soccer has difficulty getting real support in Ireland. Rugby and GAA have far more drawing power on the purse strings of their supporters than soccer has. Irish soccer clubs struggle to raise enough revenue to pay their players and that is a situation that is unlikely to improve.
Soccer Player Vector Image
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Geordie Grey
Image by World of Good
Walking around Newcastle-on-Tyne, July 2008. St James' Park, home of the Toon Army. Impressive stadium. Strange to visit without being kept to the away fans bit, up in the Gods. Amazing greys, blacks and whites.
Root/Chop version 3.4: Futuristic football
Image by onesecbeforethedub
St James' Park – The view
Image by World of Good
Common sense says they should develop the smallest stand, but then you'd lose one of the great views in football.
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