Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Us and Them: The Irish Rivalry with England.

Ourselves and England have, to put it mildly, a lot of history together. There's a certain segment among each society that looks upon the other as, depending on one's point of view, an oppressive overlord who thought nothing wrong with starving a quarter of their colony's population to death, or a group of ingrates who try and blow up innocent civilians. Let's be realistic, if the laws of geology allowed, Ireland would long ago have moved elsewhere. The weather's all wrong, and we've spent the past millennium arguing with the neighbours.
And yet, like the bickering couple that can't divorce because of the mortgage, Ireland and Britain (We only use England to try and form a common cause with the Welsh and Scots, after all) are deeply intertwined, 1916 and all that notwithstanding. The vast majority on both sides have no animosity towards the other. In reality, Britain has been nothing but a friend to us in recent years. David Cameron, a Conservative, had no hesitation in both accepting the results of the Savile Inquiry and apologising unquestionly for Britain's actions on Bloody Sunday, and Britain had no compunctions about contributing to our bailout in 2010. On our side, the Queen has recently completed a highly successful visit here and, the likes of Republican Sinn Fein, Eirigi, The 32 County Sovereignty Committee and any other miniscule group of rejectionists aside, the vast majority of Irish people bear no grudge against the English. On their side, there is even less of an animus. After all, the English have had lots of enemies over the years, and in the great scheme of things, a small island next door doesn't count for much.
Of course, on the field, everything changes, at least from the Irish point of view. Beating the English is the most heroic thing an Irish sports team can achieve. When Ireland beat England at cricket in India this year, the sudden upsurge in interest in cricket was nothing to do with the sport's merits. Nor was it to do with the fact that in winning, Ireland broke several longstanding records in World Cup cricket. Nor was it the scale of the achievement. After all, in 2007 we went even further, managing to reach the Super 8's after beating Pakistan. Quite simply, it was the fact that we beat the English at a quintessentially English game. When the match started, only a very small percentage of the population would even have been aware it was going on. Once we had won, though, it became the proverbial talk of the country. No doubt in years to come, like the half million or so Munstermen who were in Thomond Park when Munster beat New Zealand, a far greater number will claim to have watched the cricket than mere TV viewing figures would suggest.
The fact is that whereas England enter every sports tournament with a weight of expectation, Ireland are very conscious of our underdog status. Only in rugby union is there any sort of parity between the two countries, and it is about the only field where Ireland expects a lot from its players. In other sports, the rivalry is a distinctly one-way affair. When Ireland beat England in India, the sense among the English players was decidedly magnanimous. We had beaten them, but it was a shock result, and the fact is that England are considerably better than us when it comes to cricket, particularly given that any decent Irish cricketer will probably aspire to ply his trade for England.
Meanwhile, from the Irish point of view, we go into games against England with a realisation that we are generally outmatched. As a result, we expect to be beaten, and there aren't huge recriminations when we do lose. If we win, it's a pleasant surprise. If we lose, it was to be expected. From the English point of view, defeat at the hands of an Irish team is unpleasant, but no more so than defeat by any other minor team. In none of the major sports would England regard us as a serious rival, again with the possible exception of rugby union. In football, England would see Germany and Argentina as their chief rivalries (though this may not be reciprocated either). Similarly, in cricket, inasmuch as such a good-natured sport would descend down to petty rivalries, the English would have one with Australia.
Of course, there is also the political side, which is really what gives all great national rivalries their spice. After all, half the fun of England's rivalries with Argentina and Germany is the whole wars business, and political differences between the Irish and English go back to long before either Germany or Argentina were countries. History weighs heavily on the Irish. However, this is very much old hat. Barring the lunatic fringe in both countries, the animosity that drives great rivalries doesn't exist. So why then do we still think of England as our bitterest foes, particularly given that, outside of the Six Nations (where the rivalry is even more low key) we don't play them that much?
One reason is that having a rivalry with a much better team is a no-loss situation, so long as you accept that you are going to come off second best most of the time. After all, losses are to be expected. Victories, on the other hand, are few and far between, and therefore worthy of celebrations. In much the same way as pessimists tend to be happy all the time, being either grimly satisfied or pleasantly surprised, so too can having a far superior rival be good, so long as one accepts this superiority. And the Irish are an extremely negative race. Witness our constant complaining about the weather, regardless of what the weather is.
Perhaps our rivalry is more of a manifestation of our national inferiority complex vis-a-vis the English, as do all the smaller parts of the British Isles. Despite our distaste for the colonial overlords, we know that economically we can never become more than semi-detached from England. Generations of Irish people went to London to work. We all follow the Premiership, whereas most of us ignore the League of Ireland. They're still our biggest single trading partner.
Being realistic, a sporting animus probably does no harm. It adds a bit of impetus to certain games. So long as it stays on the pitch, there's no harm, is there?

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