AS a sort of starter before the main summer course of bonfires and parades, the vexed issue of Catholics at Windsor Park is back on the agenda.
Speaking on the Give My Head Peace podcast, former Cliftonville and Northern Ireland captain Marissa Callaghan said: “I think it’s quite sad that Northern Ireland don’t have their own anthem and flag. Only reason why is because it doesn’t represent everyone in the country and NI’s such an amazing place to be and live. I just think it’s quite sad that I’ll never have that experience of standing playing for my country and singing my country’s national anthem.”
As he warms up before the marching season proper, Stephen Nolan fell on the interview with some enthusiasm, inviting DUP Northern Ireland fan Brian Kingston and Belfast Telegraph Northern Ireland fan John Laverty on to opine, respectively, that the anthem and flag are fine, and that, no, Windsor is not a cold house for Catholics (but the anthem should be changed to a hymn).
Brian’s take on Windsor and its various add-ons is straightforward DUP orthodoxy: We all live in Britain (we don’t, but let’s crack on) so why should we be ashamed of British symbols? Which is fair enough if you leave aside the history of these islands and pretend the Good Friday Agreement doesn’t exist; otherwise it’s like asking a passenger on a crowded bus if they’d prefer to keep their seat or stand up and grab a strap. Completely understandable, in other words, but not great if you don’t understand that the solution is not more people standing, but a bigger bus with seats for everybody.
Last time I was at Windsor for a Northern Ireland match was either 11 or 14 years ago. The reason I can be so oddly accurate and inaccurate at the same time is that I know for a fact only that the match was against Finland and Professor Google tells me that in the rough time period I’m referencing Northern Ireland played Finland twice at home – in August 2012 and March 2015. I honestly have no idea whether I watched the high-scoring international friendly (2012) or the key European Championship qualifier (2015). But I do know I didn’t go back because the flags, the anthem and the chants made me very uncomfortable. And it's a weird feeling being uncomfortable watching a team that’s supposed to be yours.
I’ve no doubt that things have improved at Windsor since I last joined the GAWA throng and I’m persuaded that I would likely be less uncomfortable if went to the next match there. But against that, I know from watching matches live on TV that not only is God Save the Queen/King still played at Windsor, the fans still break up their anthem by inserting ‘No surrender!’ in the middle. And I know that while the Republic of Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland are united in the passion with which they belt out their various anthems, the Northern Ireland XI is split down politico-religious lines when it comes to enthusiasm for the king. Last Windsor international I watched on TV, perhaps two or three players sang the words (it was hard to tell); the majority looked not like young athletes straining at the leash to get going, but like captured pilots lined up for a photoshoot.
The excuses are familiar, but increasingly threadbare.
1. We’re British, so of course we keep the British national anthem. (Tell that to the Scots and Welsh.)
2. It’s only a minority singing ‘No surrender!’ during the anthem. (It was only a minority invaded the pitch at Celtic Park last week, and we all know what GAWA fans thought about that lot.)
3. Young Catholics remain respectfully quiet during the anthem but they’re not that bothered. (Unless you count the literal captain of Northern Ireland quoted above speaking of her regret at never having got to sing an anthem she identified with.)
Only one of the three explanations carries an ounce of weight, and that’s the first, and only because it evinces a blunt and unpleasant truth rather than indulging in desperate pretence. Ours is a British team. Young players who identify as Irish (an increasing majority, btw) will only play for our British team if they accept the anthem. But as a sop to modernity and wokeism we’ll allow them to remain sullenly silent.
The second, the quite correct assertion that a minority sings ‘No surrender!’, is perhaps the most problematic. If indeed it is a small minority, and if indeed – as we’re constantly assured – the majority of the fans are pissed off by it, then the problem gets fixed in the blink of an eye. The IFA whacks out a statement telling people those days are over; the Windsor majority makes Windsor a cold house for the no-surrender merchants and – hey, presto! – a big part of the problem is gone. But of course the IFA doesn’t even acknowledge it as a problem and nor does the majority of decent fans© inside the stadium.
As for the third excuse, it’s not only the vivid evidence of Marissa Callaghan that gives the lie to the ‘They don’t really mind’ response that NI fans have borrowed from the US Deep South, it’s the faces of the players on both sides of the line-up divide. The singers are afraid to belt it out for fear of upsetting their colleagues and so they end up sounding and looking embarrassed; the non-singers, meanwhile, pretend to have spotted something inordinately interesting on their boots.
Throw in the worryingly hostile reception by a significant element of the GAWA support to the IFA’s belated decision (after how many meetings?) to congratulate former NI captain Martin O’Neill on his double success with Celtic in Scotland and it’s clear that the much-needed central heating system for Windsor Park is a long way off being installed.
