neil lennon withdraws!

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well said dcajedi

can I ask what the green, white and orange stands for in the irish national flag please?

[Parkhead_Faithful]

Originally posted by ads_uk
can I ask what the green, white and orange stands for in the irish national flag please?

Isnt it The green represents the catholics, the orange the protestants and the white in the middle peace between the two?

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Originally posted by Parkhead_Faithful


Isnt it The green represents the catholics, the orange the protestants and the white in the middle peace between the two?

thats what i heard so say you had a green white green top. oh dear, I've started something ;)

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this is all down to interpretation I know I'm just saying that from my interpretation of the situation green white green makes about the same affect as tangerine. the day the tangerine top was out I got nothing but abuse all the way up the street people shouting tangerine b****** at me and im not even into these sectarian songs or anything sectarian for that matter.

[CHRIS_SUTTON9]

The Old Firm against bigotory. The Old Firm against sectarianism. Well done Rangers Football Club!!!! Lets take out an orange strip. What idiots, "oh it's tangerine" of course it is. Celtic work hard to stop the troubles, Rangers fuel it.

[CHRIS_SUTTON9]

Not to say, we are as bad as each other, that is possibly the case. Although, what links to Rangers have to Ireland?

[BrianCappellieri]

Welcome to the boards, CS.

BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/2208857.stm)Lennon quits international football

Northern Ireland's Neil Lennon has confirmed his retirement from international football after receiving a death threat prior to the friendly against Cyprus.

[BrianCappellieri]

This is London (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/sport/football/story.html?in_review_id=675792)Lennon must not surrender

Some peace process. Terrorists walk the streets, let out early from long prison sentences, while other former, or hopefully former, terrorists become part of the Northern Ireland government, but it's still possible for loyalist paramilitaries to force the captain of their national football team to retire from international football simply because he's a Catholic.


TeamTalk (http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/Team_News/0,1562,30,00.html#522048)Hughes in Lennon plea

Newcastle's Aaron Hughes has urged his Northern Ireland team-mate Neil Lennon to reconsider his retiremnet from international football.

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we are as bad as each other anyone who denies it isnt a realist such as myself ;)

[-cman-]

Okay, let's ease off on the Rangers fans and try to maintain a level of civility here which we wish to see in the real world. Anyone who can provide a link between the UVF bastards and Rangers FC is welcome to do so. Otherwise I think we can all stipulate that 90% of the supporters of both Old Firm clubs are reasonable people.

The same can be said for the residents of poor benighted Northern Ireland. dcajedi, your wide-eyed horror at the situation is delightful. It should be the natural reaction of any human when they find out about the madness people will perpetrate in the name of "freedom." You should learn about it, no matter what your ethnic background, if only to learn that the noblest of causes can become impossibly corrupted and twisted when the means begin to justify the ends.

Are you listening Mr. Bush?</rant>

As for Lennon. I choose to see his withdrawal not as a movement based on fear but a statement of its own, e.g. "as long as you people persist in this lunacy, people of talent in this country -- footballers or other professionals -- will vote with their feet and continue to leave this country in the second or third rank economically and culturally."

And he's right.

[liverbird]

Cman, with due respect Neil Lennon is not threatened because he is a Catholic. If that were the case he would have been threatened when he played for Leicester! He was threatened because he chose to sign with Celtic! It was acceptable to the scum element in Windsor Park for him to play for NI as long as he didn't wear his sentiments on his sleeve, or back. He became a target when he wore hoops. Why? Because for better or worse that shirt is seen as a sign that one is Irish and not British/Unionist. A young man was killed this month in Belfast simply because he chose to wear a Celtic top on the way home from a GAA practice. That he wore hoops made him a death target. This is real not fantasy. It still happens regularly in Belfast. I also want to make it clear that I've no use for those who think they can threaten and take life to achieve a violent end to British soveriegnty in NI.

[SpamIAm]

Celtic had been wearing green and white hoops long before the Troubles and has always been identified with the Irish in Scotland and around the world.

Part of me does believe that Rangers would like sectarianism out of the game, but how can you justify choosing an orange shirt when a vocal segment of your fan base waves the Union Jack and sings loyalist songs?

It's unthinkable to claim that that color has no meaning in the context and history of the Old Firm. From a marketing standpoint, though, it's genius.

[northern ireland fan]

I have been reading with interest the posts about Lennon and as one who was actually at the game and does not support either Celtic or Rangers I felt a need to develop some parity to balance some ignorant opinions i have read on this board.

1/ Lennon was never booed whilst playing for other teams, this started at the home game with Norway when A SMALL MINORITY booed due to the fact that he now played for Celtic.

2/ Catholic players playing for N.I in Belfast have never been booed because they are Catholic - SOME PLAYERS BOTH PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC HAVE BEEN BOOED BECAUSE THEY PLAYED FOR EITHER CELTIC OR GLENTORAN.

3/ Glentoran are the second biggest team in both N.I and Belfast, I support them, they are Linfields biggest rivals. Linfield are the biggest club in both Belfast and N.I, they are VERY closely associated with Rangers. However, Glentoran are in fact a team almost exclusively supported by Protestants and are based in the Protestant heartland of East Belfast - unlike Linfield! There is a very big hatred between the clubs which has obviously nothing to do with religion. Why Glentoran N.I players have been booed at Windsor Park is because the Linfield fans in the crowd hate their club. The point I am trying to make is that Celtic players get booed at N.I home games because they play for Celtic not because of their Religion (for those that don`t know N.I play their home games at Windsor Park, the home ground of Linfield). However, players who play for a Protestant club, Glentoran, also get booed, again not because of religion but because of the club they play for. This Pro Linfield/Rangers group are a minority amongst the wider body of N.I fans and thankfully are being increasingly 'discouraged' from attending N.I home games.

4/ A so-called loyalist Paramilitary group called the LVF issued the death threat NOT ANY N.I FANS. It was later found that this threat was a hoax carried out by one sick/deranged/dickhead person, for reasons unknown. I AM GETTING A VIBE FROM MANY CONTRIBUTORS ON THIS BOARD THAT THE LVF AND N.I FANS ARE INTERCHANGABLE-AS YOU MIGHT IMAGINE THIS IS VERY ANNOYING.

5/ In Lennons next home game THE VAST MAJORITY of the fans cheered his every touch - from this it was clear that N.I fans supported him and were against the mindless booing of N.I players.

6/ The atmosphere at the game against Cyprus was clearly affected by the hoax death threat. Everybody I spoke to outside was gutted and depressed. This is because many N.I fans and the IFA had put so much time and effort into making the game a fun/family event to get people back the game. If you believe the inference that when N.I play home games the stadium is a sectarian cauldron were catholics are hung from the stands you are very much mistaken- great efforts are being made to tackle sectarianism in N.Irish football. That`s why I was so devasted that all this hard work seemed to have went down the drain because of the actions of one hoax phone-call.

In fact many N.I fans stayed behind after the game to chant "Theres only one Neil Lennon", this was clearly caught on T.V when Keith Gillespie was being interviewed whilst leaving the pitch. He asked the reporter to note this as a testament to how much the N.I fans and players were behind Lennon.

7/ I have personally written a letter to Neil lennon expressing my outrage and regret at what happened. I expressed the wish that he play for N.I again, but understood fully if he decided not to (as he subsequently did), whatever he choose to do he had my 100% support (for whatever that was worth).

Therer are many anti N.I, anti Unionist and anti Protestant people out there who seem to be crawling out of the woodwork to use this sorry affair as a stick to beat the above mentioned people, for there own political agenda (note I did not use anti Rangers as I personally am both anti- Old Firm - Celtic and Rangers).

Lets stick to the facts there are a small number of deranged people in N.I who have the ability either through a phone call, a gun or a bomb to totally ruin things for whoever they choose to be their victim. In this case it was Neil lennon and the vast majority of law abiding N.I fans of whom I am proud to say I am one.

[Shah]

Excellent post, I was getting a bit wary of the things said on the Ireland forum that seemed to start going down the road of demonzing NI Unionists. I do not live in your part of the world, and do not understand all that goes because of that. But as a protestant and a presbyterian it seemed that some posts were beginning to attack NI Protestants as a whole, and that bothered me. Thank you for setting the record straight on this issue.

[Parkhead_Faithful]

I agree with cman that 90% of old firm fans are decent folk, I cannot agree with ads that both clubs are as bad as each other, celtic have a reputation throught europe, the world actually, of taking all comers, religion,colour,creed whatever its not important .
Rangers operated a sectarian signing policy for 50 years, its been less than 2 decades since it ended, rangers had to sack a boardmember when he was caught on camera signing sectarian songs at a club function,the way black celtic players have been treated at ibrox in the last 2 seasons has been disgraceful, bobo balde having monkey noises made at him whenever he touches the ball for example and yet rangers football club does nothing, in fact they blankly refuse to acknowledge it when people listening to it on the internet throught the world can hear it clear as day.
Its shameful and yet the club does nothing, then they realease the orange strip, i dont care what anyone says about that it is far from simply an orange strip,and when the clubs colours are red white and blue? just like they had the oranje day to commemorate their dutch world cup contingent at the scottish cup final, aye right.

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I support neil lennon here btw.

can we talk about super mo? republic of ireland tops? ira songs. anti british, anti queen, anti commenwealth, the queen mothers minute silence springs to mind, the man gesturing to claudio reyna after september 11th with arms outstreched like an aeroplane

both sets of fans boo players from each side even ayr fans shouted racist abuse at russell latapy in the cup final. the opposing stuff is for rangers fans anti rome etc...but answer me this how many of these people can honestly say they know what they are talking about?

if you ever watch south park and there was an episode about changing the south park flag which was clearly racist (it was a black man being hung with white people onlooking) chef being black tried to change it and said he almost let racism turn him into a racist.

the solution is video evidence..... on the back of every ticket (for rangers and celtic) it should say things like racism, sectarianism, hatred of groups is not tolerated and rangers/celtic reserve the right to expel fans who do this..etc etc...My memory is vague but Aberdeen fans celebrated during a minutes silence once and got banned using video evidence. soo many booed at celtic park during the queen mothers funeral that they would be bankrupt :P but the deterrant wasn't in place at the time.

[Parkhead_Faithful]

super mo, were talking middle of the 80's and once again youre talking the fans, same with the guy guesturing at reyna, he was banned for life actually, the queen mum has no relevance at celtic park, why should we hold a minutes silence for her? why not for the young lad murdered for wearing a celtic strip, id much rather hold a minutes silence for someone relevant to celtic football club and the celtic support, the queen mum the leech that she was is neither.
BUT Im not talking about fans, im talking about the CLUB
read my post and try and justify any of it if you can but to me its a mystery how anyone can condone such behavior from THE CLUB, not the fans the CLUB and then to say were just as bad, give me some examples.

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if rangers are that bad why do celtic work together with them as the "old firm"?

[northern ireland fan]

Don`t worry about it mate - good call - but please start supporting a decent English team, not the red scum from North London.

On a more serious note however remember there is alot of bigotry out there on BOTH sides - it is refreshing to me Shah that you have actually saw through this propaganda. The impression I think that alot of Northern Unionists/Protestants have in N.I is that the American public in general and Irish-Americans in particular are being influenced by the Republican thought police big-time. Maybe when the demonisation is as balant as some of the posts have been on this board it is somewhat easier to spot.

P.S Congratulations on your excellent World Cup performances and I look forward to seeing a USMNT appearance in Belfast, were we can give you a good hiding (hopefully with Neil Lennon playing and Martin O'Neill as Manager)

[BrianCappellieri]

Originally posted by ads_uk
if you ever watch south park and there was an episode about changing the south park flag which was clearly racist (it was a black man being hung with white people onlooking) chef being black tried to change it and said he almost let racism turn him into a racist.


Does the majority of your education on race and religion come from South Park?