So how would the clubs in the Irish league compare with the EPL clubs? By that I mean....who is the Man Utd (tons of $$$ and supporters throughout Ireland...loved by many and hated by tons, as well), Liverpool FC (the most trophies and quite popular), Arsenal (the other guys that win) and so on. Compare them the best you can, even if you have to use a NON-English club as a comparision. Just something to give me a picture in my mind. Also any players past or present with the last name of Kinney, Ahern, or Caton (various spellings of this name). Just thought maybe, I could support a family club, if that connection exists. Anything to create/spark a personal connection for me...great kits/crests, passionate supporters, befriending a fellow supporter of the club, SO when my family visits Ireland (which we will definately be doing in the next few years, my wife is 1/2 Irish!). Thank very much. I look forward to exploring all the links you posted and reading all of your responses.
Impossible to compare, just remember the standard of Irish club football is way off the EPL or any major league. What one premership footballer earns in a week would be the average annual transfer budget of an irish club! The big team traditionally would have been Shamrock Rovers from South Dublin, but they've been struggling since they sold their stadium in the eighties and have been ground sharing since. For info on Irish football see http://www.eleven-a-side.com To learn more about the clubs go to http://www.fai.ie/FAI/Clubs/Clubs.htm
A point to remember ...officially "Irish league" is clubs in N.Ireland and clubs in the Republic of Ireland are in the "League of Ireland".
A point to remember ......... officially "Irish League" is a league of clubs exclusively based in "the six counties of the North of Ireland" , N. Ireland is a disputed term in many ways, the not least of which is that Finn Harps , Derry City and Monaghan Town all in the Northern part of Ireland and one in the six counties are in the League of Ireland , a league which is open to all teams who wish to apply , no matter which part of the island they come from.
Shamrock Rovers linksfficial site- www.shamrockrovers.ie ,ultras sites- www.srfcultras.net for the site itself where you can view pictures of Rovers supporters mathchday displays among other stuff, and www.srfcultras.com for the Rovers ultras forum.there are some other Rovers fans sites to which there are links on the ultras forum.The Roves ultras forum is by far the best supporters site in the league of ireland.Also,the Rovers ultras are linked with ultras from greek team Panathinaikos,swedes Hammarby and austrians Rapid Vienna (Rovers fans regularly travel abroad to meet with theire fellow green&white brothers) Rovers fans must be among the most loyal and hardcore youl find anywhere to have put up with the last 18 years of trauma that have hit Rovers,so we've certainly got the passionate supporters tag your looking for! weve been effectively homeless since 1987 when our stadium was sold against the wishes of all the supporters.weve been struggling to build a new one in tallaght since 1997 (its still incomplete due to financial problems).back in 1987 the owners of Rovers -the Kilcoyne family, sold the stadium for personal profit. the bastards will never be forgiven and as far as any hoops supporters are concerned they can f*ucking rot in hell. (Louis kilcoyne recently had a heart attack,so weve a song to celebrate that fact..) Rovers are the only club in the league of ireland to wear green and white hoops (hence our nickname being "the hoops") the shirt is similar to Celtic,Sporting CP etc so theres a great kit for ya to start off!and the crest is nice too,as youl see on the official site.We are also the most successful club in the country, we have won more league titles than anyone else (currently at 15) ,more cups (24), a record number of doubles (double=league and cup win in the same year), a record number of consecutive doubles, we've more irish internationals thatn any other club (62 Rovers players have ben capped by ireland.) however we've not had it easy, as i said the last decade and a half has been like a living hell for Rovers.Save for one or two bright spells we've had to put up with more sh1t than anyone else.Safe to say Rovers have the most colorful history of any club in Ireland! regarding the standard of football.. many people (usually "barstool" fans of english clubs) will say its ********e, but in truth while its nowhere as good as the italian,spanish,german or english leagues ,it is a decent standard. as for Rovers, weve played in some dire games this year (ie 1-0 loss away to Derry City, 0-0 draw at home with Dublin City), but also there have been some excellent games (2-2 away to our hated rivals Bohemians, 4-0 home win against Waterford United, 2-1 home win v Cork City etc). if you judge the eircom league of ireland in comparison to the big leagues of spain,italy, germany england etc youl be disappointed but if you just judge it on its own merits youl be pleasantly surprised. regarding comparing it other clubs.in recent years Shelbourne have played in european competition against kilmarnock of scotland and lost on aggregate by 1 goal, a 1 goal aggregate loss to Rosenborg too befell shels 2 seasons ago.Bohemians (scum) knocked aberdeen out of europe 2 seasons ago.St Pats drew 0-0 with Celtic in glasgow a few seasons ago.so on the pitch theres not much difference between irish and scottish clubs - however faciities/stadium wise scottish clubs are in a different world altogether,unfortunately.And as for Rovers last summer we played in the inter-toto cup, we beat polish team Odra Wodzislaw 1-2 and 1-0 (3-1 on aggregate)-Polish club football is very highly ranked by Uefa its worth noting.that was in the first round then in the second round Slovan Liberec knocked us out (4-0 on aggregate,they were lucky to beat us 2-0 in Dublin to be honest). Liberec had actually beaten Milan in european competition the previous season so it was by no means a humiliation for Rovers.friendly games between Irish clubs and non-premier league english clubs usually are fairly tight, although Shelbourne beat Leeds Utd 2-0 last year in a friendly in Dublin. i Hope you enjoy the Rovers sites and reading/finding out about Rovers. hopefully when you do visit ireland wel have finally moved into our new stadium in Talaght koh!
The great thing about the EL off the pitch is the fans. Groups like the Shed End Invincibles (Pats) the SRFC Ultras (Rovers) and the Briogaid Dearg (Shelbourne) really bring alot to matches. The atmosphere at Dublin derbys espically is as good as you'll find anywhere in the world. Look at the pictures of the SRFC Ultras in action or the Briogaid Dearg to see the colour they bring, and the noise levels are usually amazing. Shelbournes past isn't too unlike Rovers present really. Shelbourne were screwed out of not one but two stadiums and so ended up homeless and directionless, even worse than Rovers because they even ended up relegated. The turn around has been unreal, they found a new home in Tolka Park and built the stadium up and have made it there own, and the on the field results have followed. They won their first league title in 30 years in '92 (Not too unlike Manchester United in that respect, relatively speaking ), reached and won many cup finals after that and over the past five or six years have been either champions of the league or narrow losers, they're currently top at the moment and defending champions, which means they will be in next years champions league qualifyers. We've also our first Irish international in two decades playing for us now in Jason Byrne so things are looking very good for us at the moment.
althoguh Shels "being screwed out of 2 stadiums is half their own fault".. back in the fifties Joe Cunningham Rovers chairman offered shels an interest free loan to buy shelbourne park but shels turned him down! unfortunately that stupidity is still prevalent among most of the clubs boards in the el today.
Derry City's in the Six Counties. Finn Harps are from Donegal (Ulster County in the Republic), whilst Monaghan and Cavan are the other two Ulster Counties in the Republic.
We are indeed in the northern part of Ireland, but in all honesty I don't think that many people are going to confuse that with the political entity of Northern Ireland Derry are really the only major exception to the North/South rule.
Anto eile, I visited those websites that you posted, great stuff, Thanks! When I went to post on the Shamrock Rovers forum, I saw a message that stated that no one had posted a message in over 1,000 days!!!! NOT GOOD! I was so looking forward to connecting with some Irish footie fans.
That's not right, if you're talking about the SRFCultras.com forum it normally gets plenty of posts daily. That's weird, but just ignore it. Anyway, you're probably better off going to www.foot.ie to use a forum, as it's for fans of all teams rather than just one.
catfish the srfcultras.com forum gets dozens of posts every day!there have been 52000 posts since it started about 2years ago,and there are 1500 members on it! if it said that 1000days stuff then it must be because your not registered on the forum.i suggest you take the time to register as its very much well worth doing as its an excellent site. so go back and on the top of the page then youl see a list of buttons, click on the "register" one , take 2 minutes to do so. its worth it