"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
Green is the colour
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Peter Byrne, London Andre Deutsch, Carlton 2012. ISBN: 978-0-233-00366-5
The book tells the story of football north and south of the Irish border from the beginning to the present day. Tensions between the IFA and FAI have always existed to some extent because “political activists on both sides had, it seemed, already identified football as a convenient vehicle to score points in the propaganda war”. In the 1930s, the book describes the relationship as “Dublin and Belfast were now in open conflict”.
The question of who owned the name of “Ireland” represented a hard fought battleground with both sides claiming it. Even after FIFA ruled that the two teams should play as “Republic of Ireland” and “Northern Ireland”, the latter continued to call itself “Ireland” in the British Championship but “Northern Ireland" in other games! Another contentious issue was Northern Ireland’s continued selection of “Southern” players. Several players played for both countries partly for the money.
Interestingly the Free State, as it was then called, was ahead of the rest of the British Isles in trying to qualify for the 1934 World Cup. Ironically in 1950 the Republic of Ireland and Scotland both declined an invitation to play in the World Cup – how things have moved on!
Sunday sport is mentioned several places with the IFA’s “steadfast refusal to allow games to be played on the Sabbath” noted.
The book argues with justification that football has played a big role in “projecting Ireland’s image abroad”.