Not wanting the anthem to be played before every match has nothing to do with being proud of being Irish - thats a ridiculous argument. Do you really need a song to know you are Irish? Howeber there is a time and place for an anthem - maybe All-Ireland finals and international matches but its silly before every match. You can see the players dont want it, they just want to focus on the match and their warm up. You can see them stretching, jumping up and down...etc during the whole thing. Its a GAA match not the Eurovision

Besides which Cartons song is dire

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4649 - 28/05/2012 18:39:45    1182237

Its rare, but in this case i agree with bad.monkey. Wishing the anthem to be played or not has nothing to do with pride of Irishness. IMO whether or not the association was founded upon nationalistic values is also irrelevant. The GAA is alike any other civic societal organisation in Ireland and like any other one it can change to suit new dawns. Many people feel that playing the anthem before every game is pointless and un-neccessary. The anthem becomes more like a ritual of boredom rather than an expression of national sentiment. If the anthem is kept for provincials and All Ireland finals then its significance as a anthem at GAA matches will be restored.

seany16 (Dublin) - Posts: 1663 - 28/05/2012 20:57:45    1182353

It seems that to be part of modern Ireland you have to denounce things that are Irish. How can anyone honstly be at a match and have a problem with the national anthem being played, its people like this that go around looking for things to give out about. The Americans play the national anthem before all NFL games, and its a huge source of pride for them, yet we act as though its embarrasing.

PK57 (Louth) - Posts: 1661 - 28/05/2012 21:28:46    1182407

the irish anthem should always be played . end of story its tradition and a sense of pride .

ta32 (Tyrone) - Posts: 4907 - 28/05/2012 21:46:05    1182437

Inresponse to bad.monkey and seany16.

Most people are proud of the anthem and it makes up apart of the preparation for the players. I don't know why and don'tunderstand why a huge preportion of Irish people feel the need to dumb down things Irish. In an age where the Irish people are becoming more and more European and in which our culture is being diluted by American and British culture I can't understand why Irish people have no problem in desregarding their own culture and heritage. In general, as a society we have become more British/American then the British/American's themselves and we don't seem to care. I feel we are going to regret this some day.

Irish people should take pride in all things Irish that make's us different to other nations, ie, our national anthem, our language, our national games, our culture etc... If we choose to throw away these things fair enough but personally I would dvse against that.

Just had to get that rant off my chest.

Culann (Dublin) - Posts: 2306 - 29/05/2012 09:59:07    1182531

Most places around the country have a bad version of it on a cd, or have someone singing it. And when its done like that I find it kind of boring, in comparison to in Croker where you have the band playing and 60, 70 odd thousand people singing along with you, its then that it makes you proud to be Irish. When its sung in Croker it always makes the hairs on my neck stand up.

JammyD (Kildare) - Posts: 37 - 29/05/2012 11:15:18    1182614

"Many people feel that playing the anthem before every game is pointless and un-neccessary. The anthem becomes more like a ritual of boredom rather than an expression of national sentiment".

Then 'many people' are soulless and selfish 'New Irelanders' who should not proclaim themselves as Irish men and women in public to anybody if they are so ashamed to hear their anthem being played at anything other than the inauguration of a President or something! These are the kind of self serving ne'er do goods that you might find yourself talking to in a pub and then quickly turning away from again back to normal people!!

The anthem is the anthem and I should be sung with gusto at each and every opportunity by the people of this nation and those who disagree should find some other nationality for themselves because they sure as heck aint Irish!!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 29/05/2012 11:31:37    1182625

Snuf as usual your post is nothing but hyperbole. Culann you make some very good points. Firstly, I never said i had a problem with the anthem, i merely said it has become an out-dated ritual at every game. Like many other people on here, i attend large amounts of gaelic games each year. I feel that at least gives me some entitlement to make a comment on this issue. In my experience and this does not only apply to Dublin games; at the majority of low and middle rank fixtures the anthem is hardly sung by the supporters. People stand, usually stand silent and cheer for their team long before the anthem is over. Besides that, in many other states cheering over a national anthem would be considered a severe disrespect to the nation. This issue seems to be over-looked by many here.

As pointed out before, removing the anthem before every game is not an erosion of Irishness. It is not a feature of the so called europeanisation, anglo and americisation of Ireland either. I think it should be removed to make the games more up-beat at the beginning instead of throwing in after what in the majority of times is a significant lull. Its a practical issue rather than one out of dislike for the anthem. Gaelic games are a core feature of Irish culture, by attending those games we are doing something uniquely Irish, therefore its impossible to europeanize something so central to Irish culture.

As i stated, reserving the anthem for provincials and All Ireland finals would restore its significance at GAA games. And as a final point, issues of preserving tradition are not as straight forward as they seem. Priests used to throw the ball in for AI finals. Im sure most are glad that tradition has been dropped. IMO the anthem on AI day sounds excellent, and by reserving it we further prevent it from becoming the funeral like liturgy that it has become.

seany16 (Dublin) - Posts: 1663 - 29/05/2012 12:17:11    1182668

The anthem is the anthem and I should be sung with gusto at each and every opportunity by the people of this nation and those who disagree should find some other nationality for themselves because they sure as heck aint Irish!!

Yeah its just beautiful when some drunken idiot is roaring it in a pub at 2 in morning, forgetting half the words...

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4649 - 29/05/2012 13:23:41    1182748