I love it. I have watched it all my life and played it into my 30s. A season ticket holder with Drogheda United, a member of Drogheda Liverpool Supporters Club, the game courses through my ageing veins. Having experienced the titillation of a Dembele hattrick for the French national team inside thirty minutes in last night's World Cup clash with Norway, the beauty of the sport is as intense as ever, hitting the sweet spot every time. Even now, I am considering finding a walking football club to join where people at my age, 69 today, can put their feet to silky use. Hopefully, an old dog for the hard road, there is life in me yet and hunger for the beauty served up by soccer.
But the beautiful game fails to retain its beauty if it is associated with something so ugly as genocide. The flourishing creativity of soccer and the nihilistic destructiveness of genocide are light years apart, and we who love the sport feel compelled to ensure they remain apart. There is simply no room, no rhyme, no reason for soccer aficionados to allow the genocidal state of Israel to sports wash itself and use the Irish national soccer team as a soapy flannel to wash away its crimes. Ireland should never be a lightening conductor that absorbs and neutralises the shock directed Israel's way.
But the beautiful game fails to retain its beauty if it is associated with something so ugly as genocide. The flourishing creativity of soccer and the nihilistic destructiveness of genocide are light years apart, and we who love the sport feel compelled to ensure they remain apart. There is simply no room, no rhyme, no reason for soccer aficionados to allow the genocidal state of Israel to sports wash itself and use the Irish national soccer team as a soapy flannel to wash away its crimes. Ireland should never be a lightening conductor that absorbs and neutralises the shock directed Israel's way.
Mark O'Farrell in a Facebook post nailed it concisely:
It really is that simple. There should be no shield for Israel to play behind, no justification for them playing and, perhaps of greater longevity, no forgiveness for those who facilitate them. What do six measly points amount to when set alongside sixty thousand and upwards butchered by Israeli savagery?
Only this week we learn of a UN Independent International Commission report stating:
The report itemised some of its more egregious findings:
And yet there are some who want to entertain these beasts on a soccer pitch, at times whining and wheedling that sports should be free from politics.
The same type of argument has been wheeled out by the Irish Writers Union which in the spirit of double standards, found its voice to wax critical of Russian invasion of Ukraine but managed to lose it when Israel commits far worse atrocities in Gaza. Kevin Doyle tore the union apart in a recent article in which he quoted William Wall who had at the recent AGM of the Writers Union seconded the motion for a cultural boycott of Israel.
Wall identified the material self interest that drives such ethics averse logic:
This is a time for leadership that is not driven by such material self-interest. We have it here in Drogheda where our very own TD Joanne Byrne stepped up to the plate when that leadership was called for. She demanded the game be stopped. She is scheduled to be here today to reiterate her demand for the game to be stopped. As a consequence of her principled stand, she was forced out of her position as Chair of Drogheda United Football Club. Yet, no weasel words from her about sport and politics not mixing
For those of us familiar with the anti-fascist phrase from the Spanish civil war, No Pasaran, we have heard it from the lips of Joanna Byrne. Israel shall not pass the ball or the blame. We must stop the game.
It is unthinkable for Ireland to play Israel at home or away while Israel is engaging in genocide, occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Israel cannot continue to act with impunity. Israel must be sanctioned.
It really is that simple. There should be no shield for Israel to play behind, no justification for them playing and, perhaps of greater longevity, no forgiveness for those who facilitate them. What do six measly points amount to when set alongside sixty thousand and upwards butchered by Israeli savagery?
Only this week we learn of a UN Independent International Commission report stating:
The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces . . . Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law.
The report itemised some of its more egregious findings:
- Israel has killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since 7 October 2023
- Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives
- Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts
- Israeli security forces have used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered and intergenerational pattern of occupation and hostilities
And yet there are some who want to entertain these beasts on a soccer pitch, at times whining and wheedling that sports should be free from politics.
The same type of argument has been wheeled out by the Irish Writers Union which in the spirit of double standards, found its voice to wax critical of Russian invasion of Ukraine but managed to lose it when Israel commits far worse atrocities in Gaza. Kevin Doyle tore the union apart in a recent article in which he quoted William Wall who had at the recent AGM of the Writers Union seconded the motion for a cultural boycott of Israel.
Wall identified the material self interest that drives such ethics averse logic:
thinking of their sales in America, or a possible contract in America, or a possible book tour in America. Or what will the Indo think of them? Or, God help us, Alan Shatter.
This is a time for leadership that is not driven by such material self-interest. We have it here in Drogheda where our very own TD Joanne Byrne stepped up to the plate when that leadership was called for. She demanded the game be stopped. She is scheduled to be here today to reiterate her demand for the game to be stopped. As a consequence of her principled stand, she was forced out of her position as Chair of Drogheda United Football Club. Yet, no weasel words from her about sport and politics not mixing
For those of us familiar with the anti-fascist phrase from the Spanish civil war, No Pasaran, we have heard it from the lips of Joanna Byrne. Israel shall not pass the ball or the blame. We must stop the game.
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