Government urged to stop Ireland-Israel match but Coalition says it has 'no role' to act

Charlie McConalogue: Government is 'fully supportive of our athletes competing at the highest level of international competition, however, it is ultimately international sporting federations who are responsible for deciding how to carry out their competitions and who may participate'. File picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The Government has been urged to "stop the fucking game", during a Dáil debate on a highly contentious football match between Ireland and Israel.

The Coalition has insisted that it has "no role" in match fixtures amid ongoing calls to have the Nations League fixture at Dublin's Aviva Stadium cancelled.

Junior sports minister Charlie McConalogue told the Dáil that the Government is "fully supportive of our athletes competing at the highest level of international competition, however, it is ultimately international sporting federations who are responsible for deciding how to carry out their competitions and who may participate".

The Government’s stance to back the FAI was strongly criticised in the Dáil during a debate on a Sinn Féin motion to stop the game. 

A move by the Coalition to put forward and an amendment to the motion was described as "shameful".

Calling on the minister to "show solidarity with a people experiencing genocide, solidarity with Palestine, stop this fucking game", Sinn Féin's Louise O'Reilly said Mr McConalogue is refusing to attend the game but he "wants a group of young fellas in green...to stand for the Israeli national anthem, shake hands with men that have blood on their hands".

Her party colleague Darren O'Rourke said moving the game abroad would be worse than holding it in Dublin as it would deny people the right to protest.

Social Democrats TD Sinead Gibney hit out a lack of leadership on the issue and called on the Government to "grow a pair" and do everything possible to stop the game. 

She said the 75,000 men, women, and children reported dead in Gaza is only a conservative estimate of the death and devastation in the Palestinian strip.

"Football has been a feature of this genocide because Israel has at least 10 football teams playing on illegally occupied Palestinian territory. Israel has killed over 1,000 Palestinian football players and sports people," she said.

Labour TD Duncan Smith acknowledged that stopping the game might have consequences but said “we should be leading the charge to Uefa in terms of garnering support for others to stand shoulder to shoulder and say, ‘no, we do not accept this from the State if Israel’.”

Support for boycott grows

It came as a new poll shows that support for a boycott has risen from 48% in March to 56% in June, while opposition has fallen from 42% to 36%.

The Stop the Game group, which commissioned the Ireland Thinks poll, said it "is the story of the public moving in behind a position football had already taken". They pointed to the vote of the FAI's general assembly to urge UEFA to ban Israel.

The polling, carried out by SMS, shows that 88% of those who backed a boycott in March still back one in June, while 45% of the "don't knows" in March are now in favour. It also shows that 22% of people who actively opposed a boycott in March now support one.

Support for a boycott rose across every region, both genders, every social class, and almost every age group and income band.

A boycott now commands majority support among 76% of 18- to 34-year-olds, 61% of women, 59% of working-class voters, and a majority in every region from Dublin to Connacht-Ulster.

Among voters of every party of the left it is close to unanimous. The Ireland Thinks poll was commissioned by Irish Sport for Palestine with fieldwork taking place from June 4-5 among a sample of 1,626 people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 points.