Readers' Blog: National pride sadly lacking in sports bodies
It was very disappointing and shameful to see just one of the Republic’s players singing our national anthem.
In comparison, Gibraltar, which is not a country, had 10 out of 11 of their players singing what they see as their anthem.
Why do we continue to trawl the UK for players who are not Irish to represent our country, while ignoring our own Irish players from our own league, many of whom are better players than the FAI continually insist on picking.
It’s about time we rediscovered our national pride and put a stop to sporting organisations like the FAI and IRFU — which are well funded by the State — acting as though our country and who we are as a nation is somehow an embarrassment by not picking our country men who play in our league by the former and the non- playing of our national anthem and the flying of the Tricolour by the latter.
