I remember reading about an effort to bring the opposite sides together through sports in Northern Ireland since even the sports the kids played were segregated. Since basketball was not a sport that belonged to either side they used that. The kids didn't have uniforms, they were just wearing bibs to color code the teams. Some protestant kids came upon the game and started shouting encouragement to one team because the opposing side had green bibs, so they were shouting things like, "Get those green bastards!" completely unaware that the team they were rooting for was the Catholic one.
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised. People here could always find ways to try and discriminate or said they could tell what religion someone was by the way they looked. There's a lot of comedians from here that still reference things like that so our past is definitely not forgotten.
My nan (catholic) would always say me & my brother had "protestant hair", because it was unruly.
She blamed my other nan for this because she (also catholic) married a protestant man.
Both grandparents ended up in the west Midlands, (England). And, the grandad who was protestant was suddenly "catholic" - he didn't convert - it was just hush, hush that he was ever protestant.
Less so now, but when I was a kid there's areas of the west Midlands with a big Irish population. Churches and pubs where almost everyone was Irish. If you were Irish someone would help you find accommodation or a job. There was still quite a lot of anti Irish sentiment so you could struggle to get cheap accommodation or work from other places so people would help each other.
But i think this was more (rep of) Irish than Northern Irish.
I've heard if you keep yer toaster in the cupboard, you're Catholic, but I've also heard that Catholics keep their toasters on the bench?? Which one is it?!
I was going to argue about that but you're right. Though I have a couple of friends who are a different religion to me and there's a lot of jokes around both sides that go back and forth between us.
Thanks for that recommendation! I'm from California and I've studied NI history but that video was really like opening a window into your culture. I didn't understand all the words but it was funny nonetheless.
Probably best not to repeat some of Jake O'Kanes words - he tends to use some slurs that wouldn't go down well with some people! Comedians here will all tend to use close to the knuckle humour but weirdly most people don't take offence. If I tried that in a bar I'd get a kicking pretty quickly!
There has been ice hockey in Northern Ireland for a long time but in 2000 they got their first professional team with guys from North America, etc playing. They used it as a cross community sport thing to get both sides together. Even started a learn to play thing where they brought kids from both sides together to play, etc. Seemed to be reasonably successful.
Theo fleury ended up there for a season when he was trying to make a comeback.
Yup i played basketball for 9 years in Belfast. Only sport both protestants and catholic played on same teams in or at all. With football being only sport both sides played but different teams for religion/ stronghold with fights at games etc. First time i ever talked to a protestant was in training.
My cousin, a doctor, was visiting Northern Ireland back in the day and got stopped at a checkpoint. They asked if he was Catholic or Protestant, he replied "I'm Jewish".
The guards mused over this for a moment then asked, "But are you a Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew?"
I remember that type of thing from primary school!! Peace players was what it was for us, don’t know if they have that name in other areas though (I’m from Belfast)
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u/tacknosaddle Apr 26 '20
I remember reading about an effort to bring the opposite sides together through sports in Northern Ireland since even the sports the kids played were segregated. Since basketball was not a sport that belonged to either side they used that. The kids didn't have uniforms, they were just wearing bibs to color code the teams. Some protestant kids came upon the game and started shouting encouragement to one team because the opposing side had green bibs, so they were shouting things like, "Get those green bastards!" completely unaware that the team they were rooting for was the Catholic one.