Journal article
‘We are grateful for the opportunity to act as ambassadors for our club and our country’: Sporting hospitality during the Northern Ireland conflict
- Abstract:
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Association football did not escape the destructive effects of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland from 1969. As ‘the troubles’ escalated through the 1970s, several international teams declined to visit Northern Ireland, adversely affecting the revenue and reputation of the Irish Football Association (IFA) and its affiliated clubs. British clubs cancelled pre-season friendlies in both Irish jurisdictions. To counteract the domestic game’s crisis, clubs across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s border counties pioneered a unique mode of sporting hospitality.
While clubs’ officials, sponsors, and supporters were determined primarily to elevate their particular team, they shared with the Belfast football authorities a broader desire to promote the regional game. Hosting British opponents in European competition and pre-season friendlies, teams in the north of Ireland welcomed visitors with studied generosity. Coalescing around these cross-channel encounters, football officials from both sides of the Irish Sea asserted that sporting fraternity transcended ‘the troubles’. Trawling matchday programmes, the sports press, and the archives of football governing bodies in Belfast and Dublin reveals how Irish hosts and British visitors alike promoted their game as a cornerstone of a robust civil society capable of outlasting the Northern Ireland conflict.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 309.9KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1080/09523367.2023.2206651
Authors
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Journal:
- International Journal of the History of Sport More from this journal
- Volume:
- 40
- Issue:
- 5
- Pages:
- 415-435
- Publication date:
- 2023-06-06
- Acceptance date:
- 2023-03-29
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1743-9035
- ISSN:
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0952-3367
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1354853
- Local pid:
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pubs:1354853
- Deposit date:
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2023-06-07
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
- Copyright date:
- 2023
- Rights statement:
- © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Taylor and Francis at https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2023.2206651
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