Ireland v England at Croke Park - a timely opportunity for healing

The event was the reprisal killing by British soldiers of thirteen innocent spectators (and one player) at a Gaelic football match in November 1920. Since that distant day Croke Park has been a symbol of Irish nationalism as much as it has been a sports venue and only Gaelic sports have been played there. All that is now changing.

Modern Ireland is rich, and pragmatic

The economic triumph of modern Ireland is one of the great stories of modern times. It is the fourth richest country in the world per capita and also the freest both politically and in respect of the media. Indeed by all measures of comparative social and economic performance Ireland is a resounding success story - it's a pretty good place to live. True it does rain a lot, but even the rain is soft rain! The self-confidence that comes from success means that whilst the gruesome past and the struggle for freedom will never be forgotten most young people have moved on - when you are all busy getting and spending there's not much time for sitting and staring, or for bitterness about the what went before.

Beating the English on the field of play

For the Celt there is nothing more satisfying than beating the English on the field of play. Whilst 'Cwm Rhondda' is always sung before a rugby match in Cardiff it is sung with particular passion when the English are playing. Similarly the Scottish equivalent, the ghastly dirge 'Flower of Scotland' with its cry to send the English 'homeward Tae think again' is given maximum volume at Murrayfield when England are there. The English generally take this in good heart - a few choruses of the banal and obscure 'Swing low sweet chariots' will usually help them get their own back. But while Wales and Scotland have their own good reasons for some to detest all things English no nation has more reason than the Irish.

Sport sometimes fuels the enmities between rivals

At their worst sporting rivalries can intensify rather than reduce enmity between different nations or groups. Fortunately there have been few examples of a sporting difference escalating into armed conflict, as happened after a football match between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969! But the passions when, for example, Celtic play Rangers or Argentina plays Brazil have not much to do with football and much more to do with religious or national differences. In Italy recently a policeman died after he was struck by a missile during rioting at a 'Serie A' local derby in Sicily between Catania and Palermo. Italian football is shamed and in shock after this ghastly event - and so it should be. When enmities between supporters are as intense as this the bounds of what is acceptable have long been left far behind.

Sport can be a great healer

When the England players step onto the hallowed turf of Croke Park next Saturday and the huge crowd is asked to stand for the playing of 'God save the Queen' there is a massive opportunity for the Irish crowd to add their voices to the healing process that has been underway for some time in the island of Ireland. Rugby has a good record of being a force for unity rather than of division. The Irish national rugby team has always represented all of Ireland with citizens of Northern Ireland playing alongside those of the Irish Republic. And the Irish have always been great supporters of the British Isles rugby team the 'Lions' where they play happily alongside not just their fellow Celts, but the English.

England's players start in credit

There will be a protest (hopefully a peaceful one) outside the ground by those who hate all things English. But the England players will start the match in credit from an event at the height of the Northern Ireland troubles in 1973. In that year the Scots and the Welsh refused to play in Dublin on security grounds, but the English team did play - and received a standing ovation from the Irish crowd for doing so. Ireland won the match easily, but it was more the fact that the match took place at all than the result which impressed the Irish fans. At the dinner after the match the England captain summed up the mood nicely 'We may not be any good' he said, 'but at least we turned up.' Let's hope for similar warmth from all at Croke Park on Saturday.