Sport and Community Relations in Northern Ireland


Author(s): John Sugden and Scott Harvie
Year: 1995
Publisher: Centre for the Study of Conflict, University of Ulster
Place of Publication: Coleraine
ISBN: 1859230911
Subject Area(s): Community Relations

Abbreviations: NI - Northern Ireland, GAA - Gaelic Athletic Association

Background to the Research

  • Within NI, prevailing community divisions can often be reflected in the sporting domain and it has been asserted that beyond religion, the most important sources of community divisiveness are educational background, neighborhood affiliation and sporting preference. Despite this little is known about the nature of the role sport can and does play in influencing relations between the communities. This report attempts to examine the impact of sport on the promotion of community relations, or indeed community separation, in NI.

Research Approach

  • A sample survey of those involved in the management of a number of the main participant and spectator sports. Sixteen sports were identified to provide a sample representative of both communities, of both sexes and of both team and individual games. A detailed questionnaire was sent to contact persons within each sport in the spring of 1993.

  • Sports identified as suitable for case studies in respect of the practice of community relations were also targeted. Cycling, football, hockey and boxing were chosen to take account of variables such as social class and gender and differences between team and individual sports. In each case detailed information on developments within the activity was obtained and two sports (cycling and football) were examined in-depth. Interviews being conducted with officials, participants and/or spectators.

  • Subject areas for discussion were based around issues arising from the sample survey but the interviews were of an open-ended nature to allow for any further points relevant to the sport and community theme to be raised.

Main Findings

The Demographics of Sport in Northern Ireland

  • People who take part in organised sport appear more likely to be middle-class, and to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the particular activity engaged in, somewhat likely to be from a younger age-group than would be in the case in a typical cross-section of the population.

  • The position in respect of religion is more difficult to discern. It is perhaps understandable that sports were somewhat less forthcoming providing estimates of their religious mix than in respect of the other socially relevant characteristics. In particular sports which appear to have a greater number of Protestants than Catholics taking part in their activity were reluctant to estimate the extent to which this is the case.

  • What does emerge from the basic information provided is that Catholics do participate substantially in organised sport in NI, but to the extent that this is done through activities organised by the GAA, the meaningful contact that arises between the two communities is likely to be limited.

  • Relative to their numbers in the total population, compared with Protestants, Catholics are over represented in sports participation in NI. However the overwhelming majority of Catholics who are engaged in sports do so within the exclusive embrace of the GAA. Remove the GAA from the equation and Catholics are found to be underrepresented within the ranks of the other sports sampled which tend to be Protestant dominated.

  • For whatever reasons few popular sports bring Catholics and Protestants together, although cycling, boxing and football may, to some extent, be exceptions to the rule.

The Organisational Politics of Sport in Northern Ireland

  • The sample suggests that the diversity of sports played and watched in NI is grounded, more or less evenly, in both Gaelic and British traditions. In terms of organisational structures however, it seems that all sports, including Gaelic games, have borrowed heavily from the principles of rational recreation which drove the development of English sports and games in the 19th Century. Nevertheless, it is clear that views of what cultural tradition a given sport belongs to has a crucial influence in determining who plays what in NI.

  • In terms of international and regional sporting representation, NI's status is made complex by the fact that individual governing bodies of sport have determined in different ways what national or sub-national configuration their players will represent. 13 of the 15 sports which responded to this section of the survey are organised on an all-Ireland and 9 county Ulster basis. The most notable exception is association football which exists independently as a 6 county NI entity following the pattern established by the four home associations of the United Kingdom.

  • The picture is further confused because in certain cases national and/or sub-national representation can change according to the nature of the competition.

  • In most cases it appears that the governing bodies and the sportsmen and women they represent take a pragmatic approach when it comes to their sport's national and regional organisational characteristics, wishing, for the most part, to keep political matters at arm's length. However, because representative sports can be viewed as the symbolic property of the communities out of which they grow it proves difficult to insulate sport from the political currents of the wider society.

External Political Factors and Sport in Northern Ireland

  • There was recognition that from time to time the 'troubles' have had an effect on the province' sporting life; restricted travel within NI for sports associated with one or other religious tradition and/or for sports which include members of the security forces was seen to have been a problem for several governing bodies. Likewise, several mentioned difficulties encountered when attempting to host competitions and tournaments demanding the presence of teams and players from outside of NI.

  • The GAA felt that its members were singled out unfairly by the security forces when travelling to and from Gaelic games. It was also pointed out that their share of public funding in NI had been restricted, particularly during the hunger strikes of the 1908's, because of a perceived association between them and the politics of Irish nationalism.

  • The impression of victimisation given by the GAA was, to a limited extent, shared by several other sports which felt that if they had been affected by the political conflict at all it was as unwilling and often accidental bystanders. There was little appreciation by the governing bodies that sport in NI could actually contribute to political conflict.

  • There was some acknowledgment that because of an association between certain sports and one or other cultural tradition, their recruitment was restricted. However, this was perceived largely to be predetermined by the province's divided education system.

  • One sport, basketball, admitted that the 'troubles' and community division combined to have a negative impact on standards, pointing out that the apparent abandonment of the sport by Protestant secondary schools had seriously threatened the sport's already narrow recruitment base.

Sport and Community Relations in Northern Ireland

  • When asked in general terms to assess how much cross-community contact was generated by their sports, most governing bodies responded 'a great deal'. Even those sports which had confessed earlier to have a membership which was virtually exclusive to one or the other community claimed at this juncture that cross-community contact was 'moderate'.

  • It does seem clear that contact between Protestant and Catholic school children in sport is severely limited. Where teams are concerned, the vast majority of sports consider there to be little or no cross-community contact. In contrast, at senior level most believe a great deal of mixing between the two communities does occur. However, in the most popular sport played by both communities, football, there is considered to be less contact between Protestants and Catholics at senior level than at schools or youth level in respect of the leagues system.

  • In all respects, there is no cross-community contact reported in Gaelic sport which seems to reinforce the suggestion that the moderate degree of mixing that was considered to exist in general terms may be exaggerated. Estimates from ladies' and to a lesser extent, men's hockey also tend to be lower when addressing specifics rather than making general assessments.

  • There was very little current involvement in sport focussed Community Relations work being done by the governing bodies and they, for the most part, did not believe this to be of relevance to their collective remit.

  • Only association football believed that Community Relations had a role to play in the development of their sport. The majority of the other governing bodies however, seem to take the view that by formally including Community Relations as an area for development within their sports they are tacitly admitting that sectarian problems exist therein. Many of the aims, objectives and practices of Community Relations however, are buried within the substructure of sport.
 

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