England fans and the Union Jack

Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
First time I heard it sung at a sporting event was by McGuigan's dad before a fight.
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Fair enough. I always thought McGuigan was of a slightly more Irish persuasion than an “Ulster” one though. And yeah I know he’s from the Ulster border counties.

Anyway, clearly it’s more neutral than I thought. I thought it was in the same sort of bracket as Fields of Athenry.
 
NorthumberlandBoro said:
www.google.com

In Historic Shift, Catholics Now Outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland

New census data confirms that the once-dominant Protestants no longer predominate — a demographic change that could open the door to reunification with the rest of Ireland.
www.google.com www.google.com
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There are more that identify as
Catholic, but neither are a majority.

"The proportion of the resident population, which is either Catholic or brought up as Catholic, is now 45.7%, compared to 43.48% Protestant."

There are also nationalist Protestants and unionist Catholics.
A growing number are neutral on the issue too.
 
TeaCider said:
Neither are a majority.

"The proportion of the resident population, which is either Catholic or brought up as Catholic, is now 45.7%, compared to 43.48% Protestant."

There are also nationalist Protestants and unionist Catholics.
A growing number are neutral on the issue too.
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That’s a “slight” majority though isn’t it?
 
atypical_boro said:
Ok, I see.

It’s a majority of the cohort who identify as Protestant or Catholic though.
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Yeah, but that's always been the case.

Neither are now in the majority on their own though, and it's been that way this whole century.

The biggest growth has been those who don't identify as either, but that's skewed primarily from people of Protestant backgrounds
 
TeaCider said:
Yeah, but that's always been the case.

Neither are now in the majority on their own though.
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I’ve never fully got my head around still using the term “GB” for Sports but UK in all other contexts. Just seems exclusive.

Those who don’t identity with UK can represent Ireland anyway.
 
atypical_boro said:
I’ve never fully got my head around still using the term “GB” for Sports but UK in all other contexts. Just seems exclusive.

Those who don’t identity with UK can represent Ireland anyway.
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It's just marketing nonsense.

They think Team GB is easier to say and market than Team UK or Team GB&NI, despite the obvious issues it throws up.

It's still officially the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic team, they just rarely show it as that.
 
TeaCider said:
It's just marketing nonsense.

They think Team GB is easier to market than Team UK, despite the obvious issues it throws up.
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Fair enough, but even if it was, I’d like to know why it is (or why they think it is).

I read someone saying somewhere that Team UK would still technically exclude the Isle of Man so no name is 100% accurate, which is true, but I am pretty confident that the country is referred to globally as the UK these days, so can’t see why that wouldn’t be reflected in sport.
 
atypical_boro said:
At some point during the gap between Euro ‘92 and Euro ‘96, England fans almost exclusively adopted the cross of St George for their flags and abandoned the Union Jack. It would be interesting to know if that would have happened had we been at USA ‘94.

When and why exactly did the change happen? And is it related to the point at which the term “UK” became more popular than “Great Britain”? And yes I know that UK/GB don’t mean exactly the same thing.

Did England stop seeing itself as the main shareholder of GB and more of a nation of its own that partially formed the UK perhaps? Could it be related to the Maastricht Treaty even or the NI issue?
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Games before 88 didnt see soo many flags at matches. Most flags were nicked and the flags you saw up the local Labour and Cons club were union jacks. From 90 Ensigns became the flag to have and fans starting buying flags which moved onto St George's and companies stepping in to knock out custom flags, instead of fans struggling with a sewing kit and paint. The market helped fans identify what they are more easily and cheaply, now flags are common v 88.
 
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atypical_boro said:
Fair enough, but even if it was, I’d like to know why it is (or why they think it is).

I read someone saying somewhere that Team UK would still technically exclude the Isle of Man so no name is 100% accurate, which is true, but I am pretty confident that the country is referred to globally as the UK these days, so can’t see why that wouldn’t be reflected in sport.
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Unless you're in USA, where it's known as England or sometimes Europe.
 
Quiz question :

England in the Commonwealth Games didn't play GSTQ ( now GSTK!) in Birmingham this year - Jerusalem was the anthem. However one country did play it at the medal ceremony. Which one?
 
Cardiffdaffs said:
Quiz question :

England in the Commonwealth Games didn't play GSTQ ( now GSTK!) in Birmingham this year - Jerusalem was the anthem. However one country did play it at the medal ceremony. Which one?
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Isle of Man??

Actually no they have their own.

I give in.
 
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