AIBU to wonder if anti-English feeling is mostly about sport

[Batsratscatsgnats]

If you support anyone but England in football or other sports do you dislike English people generally or is it just in sports?

The one thing that Irish participation in the British Army did do was give them an enormous amount of military experience and a detailed knowledge of the tactics of the British army. Which would very much benefit them later on...

Can you honestly point to one post I have made that "slags off the Scots"?

Honestly it's the English media. As soon as the national team qualify for anything the media have them winning the tournament.
Non.stop talk about England even when they are supposed to be commenting on other games.
Personally I am delighted for any home team who is successful but actively avoid England games.

@CountryCob it wasn’t a few soldiers it was about 40% of Wellington’s army. Irish regiments fought in the Boer war and enforce the scorched earth policy. Irish regiments help put down the Indian rebellion. Colonialism was an evil but it is not as one sided as you want it to be, that’s life, that’s history, it’s messy.

This does not mean that you have any personal responsibility or that the Irish were not treated appallingly. They were many atrocities in Ireland. There were also many atrocities carried out by the ruling classes in England, Scotland and Wales. The mills in the northwest, the Welsh miners and slums of Glasgow are all testament to how the ruling class treat the workers.
Looking at this from a nationalistic perspective and bringing up past crimes as if the footballers on the pitch have any responsibility is quite frankly ludicrous.

The ruling classes in all nations treat the poor appallingly.

There was not stop talk about the Scotts in Boston for the first week, I thought I was really good. Lots of stories of people making friends and drinking the pubs dry.

I do find it interesting how English and British imperialism impacts people differently. I know loads of Irish people who would never support England in a competition, it’s more of a mixed bag with Scots. But then when you look at other nations that were colonised by Britain many inhabitants are far less opposed to cheering on British teams. There are loads of Brown and Black Britons who are the descendants of those oppressed by Empire who are proudly waving their English flags at the World Cup.
It’s really interesting to me.

No, they’re really not. Many stereotypes were invented by colonisers to justify imperialistic acts. (Especially true of racial stereotypes given races were socially constructed.)

In fairness that arose because people suggested British imperialism drives a lot of anti-English attitudes. Which is certainly true in part but then begs the question why just England when the British Empire was not solely an English endeavour.

Living together in harmony is much better for everyone's wellbeing than moaning about things someone did hundreds of years ago.

This!!

So what descent are they? Asking for my relatives on the East Coast.

I don’t know. The English aren’t really liked but I don’t think it’s a whole of England thing. Maybe more of a London and SE thing?

Your first post.

And this one.

I've never experienced anti Catholic prejudice in the North East. My family has no Irish connections.

Which isn’t answering my question. What descent are they?

For example, Culloden was not an English versus Scottish battle and a lot of "English" decisions were taken by the "British" government

This with bells on. It was the British government v the "Young Pretender" -It's nonsense to suggest it was an English victory over the Scots. I loathe the sentimentality of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 45. Although it's mildly amusing that after failure of the separatist referendum, where the separatist vote was 45%, that a new "45 campaign" briefly appeared - 2 failed causes both of which would have been a disaster for Scotland

As far as I know they have always been in the North East. There is a history of east coast Catholics simply never converting.

That probably doesn't answer your question but tbh I find the whole idea of clinging on to "I'm descended from blah, blah," a bit tedious. I'm not providing you with any more details than that. My experience of Catholic prejudice in Scotland is that it's very firmly a West coast problem.

Yes but you says they weren’t Irish ones. How do you know?

Italian maybe?

Converting to what?

Im sorry you find the prejudice against Catholics “tedious”.

it isn’t tedious when you’re subjected to it.

Is this the post slagging off the Scotts?

An amusing and entirely accurate comment on the lack of tactical awareness by the Scottish football team. If this is what you feel constitutes ‘slagging off’ I would gently suggest football is not the sport for you.

What are “Scotts”?

I would kindly and gently suggest you learn what a Scot is.

Scott is a first name for a boy.

Many apologies I don’t know how I could have been so rude - I can only blame autocorrect for my vile slur on Scotland.

The question was whether English unpopularity is to do with sport. An answer offered is that colonialism is a leading reason why they are unpopular. Treating subjects badly is separate as is the recruitment of colonial citizens in armies. That has already been explained very well on this thread by other posters.

If colonialism is a leading reason then why don’t people dislike the Scottish team? As has been explained on this thread they engaged enthusiastically with colonialism outside the U.K.

I honestly think it is ridiculous to try to present colonialism as some sort of joint endeavour.