Ireland - wearing black armbands for a game near October 7th?

[mids2019]

So the Irish football team thought it would be some sort of protest to wear black armbands for their recent mat h against Israel and guess what strangely the Israeli team wore black armbands for the victims of the worst terrorist atrocity in their country. So the Irish were left wearing black armbands for victims of the Israeli Gaza conflict but I guess not the victims of October 7th? No wonder the Israeli players were pissed. Ireland then dress and threw the dummy out the pram by saying they shouldn't be playing Israel again......pretty pathetic.

You can also see how for countries like Ireland October 7th is being erased from history as when they went for their black armband protest they probably very stupidly forgot about the proximity of a day of Israeli national mourning.

Only some opression matters - don't you know!

Apologies

I don't believe most Irish anyway tbh, I was responding to the poster saying 'The Irish' as if speaking for everyone.

Lots of Irish people identify with all oppressed nations including the Palestinians, but OP was referencing the Ireland Israel game.

I'm just glad Norway booted Israel out of the world cup. Can you imagine the chaos if Israel had got through.

What a shameful thing to say - you do not represent Irish sentiment by referring to Oct 7th as ‘ unfortunate’

Oct 7th was "unfortunate"?

No. Oct 7th was an appalling terrorist act.

The Israeli response is appalling and disproportionate.

Imagine suggesting a mass terrorist incident at a music festival where lots of young people were brutally murdered, some raped and others kidnapped as 'unfortunate'. Unbelievable ignorance shown and lacking any actual empathy for Jewish or other victims suffering. It should be possible to see that there has been great suffering by Isralies, other victims and also great suffering by Palestinians. I believe that not all Irish people think as a 'hive' mind and have compassion for more than just 'one side'.

I kind of like the way the irish team bow their heads during Israel's anthem. Obviously showing deep respect to the victims of Oct 7th. Well done!

It's really sad that an Irish person pretends to speak for all the Irish as if they all have the same mind. Just like any other people there will be a range of views and yes, it's embarassing and shameful for that poster, shame too that they pretend to speak for all Irish people. Why even do that. The majority of posters don't pretend they speak for whatever nation they are from.

Yes, the Irish team were very respectful throughout, that's why I was so surprised to see this thread tbh.

Bowing heads, wearing arm bands, then getting on with it and winning football. They held their heads high and didn't react whilst being subjected to racism, being spat on and petty insults.

I'm not a Dubliner either - I had no idea cricket was played until I rocked up to UCD and met my first ever people from Blackrock College and similar. But given the profile of RTE staff, I'm pretty certain they all know people who play cricket, so as someone pointed out above, I'm confident that if the Ireland cricket team had been playing Israel, we'd have heard all about it.

But it's a country that treats its women worse than breeding animals who are at least entitled to proper medical care when giving birth, so who cares, right?

Ireland has a long, proud history of unadulterated hypocrisy but luckily they don't tend to have the clout to shake it all about. I wouldn't worry about it

The Irish football team came under huge pressure to cancel the match . They aren’t the ones to blame. There is a double standard . No one criticised the Irish cricketers who played against Afghanistan.

To blame for what? What did they do wrong?

So it's all about antisemitism and nothing to do with the ongoing genocide that our leaders are allowing to happen. Using whataboutism to try to distract from the genocide really doesn't work.

They did actually, but there certainly wasn’t widespread criticism.

I think you’ll find every country has its hypocrites. I’m looking at you Hypno-Tits Polanski.

Loads of hypocrisy in the UK .

Good to know.

The death of 1,200 innocent men, women & children is "unfortunate"?

There was this article in the Irish Times but it’s probably behind a paywall.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/08/18/cricket-ireland-showed-indifference-to-gender-apartheid-by-hosting-afghanistan/

I’ve been asleep, but I missed all this and wasn’t aware of the issues around the cricket matches. (I couldn’t be less of a sports fan which probably didn’t help.) Very unhappy now at the lack of support for the women of Afghanistan by Irish cricket.

@Eire12
It’s very possible to mourn the innocent victims of both the attack and the response.

If I were aware that a sports team had donned black armbands specifically for a game with Israel this week, I would have assumed that it was in sympathy and shared commemoration of the attack on Israel on 7 Oct 2023.

If the team choose to wear black armbands to acknowledge, protest, raise awareness, etc. about the plight of Gazans and/or of Palestinians in general and to express solidarity and support, that's their right (provided it doesn't contravene relevant league or sporting organisation rules). But I would expect them to be wearing those armbands all the time, as the plight of Palestinains has been an emergency for decades, and to be clear about what they symbolise and what else the team is doing to support Gaza/Palestine so that they achieve their implied goal of raising awareness and promoting social justice. Symbols like this CAN be a powerful tool, but using them lazily or sloppily or without full knowledge of the context actually does the opposite - eroding trust, leading the general public to grumble about "virtue signalling" and numbing the general reaction and normalising disinterest.

You called the murder, torture, kidnap and rape of innocent young people “unfortunate “ .

That’s not the stance of a humanitarian.