Will England fans listen to IRA chant plea?
As England play Ireland for the first time in 18 years, Roy Hodgson has written to Three Lions fans asking them to avoid chants about the IRA.
When the two teams last met in Dublin in 1995, the game had to be abandoned after 27 minutes when some England fans rioted, throwing iron bars and seats at the home supporters.
There were chants of “no surrender to the IRA scum” and Nazi salutes, with 20 people hurt in what is seen as one of the darkest nights in the history of English football.
The “no surrender” chant is still heard these days at England matches home and way, but mindful of Irish sensitivities, manager Roy Hodgson has written to ticket holders asking them “to not take part in any chanting – particularly of a religious or political perspective – which could cause offence to our visitors or fellow fans”.
Author and England fan Mark Perryman, who has heard the chant during the national anthem at every England game he has attended since 1996, wrote in the Guardian that “journalists are scrambling to unpick what the chant means, with associations with the National Front, BNP, EDL and extreme Northern Irish unionism widely trailed”.
It is obviously a reference to the Troubles in Northern Ireland and dates back to the 1689 Siege of Derry, when the Catholic James II attacked what was then a Protestant city and was repulsed.
Mr Perryman does not the like the chant, but from what he is saying, it is likely to have another airing at Wembley on Wednesday night.
But in a sign of progress, no-one is expecting a repeat of the violence that occurred in Dublin eighteen years ago.
Banned
Back then, there was far less scrutiny over who was buying tickets. Now England supporters hoping to attend a Wembley match are checked against a database and if they have ever been involved in football-related violence, they are banned from the game.
The rules for fans attending away games are more stringent. They are only able to obtain tickets as official England fans, and are barred from doing so if they have been in trouble in the past.
Apart from the chants warning, the Football Association (FA) is treating tonight’s match like any other Wembley international.
EDL
The killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich seems to have given a new lease of life to the far-right English Defence League (EDL), which uses the “no surrender” slogan.
But the FA says there is no reason to believe this will have any effect on the Ireland match.
It prefers to talk about the gentler atmosphere at Wembley matches these days, with the half-term holidays allowing a family of four to watch Cole, Lampard and the rest of the team for £60.