I was surprised how many Villa there are in Ireland and a lot of them refer to Irish teams that have had lots of Villa players, There are quite a few Irish who despise the Liverpool Manure supporting Irish stereotype.After Celtic Arsenal Liverpool and Manure I reckon we are the next best supported.
Growing up in Brum the Irish people (friends and family) I knew all supported Villa, but they were all on our side of the city anyway (Great Barr, Kingstanding, Erdington, Newtown). A friend of mine from Leeds married a Bluenose Irish lad from Bordesley and all but one of his mates are Villa too.As a kid I remember reading a quote from Danny Blanchflower along the lines of "as well as the best teams any team with an unusual or romantic name would always have support in Ireland, such as Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace..."
I know two noses over here, I haven't seen one of them for years, he was native so anything could have become of him. I knew him through my refereeing career over here. The other is a blow-in like me.I knew two noses when I lived in Great Barr. Zulu's IIRC. They were brothers and, both played for a team me and my mate set up for them and their mates. They got sent off once for fighting...each other!
Quote from: ChicagoLion on May 28, 2015, 04:17:33 AMI was surprised how many Villa there are in Ireland and a lot of them refer to Irish teams that have had lots of Villa players, There are quite a few Irish who despise the Liverpool Manure supporting Irish stereotype.After Celtic Arsenal Liverpool and Manure I reckon we are the next best supported.Not sure re Arsenal any more. They were certainly the London Irish club in the past. Back in the 70s/80s they had the big 3 of Brady, O'Leary and Stapleton in their side. The Arsenal 1979 cup winning side had 3 from the Dublin (the aforementioned trio), 2 from Belfast (Jennings, Nelson) and 1 from Down (Rice). Terry Neill from Belfast was the manager. This at a time when Highbury, Islington, Holloway Rd was the home of the Irish community in London. Arsenal is an altogether different cosmopolitan club now and I'm not sure an Irish player has had a reasonable career at Arsenal since maybe Eddie McGoldrick in the early 90s. Anthony Stokes despite plenty of ability had too many off field "issues" for Wenger and Brady.Celtic would have a lot of support in Donegal particularly (Bonner, Given etc), lots of Irish catholics would have emigrated from Donegal to Glasgow way back during the Famine and afterwards. The Donegal/Glasgow connection has been a profitable one for the FAI with the likes of Houghton, McGeady and McCarthy being picked up that way. But outside of the green half of Ulster, hatred for the Brits has dissipated a lot in recent years which has led to a reduction in support for Celtic imo. The SPL has fallen a long way in recent years and the club's profile has naturally suffered. Celtic have a big branding problem ala Burberry in most Irish cities in that they are linked to gangsta apparel for out of control louts. The hoops jersey is more popular these days for gangsta themed fancy dress parties than anything else.Wouldnt underestimate Everton's support here, a popular club for sure with long standing Irish links. Also super Leeds and Johnny Giles. Roy Keane's Sunderland was a short lived bandwagon however.
Quote from: brontebilly on May 28, 2015, 08:03:40 PMQuote from: ChicagoLion on May 28, 2015, 04:17:33 AMI was surprised how many Villa there are in Ireland and a lot of them refer to Irish teams that have had lots of Villa players, There are quite a few Irish who despise the Liverpool Manure supporting Irish stereotype.After Celtic Arsenal Liverpool and Manure I reckon we are the next best supported.Not sure re Arsenal any more. They were certainly the London Irish club in the past. Back in the 70s/80s they had the big 3 of Brady, O'Leary and Stapleton in their side. The Arsenal 1979 cup winning side had 3 from the Dublin (the aforementioned trio), 2 from Belfast (Jennings, Nelson) and 1 from Down (Rice). Terry Neill from Belfast was the manager. This at a time when Highbury, Islington, Holloway Rd was the home of the Irish community in London. Arsenal is an altogether different cosmopolitan club now and I'm not sure an Irish player has had a reasonable career at Arsenal since maybe Eddie McGoldrick in the early 90s. Anthony Stokes despite plenty of ability had too many off field "issues" for Wenger and Brady.Celtic would have a lot of support in Donegal particularly (Bonner, Given etc), lots of Irish catholics would have emigrated from Donegal to Glasgow way back during the Famine and afterwards. The Donegal/Glasgow connection has been a profitable one for the FAI with the likes of Houghton, McGeady and McCarthy being picked up that way. But outside of the green half of Ulster, hatred for the Brits has dissipated a lot in recent years which has led to a reduction in support for Celtic imo. The SPL has fallen a long way in recent years and the club's profile has naturally suffered. Celtic have a big branding problem ala Burberry in most Irish cities in that they are linked to gangsta apparel for out of control louts. The hoops jersey is more popular these days for gangsta themed fancy dress parties than anything else.Wouldnt underestimate Everton's support here, a popular club for sure with long standing Irish links. Also super Leeds and Johnny Giles. Roy Keane's Sunderland was a short lived bandwagon however.I felt the need to check up on Eddie McGoldrick's "reasonable" Arsenal career. He played 33 games in 3 years. Which was more than I thought to be fair. In his defence that is probably more than Jimmy Carter or Chris Kiwomya played around the same time.