I entered the King's Arms to meet the rest of the Jet Set on Saturday and the first thing that I encountered was heckling. At first I thought that they must have taken exception to my attire. They didn't look like trainee stylists however. The heckling was directed at a solitary Englishman, an Englishman that I actually knew. After closer inspection of the hecklers, I found that I also recognised them.
During the course of the Wales Vs England match there was a lot of shouting, cursing and singing. The first boos were against the English anthem, and you may argue that this is to be encouraged to help republicanism get a foothold in popular culture. However they lost the moral of the argument by not singing the Welsh national anthem. After the anthems a chant began; "The Queen's a dirty German!!!" this was followed with a rendition of that Stereophonics song about beating the English rugby team. They just seemed to be expressing their Welshness through their hatred of England. There must be more to being Welsh than that?
There's an argument that says people are "90 minute patriots", in other words people only feel their nationality in arenas like sporting events. I'll make a slight qualification here. Some people only become 90 minute patriots when they've had a few beers as well. You also need success or a "hated" other or even both. For example I don't remember too many of them watching Wales Vs Poland in a pub last year, Wales were out you see. In fact there were more Polish people in the pub than Welsh.
During the course of the Wales Vs England match there was a lot of shouting, cursing and singing. The first boos were against the English anthem, and you may argue that this is to be encouraged to help republicanism get a foothold in popular culture. However they lost the moral of the argument by not singing the Welsh national anthem. After the anthems a chant began; "The Queen's a dirty German!!!" this was followed with a rendition of that Stereophonics song about beating the English rugby team. They just seemed to be expressing their Welshness through their hatred of England. There must be more to being Welsh than that?
There's an argument that says people are "90 minute patriots", in other words people only feel their nationality in arenas like sporting events. I'll make a slight qualification here. Some people only become 90 minute patriots when they've had a few beers as well. You also need success or a "hated" other or even both. For example I don't remember too many of them watching Wales Vs Poland in a pub last year, Wales were out you see. In fact there were more Polish people in the pub than Welsh.
Any one new to the area may have thought that we were watching the rugby match in some kind of nationalist pub. Fortunately no such pub exists in Llandudno. If you were to go to the King's Arms on any other night well you would gain a rather different impression.
Those bloody tossers really get me down. I used to make a distinction between Welsh and English fans. Having sat amongst England fans in Old Trafford, whilst watching Wales, I know how odious some of them can be. They also bring this attitude to other places too. I had the honour of sharing the Millenium Stadium with them and the beer-fuelled contempt they showed to Wales just filled me with contempt. I have gradually noticed that there isn't much of a difference between some Welsh tossers and our English counterparts. There are wankers everywhere.
Unlike my company on Saturday I can make distinctions; the English football fans aren't England, they are merely one of the obnoxious parts. The societal pressure generated by a world cup or major championship means that ordinary, nice, sober people start to display such behaviour. When Wales are playing tossers come out of the woodwork, it's the done thing to follow the boys. It's part of the done thing to abuse England.
The worst thing about it all was these kinds of people used to make my dad despair, not proper rugby fans you see. I bet they wouldn't know a knock on from a forward pass. They are just turning up to the pub because that's what you do. My conscious mind began to float near the ceiling so I could look down upon the situation. Their behaviour put me in mind of some kind of Right Wing movement. Not thinking, just going along with the flow because it was fun and everyone else was doing it. They even had hand gestures to accompany the singing. I came up with a name for them, the Redshirts.
Those bloody tossers really get me down. I used to make a distinction between Welsh and English fans. Having sat amongst England fans in Old Trafford, whilst watching Wales, I know how odious some of them can be. They also bring this attitude to other places too. I had the honour of sharing the Millenium Stadium with them and the beer-fuelled contempt they showed to Wales just filled me with contempt. I have gradually noticed that there isn't much of a difference between some Welsh tossers and our English counterparts. There are wankers everywhere.
Unlike my company on Saturday I can make distinctions; the English football fans aren't England, they are merely one of the obnoxious parts. The societal pressure generated by a world cup or major championship means that ordinary, nice, sober people start to display such behaviour. When Wales are playing tossers come out of the woodwork, it's the done thing to follow the boys. It's part of the done thing to abuse England.
The worst thing about it all was these kinds of people used to make my dad despair, not proper rugby fans you see. I bet they wouldn't know a knock on from a forward pass. They are just turning up to the pub because that's what you do. My conscious mind began to float near the ceiling so I could look down upon the situation. Their behaviour put me in mind of some kind of Right Wing movement. Not thinking, just going along with the flow because it was fun and everyone else was doing it. They even had hand gestures to accompany the singing. I came up with a name for them, the Redshirts.
I guarantee that I will see none of these people, so proud to be Welsh, next Saturday in Dublin. "Can't be arsed mate", "I didn't know where to get tickets from" etc etc etc.
