The friction between Irish and British nationalists has now found another field in which to express itself - football
One hundred years ago today - a Sunday - the band of the British army's 7th Provincial Regiment was playing in Dublin's Phoenix Park. Five days earlier, the coronation of Edward VII, scheduled for June 26th in London, had been postponed. Aged 60, he had undergone an emergency appendectomy. Given his age and the surgery of a century ago, it was a risky procedure. Aware of their king's plight, the Provincials were belting out imperial flag-wavers.
However, offended by such "Last Night of the Proms" bombast, a group began to hiss, boo and sing patriotic Irish songs.
News reports record that a bullish rendition of God Save Ireland drowned out the band. A century later, much of the friction between Irish and British nationalisms has abated, at least in the Republic. (The North, depending on your politics, may or may not be another country but it is unquestionably another universe!) Nonetheless, the World Cup has been revealing.
There has been, as ever in Ireland, little support for England. It didn't really matter whether its opposition was Sweden, Argentina, Nigeria, Denmark or Brazil, few Irish people - at least openly - wanted England to win. In Scotland, anti-English feeling was even stronger. It always has been when it comes to football. On the day England won the World Cup in 1966, Denis Law famously (or perhaps, infamously) refused to watch and played golf instead.
Yet many English people supported Ireland during our matches against Cameroon, Germany (well, they would, wouldn't they!) Saudi Arabia and Spain. On the face of it, at least, the Irish branch of the ABE (Anybody But England) tendency appeared shamefully spiteful. In truth, some were. One prat rang a Dublin radio station to guffaw to listeners about how he "couldn't stop laughing at David Seaman" and how the Arsenal keeper's error against Brazil had "made his day, ha ha ha . . .".
That depth of bile, however, was unusual. More typical was the attitude that, really, it wasn't England's players that Irish people loathed. It was a particular English arrogance - an insufferable smugness and condescension - manifested in sections of the English media and among many English fans that drove people to ABE-dom. There is also, of course, the colonial history between Ireland and England but it is an infuriating arrogance that ABE-ites cite most frequently.
Then again, charging others with arrogance is arguably arrogant. After all, the accusation carries the insinuation that the charger is less arrogant than the charged. It's an inescapable hubris trap. Certainly it's a delicate matter and of course there are humble English people and arrogant Irish prats. But perhaps there is a characteristic English arrogance not quite replicated in Ireland, as there may be negative Irish traits found proportionately less often in England. Certainly Ireland's ABEs believe so. Do you?
On the matter of national stereotypes, it's considered unsophisticated - indeed vulgar and even racist - to believe in them with much conviction. None the less, once established, they can be practically impossible to dismantle, even in the light of wildly contradictory experience. Rational arguments and better sense can prevail only so far. The stereotypes persist and it seems they do so to keep the world familiar and make it intelligible.
Consequently, Irish people's belief that English people are characteristically arrogant (like the English counterpoise that the Irish are thick!) endures because it makes the world easier to understand. Every nation produces stereotypes of its neighbours and of more distant peoples. When we come across indisputable English arrogance, it confirms the stereotype more powerfully than an example of undeniable Irish arrogance negates our sense of ourselves.
The World Cup is compelling - not just for football - but for the national stereotypes it inevitably raises. Nordic, Latin, African and Asian teams certainly have different styles. But perhaps we watch them, not only expecting, but willing the stereotypes to be confirmed. Whenever they are or appear to be, they offer not just comfort and confirmation but communal feeling, too, so long as others of our tribe or nation also believe in them.
Anyway, the English - are they characteristically arrogant? It seems reasonable to believe that national character shaped by historical experience must exist. England was the centre of a mighty empire and its language remains pre-eminent. Such a history is likely to lead to a certain arrogance even if it's considered pernicious to say as much. So yes, there is - alongside many finer qualities - an off-putting arrogance about sections of the English media and support.
Then again, there are off-putting characteristics about sections of each nation's support. Not that musing about national stereotypes will make them vanish. For the most part, they are caricatures - cartoon versions of reality - although occasionally they can be deliberately nasty and sinister.
In judging others, it's often claimed, we reveal as much or even more of ourselves. Perhaps. But it's not just the Irish and Scots who condemn the English as arrogant. Half the world appears to feel likewise.
Of course, half the world (or, if not quite half, a damn big chunk of it) used to be ruled from London. Naturally, there's widespread historical and psychological baggage in play whenever England is at the centre of competitive action.
Naturally, too, such baggage is still particularly acute in Ireland. Some people argue that so long as it remains so, it's proof of an Irish inferiority complex. Sure, it could be but it ain't necessarily so.
KNEEJERK "Brit-bashing" certainly indicates an unhealthy and suspicious Irish response. But kneejerk "we're all so mature now, we're beyond all that" is simply vacuous. It seems perfectly understandable that Irish viewers might support English players they watch regularly throughout the football season.
However, it seems equally justifiable that, if like much of the rest of the world, Irish people judge sections of the English media to be arrogant and jingoistic, they want to see them get a comeuppance.
Ultimately, it's all about identity. Luckily, it's true that identity isn't immutable - given once and for ever. It is built up and changes throughout a person's or a nation's lifetime. Arrogance is one of the risks of success and indeed it probably is our failures that civilise us. Had Ireland enjoyed England's historical success, instead of being kept down by it, who knows how jingoistic our media might be? Even on significant but limited football success, there are already warning signs.
Anyway, if you're in the Phoenix Park today, consider what the scene was like exactly a century ago. A British army band belting out flag-wavers for their sick king was drowned out by an incensed group singing God Save Ireland. In this era of globalisation, such a scene may seem crude, quaint, even embarrassing. But the ghosts of that incident haven't gone away. Nowadays, they just watch World Cup football as they flit through history in search of a final that never arrives.