“It’d Just Be Banter”: Sectarianism in a Northern Irish Rugby Club

Abstract

Nearly two decades after the Good Friday Agreement, sectarianism still functions to structure much of the Northern Irish society. While this is often considered in terms of high-profile cases of sectarian violence, most sectarian behavior occurs in everyday practices. This article explores how sectarianism is expressed and understood within the context of a Northern Irish rugby club. I conducted a season-long ethnography using participant observation, focus group discussions, and semistructured interviews to gain an understanding of the particular context which framed the sectarian discourses at the club. Rather than a purely oppressive model, Ballycross RFC showcased how the sectarian climate of the Northern Irish society can be used and experienced in a multitude of ways.

‘We now have Catholics and Blacks’: Whiteness in a Northern Irish rugby club

“…The fieldwork for this research occurred in the leadup to 2016 Brexit referendum, during a time when discourses surrounding the ‘threat’ of rising immigration, and ‘taking back control’ from politicians in the Leave campaign gave voice to nationalistic populist rhetoric that had been unacceptable beforehand (Burnett, 2017; Goodwin and Milazzo, 2017). Fuelled by a rhetoric of intolerance, this ideology is typically hostile towards immigrants and ethnic others, especially Muslims (Carr and Haynes, 2015), and calls for retreat towards an imagined ‘tradition’ (Knight, 2017) and a desire to ‘regain control’ (Goodwin and Milazzo, 2017). In the UK, and Northern Ireland specifically, racist incidents and hate crimes increased dramatically in the lead up to the Brexit referendum (Burnett, 2017) 2 .…”

“…While many of these young men of Ballycross RFC have only experienced a post-Troubles society, the de facto segregation of housing, employment, education and politics along community lines, and the novelty of playing sport with individuals from across this divide, mean that sectarian boundaries form the basis of their understanding of Northern Ireland at Ballycross RFC (Kavanagh, 2020). Subsequently, sectarianism forms the foundation of many interactions and 'othering' members from outside their community functioned to reinforce boundaries and differences.…”