Declan Rice has decided to have a wee think about who to play for. Let’s make it simple for him – Declan, your Irish international career is over. I don’t care that he’s a young man and I don’t care that national identity in this world is fluid and not perhaps as binary a thing as it once was, particularly in this complicated corner of the globe. I don’t want his likes to represent us. I want the likes of Kevin Kilbane – a man, who even as a boy, never doubted his allegiance. Rice may be getting bad advice from some dirty little agent thinking he’ll be better off financially with 20 England caps than 80 Ireland caps or whatever. I’d have some sympathy for him in this situation, but not enough. He has played 3 times for Ireland – he should never waver after such a commitment.
He obviously has been slightly caught up in the fervour around Gareth Southgate and his team’s progress to the semi-finals this summer; blinded by the “It’s Coming Home” brigade, surrounded by his friends and family members who are English. Perhaps that’s enough to sway a young man on many issues, but you cannot doubt such an important calling, even at 19. He has obviously been approached by the FA as well, as is their wont. This is not something that FIFA should allow players to piss about with. Once you have a senior cap, that’s it. I would go even further and state that every professional player should be required to declare an international allegiance at 18 and stick to it. You might say that it’s too young for such a massive career decision, and I would disagree fundamentally with you. At 18 you are old enough to vote; more than old enough to be a parent; old enough to drive; drink; and get your own passport. If you can do all of that without trouble, then you can choose a damn country.
As for the mixed nationality issue, while there is a lot to this, in particular the shambles that is the Irish / English / British / Northern Irish blancmange of options, I find it hard to believe that anyone can feel as passionately for one flag as another. Many sportsmen and women from Unionist backgrounds in Northern Ireland are ok with being cheered on by a crowd draped in tricolours, but major changes have been brought to the symbolism around these all-Ireland sports to accommodate their backgrounds. Such accommodations can never be made to the half-Irish half-English footballers who are confused as to their allegiances. I still don’t know how deeply the likes of Aldridge, Houghton, Townsend et al felt their Irishness. They never seemed anything other than committed, but was that tribal Gaelic passion or immense professionalism and a love of the squad and the experience? And did they ever waver?
People will somehow blame John Delaney, the FAI or Martin O’Neill for this. But that would miss the point completely. Every journalist who asks a question about this in the future – during the next series of games, for example – will be partly guilty for any emerging shambles and for making this a bigger story than it merits. Declan Rice is not an Ireland international. I don’t think he ever will be and I don’t think he ever should be. Let’s not turn this into another pathetic Grealish situation where we look like desperate peasants. Let O’Neill concentrate on the players he has. Rice may or may not turn into a world-beater, but he’s not Irish. Let him move on and for all of our sakes, move on yourself.
A Yard of Grass 