An extract from Paul Rouse's new book, Sport in Modern Irish Life.
BEING A SCHOOLBOY in a classroom full of Liverpool fans during the 1980s was a painful experience. It’s the kind of pain that causes scarring that never clears.
Liverpool dominated the league, of course; seemed to be champions in perpetuity, and then went around Europe beating everyone while barely breaking sweat, as if on a glorious, leisurely bus tour of the continent. There was solid evidence that there was no need to spare the return gloating. Indeed, it was in no way spared – rather it was mixed freely with taunts, gibes, liberal insults and a general obnoxiousness that seemed at the time to be only fair and proper.
Why did English soccer matter so much to us in the 1980s? After all, Offaly were winning All-Irelands in football and hurling, and Tullamore CBS was a school given mostly to Gaelic football. It was played all the time and the school had good teams.There was also basketball and table tennis and handball, all played in a recreational way, with flexible rules .
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