An Irish-Catholic Football Dilemma

On March 13th 2003, Liverpool and Glasgow Celtic football clubs will meet in a quarterfinal of the UEFA Cup. This poses an interesting dilemma for not a few Irish soccer fans who may have allowed their English and Scottish sporting allegiances to be determined entirely by religion. The sectarian division of Glasgow football is fairly well-known (Celtic = Catholic, Rangers = Protestant) but older generations recall a similar (but confusingly alternating) split for the city of Liverpool (Liverpool FC = "Protestant," Everton FC = "Catholic") that has now dissipated but has been replaced by a perceived alignment of Irish Catholic with Liverpool FC. For instance, observers have noticed an intriguing overlap between preferred songs at Celtic and Liverpool matches, and in one case the song was clearly put into the mix by historically minded Irish fans of Celtic. That song is The Fields of Athenry. But just because you hear the nice tune from the 'Pool fans, don't assume the lyrics are the same. The opening lines might be this:

Outside the Shankly Gates
I heard a Kopite calling :
Shankly they have taken you away
But you left a great eleven
Before you went to heaven
Now it's glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.

The rest is here. Our guess is that the Irish affinity is much stronger with Celtic these days -- there are no Irish internationals amongst the Liverpool starters, and the more neutral fan gravitates towards mindless support of Moneychest Utd. But on this site, we're Liverpool fans.