Tyson Fury is not a British fighter

I just think Fury isn't that bright.

No self respecting Irishman would support Fury (or anyone else) purely because they try and claim to be Irish.

One minute he's proud as punch to be British champion, the next he's saying that the Lonsdale belt is rubbish and that he's a Paddy after all.

I don't have anything against him at all, he's a proper character, and modern sports need characters more than ever these days, with the diluted nature of many sports..... especially football, where players are slated for celebrating goals against their old teams, or for any remark they make that is the slightest bit controversial.

Christ knows how Brian Clough would have gone down in this era.... :yikes

An Englishman pretending to be Irish is pretty lame though, irrespective of his heritage. There's a large Irish Catholic population in Leeds, and I'm probably as Irish as some of them, even played Gaelic football to a decent standard for a couple of years too, but I'd never say that I was Irish in the slightest. And nor would my grandmother, who was the granddaughter (or great granddaughter :think) of Irish immigrants following the potato famine.

Aside from liking a pint of the black stuff her father didn't consider himself Irish, or associate himself with Irish culture at all either.

 

do you support foreign born sports people that "pretend" to be British?

 

I think refusing to wear a poppy is a tad disrespectful, but if you're an Irish republican I can understand why not.

Interesting question.

It does **** me off that England select players who qualify on residency for the cricket and rugby teams.

It's not as if we're the only ones that do it, Wales have done it and Scotland too (not sure about Ireland) but at the end of the day, these players AREN'T English.

Kevin Pietersen isn't English, and only decided to move here because of the positive discrimination that was so rife in SA at the time.... despite his mother being English.

On the rugby union side, we've had Henry Paul and Lesley Vainikolo playing for us, despite both representing NZ at rugby league.

At least when Ireland's football team had a fair few English born players amongst their ranks, their parents/grannies were actually Irish, they had Irish sounding names and their performances clearly gave you the impression that they wanted to do well for Ireland, rather than just being a mercenary.

 

I don't understand why people are so bothered/threatened by this. If they want to embrace their Irishness then let them. For some people, identity is more than just where you were born.

 

except tony cascarino, who qualified for ireland through his grandfather, except his mum was adopted so really he had no right to play for ireland i guess.

 

Rogan and Frampton are NOT the same nationality as Andy Lee.

 

Amid Khan's family are from ****stan. ****stan is NOT in the Middle East.

 

I didn't hear the end of "oh my ancestors are from Ireland", when I was in NY in January... And that was after i had told them I was Scottish! They really are clueless.

Smart move from Tyson.

 

Your an idiot.