Ireland settled its match against Israel with a 3-0 victory on Sunday evening in the second round of the UEFA Nations League. But the scenes before kick-off attracted widespread attention after the Irish players refused to shake hands with their opponents, wore black armbands and lowered their heads while the Israeli national anthem was played.
Ireland’s actions before kick-off
The match was held in the Hungarian city of Debrecen rather than in Israel, amid political and sporting controversy linked to the war in the Gaza Strip and calls in Ireland to boycott the fixture. Reactions were divided between praise from activists and bloggers for the Irish team’s actions and anger and criticism from Israeli officials, players and activists.
Before the match began, Ireland’s players declined to shake hands with the Israeli team or exchange pennants with them. The Football Association of Ireland had informed UEFA in advance that the team did not wish to take part in the handshake, and the arrangement was accepted before the match.
The Football Association of Ireland said the black armbands were worn in tribute to everyone who had lost their lives in the conflict. During the Israeli anthem, the Irish players stood with their heads lowered, in a scene that spread widely across social media after the match. The political controversy also accompanied the television broadcast, as the match was shown without commentary.
Jack Moylan’s celebration of the third goal also attracted attention after activists circulated photographs and clips of the player celebrating, highlighting the black armband he wore with his team-mates during the match. The game was preceded by an Irish campaign calling for a boycott, with more than 160 Irish sportspeople signing a letter urging the team not to play its two matches against Israel.
Praise for the players’ solidarity and calls to bar Israel from competitions
The Football Association of Ireland had also asked UEFA to suspend Israel’s participation in international competitions, but the request was not accepted. After the win, activists and bloggers praised the Irish players’ actions, with some saying the team had “won the match and won their respect”.
Their posts focused on the refusal to shake hands, the players lowering their heads during the anthem and the wearing of black armbands, viewing them as positions that accompanied the sporting victory by three clear goals. Irish and Palestinian bloggers linked the players’ actions to the controversy preceding the match, saying the team had sent a message of solidarity with the Palestinians despite playing the fixture.
Some Irish bloggers recalled words by Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell about isolation and boycott, linking them to an older chapter of Irish political history. Activists also praised goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu after he withdrew from the two matches against Israel. Bazunu said taking part conflicted with his belief that killing innocent people was wrong, a position that was recirculated alongside footage of the match and the reactions that followed.
Claims of racist chanting during the match
The debate also extended to claims that some Israeli supporters directed racist chants at Irish forward Adam Idah. The Football Association of Ireland said its player Jason Molumby had told the referee and fourth official about what he considered racist chanting during the match.
UEFA did not open an investigation into the incident after the Irish side said the report had not been made according to the approved protocol. The refereeing team, meanwhile, said it had not heard the chants described by the Irish player. In Israel, criticism of the Irish team began before the match and continued after it ended.
Israeli criticism of the Irish team’s stance
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar attacked the stance taken by Ireland’s players, saying that Ireland still found itself, in his words, “on the wrong side of history”. In his post, Sa’ar recalled the Irish team’s stance towards Nazi Germany in 1939. Israel captain Manor Solomon criticised the Irish players’ actions and said after the match that some of them had directed “unpleasant things” at him during the game.
He added, in comments carried by Israeli media: “It is clear that they hate us, and we do not like them.” Israel goalkeeper Daniel Peretz described the Irish players’ stance during the anthem as stemming from “ignorance”. In his view, he said, the Irish players had expressed their position “without understanding the situation”.
Political activist James Esses criticised the Irish team’s actions on his account on X, saying that he was “Jewish from Ireland” and felt sad to see the country’s team behave in this way in its match against Israel. Esses focused his criticism on the failure to respect the Israeli anthem and the refusal to shake hands with the players.
Esses’s post recorded around two million views, but drew responses from activists and bloggers who pointed to reports and allegations that Israel had committed serious violations against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israeli bloggers described Ireland captain Dara O’Shea’s stance as “antisemitic”, while others said what happened constituted an insult to the Israeli team.
Israeli accounts also criticised allowing the match to be held in this manner and accused the Irish side of turning sport into an arena for political conflict. Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad said in a post after the match that Israel had lost to Ireland on the pitch, before adding that the Israeli army would defeat, in his words, the “terrorists” supported by Ireland’s players.
Activists responded to Haddad’s post and other Israeli positions by recalling the Palestinian death toll in Gaza and criticising Israel’s war. They said the controversy over the Irish players’ actions should be understood in the context of the war and the Palestinian casualties it had caused.
The reactions extended beyond social media. Baroness Kate Hoey, a Northern Irish politician and member of the British House of Lords, called for Ireland to be excluded from co-hosting the European Championship in response to what she regarded as anti-Israel positions in Ireland.
