ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the lived realities of sport and identity politics in a divided society through in-depth interviews with nine Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist players that represented Northern Ireland (NI) in youth/adult national team football. Affirming previous research, habitus was constructed from an early age in this cohort, through prominent social institutions and within segregated ethno-national communities. National team football played a contrasting ideological and identity role for unionists. For them, NI representation was the clearest ideological articulation of their identities, and Windsor Park was equally, if not in some cases more, important to them than other cultural activities. Unionists saw some personal benefits to ‘mixed football’ and welcomed a reduction in sectarian fan behaviour. There was less evidence of a changing philosophy around the status of nationalist players as equals, however, and a limited development of skills associated with understanding differences through football. The findings suggest that the unintended outcome of intergroup contact in national team football is a muting of legitimate expressions of identity for one group and affirmation for the other. This begs a series of questions for further research and about alternative futures.
