Template talk:Northern Ireland topics

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	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Northern Ireland, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Northern Ireland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
WikiProject Northern Ireland tasks: Here are some open WikiProject Northern Ireland tasks: Places: Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne, Devenish Island Monastic Site, Killyclogher, Derryvore Landmarks: The Skerries (Northern Ireland), Black Pig's Dyke, Helen's Tower Parks and gardens: Events: Ulster Cup, Ulster hockey People: Alison Campbell, Paul Charles (novelist), Paula Clamp, Max Clendinning, Colin Cooper (academic), Newton Emerson, Lucy Evangelista, Robert Hall (doctor), Shauna Gunn, Sophie Hoopman, H Douglas Keith, Charles Michael Lavery QC, Henry Lavery, Francis Maginn, Jim Malley, Catherine Jean Milligan, Phillip McCallen, Robert MacDonnell, Joseph Tomelty, Gayle Williamson, Zane Radcliffe, Professor Richard Rose, Brian Baird (newsreader) Newspapers/Magazines: Fortnight Magazine 'Schools/Colleges: Glenola Collegiate School, Our Lady and St Patrick's College, Belfast Boy's Model School, St. Columbanus' College, Streets: Rivers: River Bush, River Mourne, River Moyola, River Roe Organisations: Industrial Development Board, Forest Service Northern Ireland, Rivers Agency Northern Ireland, Invest NI, Roads Service Northern Ireland, Child Support Agency (NI), Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland, District Policing Partnerships, Compensation Agency, Office of the Oversight Commissioner, Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Central Services Agency, Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, Census Office in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Cameron Commission, Hunt Committee, Stanley Leisure, Ormo, Sunblest (currently re-directs) History: Rose Report, History of Armagh, History of Newry, History of Lisburn Buildings: Belvoir Park Hospital, Guildhall, Derry Major topics: Geography of Northern Ireland, Geology of Northern Ireland, Integrated Education Edit or discuss this list.

[edit] Garishness

This template was far too garish, so I have modified it to something much more subtle whilst retaining the Northern Irish flavour about it. --Bob 21:59, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I had to revert this so that it fits with the Northern Ireland Portal. --Mal 23:21, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

It is far too garish, and the portal is worse. It hurts the eyes reading through such bright colours. It doesnt look professional at all. --Bob 23:50, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Bob's version did look nicer, and goes well with the England , Scotland and Wales templates, maybe some compromise can be reached? Kurando | ^_^ 08:28, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

The template was modelled on the templates that existed for the other portals of the Constituent countries of the UK.. so it already "goes well" with those.

The colours were changed as I had given the NI Portal a facelift in effort to improve that article for submission as a featured portal. The original design I created for the template can be found here --Mal 08:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Maybe you should look at the new design of those templates, as when Template:England topics was up for deletion, it was called big and ugly and was thus changed to something more discreet. The other constituent countries have already been changed, only NI holds out to ugliness. --Bob 15:56, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Well thanks for your constructive criticism! :/ The TfD (or AfD) discussion resulted in 'no consensus'. --Mal 17:15, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Popularity of sports

Hi, with regards to your statement of soccer being more popular than Gaelic football, I'm afraid I have to disagree. In most of Ireland, the majority of townlands have their own Gaelic football teams, and if not, then their parish does. Catholic Primary schools, as with Catholic grammar and high schools all have their own teams too. Drive a few miles through a rural area in anywhere but a town with a vast protestant majroity, and you're sure to see a Gaelic football field. Granted, if you mean by the amount of money that's spent on games, you may be right, as the IFA has a few proffessional players, but in terms of supporters, players, pitches, clubs or anything else you care to mention, Gaelic football is huge. Most townlands have at least seven male Gaelic football teams. Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, Under 16, Minors, Seniers, and reserves. Lavey in County Londonderry has twenty three Gaelic teams (that includes hurling and camogie, however), and that's fairly typical. In the Ulster Gaelic mens football final this year, between 70-80,000 supporters were there. In one of the largest ever soccer game in Northern Ireland (attendince wise) (n. Ireland vs. England last october), there were 14,000 supporters, and that was an International game! To press further, look at television coverage. Only International Northern Ireland games in soccer, are the games ever shown live, whereas even school Gaelic football matches are shown live occasionally on BBC (never mind the county matches!). Every single game that a county plays, the stadiums are at least half full. Compare that to the muddy pitches with a few hundred supporters that are seen as professional games in soccer. Sorry for going on a bit of a rant here, but I want to get the point across, that soccer is in no way, shape or form bigger in Northern Ireland than Gaelic football is. Looking forward to a well thought out reply. I have seen your edits and contributions before, and I know you're generally a logical man. Pauric 21:44, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Pauric to be honest I have no problem with the order in which the sports are mentioned. But the reason why makes no sense to me. Most members of the GAA, or supporters of various Gaelic games that I have known have also been fans of football teams (in the Irish League, Scottish League and English leagues) as well.

The largest football stadium in NI is Windsor Park I think. It has a capacity of some 20,000 (14,000 seated?).

I'm not sure that the IFA has more money than the GAA.. most of the teams in the Irish League, as far as I'm aware, are in financial ruins! We've seen two teams go into liquidation in the last ten years alone I think. But that doesn't take away from the popularity of the sport.

Football is apparently the most popular sport in the world, and I don't think it is any different for Northern Ireland. However, I have no figures to back this up with. If you can prove that Gaelic Football is more popular than International Football in NI (with citations), I'd be happy to see you revert the order of the sports in this template.

You mention attendance figures (though GAA stadia tend to be bigger and have more capacity I believe), and schoolboy teams etc. Schoolboy teams also exist for football. But I think, in the context of popularity, we'd have to stick with supporters. The vast majority of males that I have ever met during my life in Northern Ireland, support one football team in the Irish League or another, and usually one in either the Scottish league and/or English league too. Its not quite the same case in the reverse (probably an unfortunate effect of the political situation in Northern Ireland), in my experience. --Mal 22:07, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough. I guess most Gaelic game supporters watch soccer too, follow their country, or favorite club to some extent, whilst sadly (in my eyes), the same doesn't always hold true for people supporting their counties Gaelic team. It doesn't really matter what order they're in, you're right, but I just felt it was fairly clear that Gaelic football was more formally played here than soccer, and I wasn't sure if your edit was for a point of view reason or not, so I thought I should challenge it. No real dispute here.

[edit] Flag

I replaced the flag of the former government with an outline of Northern Ireland, as Keithgreer suggested at Talk:Northern Ireland#flag. However, another editor immediately reverted it with the comment see Northern Ireland. What do you think? --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 08:30, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Where is the consistency? Scotland, England and Wales (and UK and Cornwall) have universally accepted flags. Northern Ireland has not. That is inconsistent, and it is not the fault of Wikipedia. --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 18:59, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

The former flag used for Northern Ireland has no legal status, and shouldn't be used, it should be replaced with the outline of the map of the area.--padraig3uk 00:58, 10 October 2006 (UTC)