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If Ireland beat Scotland in their Rugby World Cup clash on Saturday, expect the Stade de France to erupt into a chorus of “Zombie” loud enough to wake the dead.
Far from sleepwalking towards success, Irish rugby’s resurrection over the past decade has been down to cold, hard tactics that have put the team — now ranked the best in the world — among the tournament favourites.
The Irish Rugby Football Union is proud of the sport’s integration — players are drawn from the Republic and Northern Ireland. But the spectacle of tens of thousands of Irish rugby supporters belting out their side’s unofficial anthem “Zombie” at the tournament hosted by France has unexpectedly pierced its harmonious image.
The adoption of the 1994 song by Irish indie band The Cranberries has highlighted intensifying debate about the island’s political and cultural divisions. Support for a reunited or “new” Ireland is growing and Sinn Féin, political heirs of the Irish Republican Army that waged a three decades-long war to end British rule in Northern Ireland, is the most popular party north and south.
“Zombie” was a protest song after the IRA’s 1993 bombings in Warrington, England, that killed two boys aged three and 12. Some commenters on social media have called out the fans’ use of the song as a display of southern ignorance of the region’s conflict, the Troubles, because of lyrics including “it’s not me, it’s not my family”.
Cranberries’ lead singer Dolores O’Riordan said she was not taking sides and the song expressed disgust at atrocities committed in the name of Ireland “by some prick, some airhead, who thought he was making a point”. O’Riordan died five years ago.
Many fans embraced the sentiment. “Give us a song that actually means something to people,” said David McWilliams, an economist.
The IRFU promotes an apolitical identity. Staying clear of the Republic’s militaristic national anthem, its national players sing “Ireland’s Call”, a bland paean that avoids offending northern players from a traditionally unionist background, before each match.
But ever since the sport’s governing body published its “Plan Ireland” in 2013, the united team has been on a roll.
“Rugby is an example of planning, strategy, execution — something we’ve never really been good at before,” McWilliams said. “It has been an extraordinary transformation in the last 10 years.”
The IRFU focused on better governance under a centralised approach to managing players and developing talent not just at a national level but also across Ireland’s four professional provincial club teams: Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connaught.
The blueprint set targets, including winning the Six Nations tournament against England, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy once every four years. Ireland clinched the title in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2023: the last two wins were prestigious “grand slams” in which they beat every other nation.
“People are now used to seeing their country competing to win,” said former international Hugo MacNeill, who attributes some of the side’s success to a strategic focus on a “conveyor belt of talent”.
“Ireland won’t always win the [Six Nations] tournament or Leinster won’t always win the European Cup but they’ll always be competitive because of this structural change,” he said.
Northern Irish fan Neil Goodman, who was in the stands for Ireland’s victory a fortnight ago over reigning champions South Africa and took days to regain his voice after joining the chorus of “Zombie”, remembers the side “used to get beaten every time” in the 1990s.
Under English head coach Andy Farrell “this is the best Irish team we’ve ever had and the structures of the IRFU are second to none”, he said.
Insiders say the centralised approach pays dividends on and off the pitch, with oversight of provincial and national fixtures ensuring Irish players face fewer gruelling matches in a season than in other nations. Lucrative tax breaks for Irish players who finish their careers at home help retain talent.
The IRFU had income of €116mn for its past financial year. In stark contrast, rugby in England is in crisis on and off the pitch.
England’s RFU had £189mn in revenues in 2021-22 and made a £15mn operating profit. But its national side is languishing sixth in the world rankings and its top clubs are losing an average of £4mn each a year. Three have been suspended from the nation’s premiership amid financial difficulties.
Ireland, however, have yet to convert their strategy into World Cup success, having never advanced beyond the quarterfinals. Fans are now daring to hope they will be singing “Zombie” all the way to the final on October 28.
Whatever happens, rugby’s peacemaking role is secure, said MacNeill, who organised a “peace international” match in 1996 two years before Northern Ireland’s landmark Good Friday Agreement.
“What rugby does [in Ireland] is bring people together.”
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