How many of those useless idiots, their manager and Irish FA officials have ever visited Israel and the Palestinian territories? How many expressed their abhorrence at the acts of terror perpetrated by Hamas against Israel and its own people? How many have ever spoken out about the routine acts of terror for which their own countrymen have been responsible over decades?

Perhaps Ireland’s footballers don’t follow other sports, but six weeks ago the country’s cricketers played Afghanistan, a country governed by the Taliban, under whose rule females have been systematically driven from public life. We noted no Irish objections to that sporting fixture.

And what about Eurovision in which Ireland refused to participate this year because of Israel’s presence. Azerbaijan competed despite its military conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh and subsequent ethnic cleansing of virtually its entire Armenian population. Where was Irish opposition to that? This, incidentally, is the same country that sent condolences on Hitler’s death.

For most of the relatively unknown Irish footballers, this was one of the few occasions their names will be known outside Ireland. Perhaps had they really wanted to behave like true heroes, they might have attempted to engage with their Israeli counterparts to discuss their concerns and try to understand more about the underlying reasons for what is happening in Israel and Gaza, but perhaps their intelligence doesn’t extend further than kicking a football.

It is therefore unlikely that any of them would even be aware of the true heroism of four Israelis and an Indian pilot who prevented the deaths of 174 passengers on Wednesday when they overcame a terrorist pilot on an Israel-bound plane. The type of idiotic behaviour in the name of sport that we witnessed on Sunday, and presumably will see again when the teams meet again this weekend, lends legitimacy to the kamikaze-like actions of that pilot and suicide bombers who, like Ireland’s idiotic footballers, not only do nothing to help bring about peace in the Middle East but continue to derail any possible chance in the foreseeable future.

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