When it comes to battles with our old enemy England on the sporting field, we Irish really do like it when we get the better of them.
Whether it’s at Twickenham at the weekend — when Ireland steamrollered England for another famous rugby victory — or on a football field in Stuttgart all of 34 years ago, any win over our near neighbours makes it into legendary status here.
Given that Ireland has less than a tenth of the population of England, a win is always sweeter for our green-clad underdogs.
And now a new study has shown once and for all how Irish fans really do savour beating England more than they do us.
The poll from Paddy Power has further stoked the rivalry between the English and Irish just before the Cheltenham Festival — revealing we really do care more about the rivalry than the English.
The results of the poll mirror the message carried by actor Colm Meaney, where the Hollywood star bemoaned the fact that the English “don’t care as much as we do” about the rivalry between the nations.
Just days after the Six Nations clash at Twickenham, Irish and British horse racing trainers are set to go head-to-head yet again at Cheltenham for the prestigious Prestbury Cup, a trophy given to the country with the most winners.
Ireland are overwhelming favourites (1/20) to retain the cup they won so dominantly, 23 wins to five, in 2021.
In fact, trainer Willie Mullins is 11/10 to have more winners than the whole British (4/6) cohort combined!
The Irish bookmaker carried out the survey of 1,000 horse racing fans split equally across the UK and Ireland, specifically for the Cheltenham Festival.
All were asked about their favourite sporting rivalries.
According to the poll, conducted by Bounce Insights, 51 per cent of Irish fans consider England to be their greatest rivalry in rugby, with New Zealand coming miles back in second place with 22 per cent of the vote.
And a whopping 72 per cent consider England to be their greatest rival in football.
But, the animosity isn’t reflected across the sea. In fact, when asked who they considered their greatest rival in rugby, Ireland actually came bottom of the pile as far as the Brits were concerned!
Up to 23 per cent of English fans consider New Zealand to be their biggest rival in rugby, 20 per cent said Wales, with Scotland in third with 14 per cent of the vote and France and Australia tied on 13 per cent.
Only eight per cent of English fans consider Ireland to be their biggest rival in rugby, just behind South Africa (nine per cent).
And the results for football showed a similar trend.
Despite an overwhelming majority in Ireland wanting to bash the baked bean lovers into the back of beyond, just seven per cent of English fans consider Ireland their big rival.
Germany came top with 52 per cent of the vote, with Brazil (13 per cent) and France (12 per cent) coming in second and third.
Respondents on both sides of the pond were also asked what their overall favourite rivalry is, and this also showed there was more enthusiasm for Ireland v England on the Irish side.
Over a third (36 per cent) of Irish fans picked an answer that involved Ireland vs England in some way (21 per cent said Ireland v England in rugby, nine per cent in football and six per cent in horseracing).
However, only 25 per cent of English fans picked similarly (eight per cent Ireland v England rugby, eight per cent football and nine per cent racing).
But they did agree on one thing — Liverpool vs Manchester United was the No.1 rivalry Irish and English sports fan were in harmony on.
Rachael Kane, spokesperson for Paddy Power, said: “Well, it looks like Colm Meaney was right.
“The English just don’t care about the Ireland vs England rivalry as much as we do.
“But who cares. We got the party started on their home turf at Twickenham, we’ll finish it at Cheltenham!”
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