Rory McIlroy in the modern Northern Ireland

Not since George Best in the 1960's has Northern Ireland had a sportsman with such global appeal, and it can be argued that in America Rory McIlroy is more well-known and more popular than Ireland's greatest footballer ever was. Ireland has always been a country of contrasts, contradictions, conflict and unrest, but it has been its struggle for identity among religion and ideology that has divided it bitterly in the last half-century, so being a public figure in that time has been a dangerous profession, especially if you are from Northern Ireland.

My first memories of conflict and trouble in Northern Ireland goes as far back as 1996 when the IRA bombed a shopping centre in Manchester, followed by the Omagh bombing in August 1998. We were on holiday in Cornwall when it was broadcast on the radio that a car bomb had exploded in the centre of the town of Omagh in County Tyrone. The bomb killed 29 and injured over 220. I was only 14 years of age at the time of that attack and the full history of the troubles was something that didn't really enter my thoughts at the time, and to be honest as an English kid on holiday Northern Ireland seemed a long, long way from where I lived.

I first went to Northern Ireland six years later in 2004, caddying for the summer with two friends from college at Royal County Down Golf Club in Newcastle, County Down. I was blown away by the sheer beauty of the place, it was breathtaking, and absolutely no different to England. The people were more friendly than I could have ever imagined, and I never felt uneasy or intimidated by the fact I was a 20-year-old Englishman in Northern Ireland. Newcastle is a seaside town with a population of 7,444, 69% of which are Catholic and 28% are Protestant, but the town was fortunate enough to escape the worst of the troubles. However each 12 July loyalist parades do take place in the town, I experienced these and it was made clear by the person we lived with that it was best we stayed inside the house that night.

We lodged with the assistant pro at the golf club, he was from Donegal in the Republic, so he knew exactly what he was talking about. I would go on to become close friends with him over the next decade and on my return for a second season caddying we traveled much of the island of Ireland and I experienced the vast contrasts between staunchly Catholic and Protestant towns. Still, there was only one incident which made me uneasy at all during the two years I caddied and lived in Northern Ireland, clearly knowing that we were English living in the house there was a night where youth's threw a few full beer cans at the window. They did no damage but it rattled me a bit.

But aside from that you really could be forgiven in 2004 and 2006 for not even knowing that there had even been any trouble in Northern Ireland. Of course I cannot speak personally about the experiences of a young Rory McIlroy, but he did grow up in a much more stable country than the one George Best grew up in and became a star in. McIlroy was aged 15 when I was caddying for the first season in Newcastle, I had heard of him but he was very much still a promising youngster at that stage. Being a youngster in Northern Ireland in that period of time was contrastingly good, the country was benefiting from a booming economy in the South and tourists were flocking to a country once as feared as the Middle East and Egypt are now. When George Best was 15 years of age it was 1961 and the Border Campaign by the IRA in an attempt to overthrow British rule and unite Ireland was at its height. 

The campaign was defeated, and between the years of 1962 and 1968 Northern Ireland had relative peace with little unrest, but as Best hit the heights of his career with the 1968 European Cup triumph at Wembley with Manchester United, trouble erupted in Derry and the period known as “The Troubles” began. Between 1969 and 2001 over 3,000 people lost their lives. George Best was Football's biggest star from 1963 to 1974, and because of this he was by far the biggest sports and cultural icon in Northern Ireland, and across the whole of Ireland. Despite Best being active during The Troubles he never had a dilemma of who to represent, he played football and in football Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland had been separate teams since 1924, so there was only one choice he could make. Best was from a strongly Protestant family, so there was never any chance of him turning his back on the nation of his birth due to religion.

In 2016 Rory McIlroy has a major dilemma in a very different situation. Golf will return to the Olympic Games for the first time in over a century and the current World Number One will have a very difficult and it can be argued impossible decision to make. As a Northern Ireland citizen McIlroy can compete for both Team GB and the Ireland Olympic Team, to some it is a straightforward decision based on the fact Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. It is anything but straightforward.

In Rugby, Ireland competes as one nation. In Cricket, Ireland competes as one nation. And, in Golf, amateurs compete for Ireland as one nation. Football is one of the very few sports which Ireland competes as two teams; Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Until McIlroy turned professional in 2007 he competed for Ireland in numerous team competitions across the world and received funding and coaching through the Golfing Union of Ireland, as well as competing in and winning numerous GUI competitions across the entire island.

The choice for Rory McIlroy is the hardest of his career and he as good as admitted it during the recent programme on BBC One Northern Ireland when he said “I just think being from where we're from, we're placed in a very difficult position, I feel Northern Irish and obviously being from Northern Ireland you have a connection to Ireland and a connection to the UK. If I could and there was a Northern Irish team I'd play for Northern Ireland. Play for one side or the other - or not play at all because I may upset too many people… Those are my three options I'm considering very carefully."

During 2012 he made unguarded comments to a journalist “out of frustration with the whole situation”, suggesting he would choose to represent Team GB because “he felt more British than Irish”. He quickly posted a written explanation and rebuttal on twitter, but it was an issue that was never going to go away. And the whole situation has been complicated further by the re-emergence of trouble in Belfast over the last 6 months. Riots in North Belfast, a murder of a prison officer on a motorway and violent attacks on the police and the Alliance Party following the removal of the Union Jack from Belfast City Hall, as well as a bomb planted underneath the car of a police chief have all shown that feelings still run very high between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland.

As I sit here writing this blog I am reading that last night 10 police officers were injured in Belfast during attacks that saw missiles and petrol bombs thrown. It is far from being a return to The Troubles but the atmosphere is tense and news stories of this kind make McIlroy's decision and the timing of his decision even more difficult and it needs to be handled delicately by Northern Ireland's greatest sporting icon since George Best.

He has become a genuine role model for young people from Northern Ireland and he accepts his position with typical grace and honesty, returning to his home golf club at Holywood every year for the Rory McIlroy Classic to hold a clinic for aspiring golfers. His conduct also cannot be in question and he is a true ambassador for the country of Northern Ireland, but it seems that this still doesn't make his decision any easier. Despite Northern Ireland being in a much better place than it was when George Best was at his peak, tensions still remain and especially over questions of nationality, identity and allegiance. It seems McIlroy will have to live with this.