Like most Irish people I follow a British team - in my case Chelsea. I don't really have a League of Ireland team in a convenient distance to me though.

Why do you support Chelsea? Did you start supporting them when they started to win things? Or...

Everyone in my class in school either supported Man United, Celtic or Liverpool. I just chose them to be different I suppose, it was around the time of the Abramovich takeover but I didn't really know what that meant for the club.

Convenient eh? ;)

Anything's better than Liverpool though to be fair.

To be honest I really just couldn't be arsed getting a bus into Dublin town on a wet and windy Friday night to watch a bunch of League Two-equivalent players hoove balls down to each other in practically empty, miserable grounds. I have a lot of respect for the players though, I don't know how they get by on such meagre wages.

It costs 50p to get into a game by my local team, but they suck so even that's a waste of money.

Because who REALLY wants to support a League of Ireland team?? :D The standards in our domestic leagues are dreadful, it's no wonder everybody supports the English teams. I was brought up a Man United supporter by my dad but i've pretty much lost interest in the past few years.

My local team is Athlone Town F.C. who have been languishing in the first division for about 13 years now. The last game i went to was about 2 years ago and it was like watching paint dry, the most entertaining thing about being at the match was winding up the away supporters with offensive chants. The club's moment of glory was in 1975 when they drew 0-0 with AC Milan at home in the European Cup. My dad was at that match and one of my college lecturers was in the starting eleven. They got hammered in the away leg unfortunately.

I agree with Zero1986. What has to be borne in mind is that most people in the Irish provinces actually live in fairly isolated areas, meaning getting back and forth to games is a costly and time-consuming process, one which is especially worthless considering how low the standard of football is. My local team are the mighty Finn Harps, whose most famous feat was losing 10-0 to Brian Clough's Derby and have since then been a yo-yo team in the League Of Ireland.

I think Ireland's proximity to Britain is both a blessing and a curse. Any talented player normally leaves Ireland at an early age to play in England which deprives the league of talented players. Also instead of having a season ticket to a local team most football fans would rather just go over to Anfield or Old Trafford once a year.

It is a bit embarrassing though when I claim to be a die-hard Chelsea fan for years yet have never been to a match.