Ireland\u2019s football match against Qatar was stalled by pro-Palestinian protests as pressure builds on upcoming games against Israel.<\/p>\n
By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters<\/p>\n
Published On 29 May 202629 May 2026<\/p>\n
Republic of Ireland midfielder \u200cJamie McGrath has warned that the controversy surrounding Nations League games against Israel could intensify after their friendly win over Qatar in \u2060Dublin was disrupted by pro-Palestinian protests.<\/p>\n
Ireland are set to host Israel at Dublin\u2019s Aviva Stadium on October 4, \u2060while a September 27 fixture designated as an Israel home match is expected to be staged at a neutral venue.<\/p>\n
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Qatar\u2019s match against Ireland was part of their preparations for this summer\u2019s World Cup, where they begin their campaign against Switzerland on June 13. Ireland failed to qualify for the event.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, leading Irish footballers joined with celebrities in a campaign \u200ccalling for a boycott of Israel\u2019s matches, but Ireland\u2019s governing body for football (FAI) has said it will go ahead with the fixtures and that a refusal to play could lead to disciplinary measures.<\/p>\n
Tennis balls featuring the Palestinian flag were thrown on to the pitch in Thursday\u2019s friendly, \u2060causing the match to be halted twice, \u2060and McGrath expected more protests to follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s going to heat up over the next few months. We (the players) don\u2019t want to be put into \u2060a position,\u201d he told the BBC\u2019s Northern Ireland bureau after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a unique scenario. The people [protesters], we have to listen to them, they have the right to do what they do, as long as it\u2019s done in a peaceful way, that\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, the powers above us can work something out or use it for the greater good, I\u2019m not sure what the process will be as it heats up.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re footballers and we don\u2019t want to be caught in this, but sometimes we might have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November last year, 93 percent of FAI members voted \u200cfor \u200cits leadership to press UEFA to suspend the Israel Football Association from European competitions.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a protest at the Dail (Irish parliament).<\/p>\n
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has also regularly weighed in on the debate and, ahead of the Qatar match, said his players must \u201cwin this war\u201d against Israel in the upcoming matches.<\/p>\n
McGrath was pressed further on the matter as to whether he believed a resolution would be found ahead of the matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I\u2019ve no idea,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously touched on it a few days, I\u2019m sure as it heats up, it might be taken out of our hands, I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s football match against Qatar was stalled by pro-Palestinian protests as pressure builds on upcoming games against Israel.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1813,1128,61,60,3410,45231,1196,43,4268,4444,850,112,102024],"class_list":["post-472790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-qatar","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}