{"id":485830,"date":"2026-06-06T07:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485830\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:55:08","slug":"john-oshea-says-ireland-team-will-be-100-behind-seamus-coleman-on-israel-matches-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485830\/","title":{"rendered":"John O\u2019Shea says Ireland team will be \u2018100% behind\u2019 S\u00e9amus Coleman on Israel matches \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the FAI<\/a> continues to weigh up its options for this autumn\u2019s Nations League meetings with Israel<\/a>, Republic of Ireland assistant manager John O\u2019Shea<\/a> has echoed the sentiments of defender S\u00e9amus Coleman<\/a>, calling Israel\u2019s war in Gaza \u201charrowing\u201d. <\/p>\n

The national team are under increasing public pressure to boycott the back-to-back meetings, the first on September 27th and then a return fixture on October 3rd. That second match is the subject of continued debate, with the FAI holding a board meeting on Thursday to discuss its options, a move to a neutral venue being one potential outcome. <\/p>\n

Last week Coleman won praise when he opened up on the issue<\/a>, saying he \u201cknows the difference between right and wrong\u201d before taking aim at higher authorities \u2013 most likely the Irish Government and Uefa<\/a> \u2013 in arguing the Israel debate \u201cshould not have landed on our toes\u201d. Subsequent protests from Ireland fans during Thursday\u2019s meeting with Qatar at the Aviva Stadium elevated the problem. O\u2019Shea was effusive in backing his defender. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be 100 per cent behind S\u00e9amus\u2019s answer, and fully respect any of the players\u2019 opinions on the scenario,\u201d said O\u2019Shea in Montreal this week. \u201cIt\u2019s only going to get stronger and stronger, that opinion, the public opinion, and you\u2019re fully aware of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat S\u00e9amus said, being a dad, I have three kids myself. Nobody wants to see innocent kids being involved in scenarios like that. Nobody. It\u2019s not right, and listen, the FAI have made their statement on it. Heimir [Hallgr\u00edmsson] has spoken about it, and I\u2019d echo that sentiment as well. Obviously [Uefa] acted on Russia, they haven\u2019t acted on Israel. We fully appreciate it\u2019s not right. Ultimately it\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boycotting the matches could see Ireland hit with Uefa punishment and O\u2019Shea, like Hallgr\u00edmsson, would prefer not to suffer sporting sanctions. But he\u2019s aware of public sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to lose any sporting advantage. But we totally understand the nation\u2019s feelings, and for us to be involved in this scenario, it\u2019s not right. Any sanctions that affect Irish football, in the sense of sporting sanctions, losing games, having defeats, giving an advantage to other teams, it\u2019s not right. Hopefully the authorities, and the Government, Uefa, can resolve it for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Government figures have consistently suggested the game should go ahead, both Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan and Charlie McConalogue, Minister of State for Sport, have said they will not attend. O\u2019Shea appeared to take issue with such mixed messaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, it\u2019s a strange one,\u201d he added. \u201cYou\u2019re thinking if the Government are making that statement, to say the game should go ahead, et cetera, et cetera … I suppose the public will make their feelings known on comments like that too. We have to respect everyone\u2019s opinion on it, people\u2019s right to peaceful protests as well. We fully understand that, because like I mentioned, innocent children being involved in scenarios, it\u2019s harrowing stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the FAI continues to weigh up its options for this autumn\u2019s Nations League meetings with Israel, Republic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13446,3409,4700,61,60,3410,46617,1842,48229,112,30918],"class_list":["post-485830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-gaza-strip","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-john-o-shea","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-seamus-coleman","tag-sports","tag-uefa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485830","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=485830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}