{"id":635768,"date":"2026-10-04T03:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T03:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/635768\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T03:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T03:52:11","slug":"we-are-not-doing-questions-like-this-sound-and-fury-continues-to-swirl-around-ireland-and-israel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/635768\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We are not doing questions like this\u2019: Sound and fury continues to swirl around Ireland and Israel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heimir Hallgrimsson<\/a> says the Irish have found the calm and quiet they need in the remote, rural surrounds of Backa Topola, the incongruously muted setting for the sound and fury that has swirled around Ireland versus Israel<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Irish squad<\/a> are also practising a traditional sort of mindfulness, with Hallgrimsson asking Conor Coventry to lead the Irish squad in becalming prayer before last week\u2019s game against Israel. He\u2019s become known as Brother Coventry as a result. <\/p>\n

Alas, the serenity did not last for the entirety of Hallgrimsson\u2019s pre-match press conference. Ten minutes in, an Israeli journalist who last week spoke emotively of \u201cHamas terrorists\u201d and the horrors of the October 7th attacks while asking Hallgrimsson about his time working in Qatar, read from a pre-prepared question. She referenced the attempted hijack of the FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv earlier this week, asking Hallgrimsson about the \u201cpeople you support, their ideology is based on murder.\u201d <\/p>\n

The FAI press officer sitting beside Hallgrimsson stepped in, saying \u201cwe are not doing any questions like this, we are doing football questions, we are concentrating on the football today.\u201d <\/p>\n

The journalist continued her question, with only some words audible between the press officer\u2019s responses. \u201cInnocent children, thousands of others …\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe respected your question in the last press conference, Heimir respected the question the last time,\u201d replied the FAI press officer. <\/p>\n

She eventually committed to a football question, asking Hallgrimsson if Finn Azaz would play tomorrow. Hallgrimsson said she would see tomorrow, and that he would not be revealing his team selection to the media. <\/p>\n

The microphone was passed to another Israeli journalist, who last week asked Hallgrimsson about Ireland\u2019s game against Nazi Germany in 1936. This time he made an allegation of racism against the Irish players, a claim that emerged in the Israeli media in the aftermath of last week\u2019s game in Hungary. The FAI press officer jumped in, telling the journalist the claim was \u201ccompletely untrue.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AdamAdam Idah and Troy Parrott during Ireland training at the TSC Arena in Ba\u010dka Topola. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to finish the press conference there,\u201d said the press officer, to which the journalist protested, \u201cI am doing my job, I am doing my job!\u201d Amid the din and scraping of chairs, the FAI press officer directed Hallgrimsson and the Irish journalists outside the door to conclude the interview. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have just broadcast a lie,\u201d said the FAI press officer while another FAI staff member took the microphone from the Israeli journalist. <\/p>\n

He protested that this was a press conference at which he has a right to ask questions, to which the FAI staff member responded that there is a difference between asking a question and making an accusation. <\/p>\n

The Uefa official on the ground, the venue broadcast operations manager, was not in the room for the press conference, much to the frustration of some FAI staff. <\/p>\n

Hallgrimsson and the Irish media then stood in an open area outside the press conference room, trying to resume the questions and some semblance of normality. The Irish manager was asked about player availability, having earlier said Dara O\u2019Shea<\/a> was doubtful as he attends the birth of his child. <\/p>\n

\u201cContractions were starting,\u201d said Hallgrimsson when he was brought to a halt by a shout nearby. \u201cDon\u2019t touch me!\u201d The Israeli journalist who made the racism allegation had followed us out to the hall, and appeared to be seeking access to the Irish huddle with Hallgrimsson, citing his employers\u2019 status as rights holders. He was engaged in a stand off with several FAI staff, and threatened to call the police. The FAI staff spoke without raising their voices, one of whom called for the Uefa official. <\/p>\n

Hallgrimsson and the Irish media were then whisked down the corridor, and ushered into a dressing room that had been commandeered for FAI use. The press conference was concluded without interruption there. The journalists stood in a tight huddle around Hallgrimsson, as the FAI\u2019s head of security stood over a laptop in the background, a stadium map and various official-looking documents spread out on the table before him. <\/p>\n

Hallgrimsson left to oversee the Irish training session. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the press conference flashpoint was spreading quickly online. An Israeli journalist recorded footage of the FAI official taking the microphone from the Israeli journalist, and the journalist\u2019s employer posted it online, calling it a \u201cdisgraceful incident.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"ChiedozieChiedozie Ogbene and John Egan during Ireland training at the TSC Arena in Ba\u010dka Topola. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

While their video included the allegation made in the question, the caption on the video said their journalist asked Irish players about \u201callegedly swearing at the Israeli players.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among the people to react to this video was Israel\u2019s ambassador to the EU, who posted \u201cthey respect freedom of the press provided you only ask the questions they find comfortable to answer.\u201d The FAI chose to publish the entire 13-minute press conference, unedited, to their YouTube channel. <\/p>\n

The media returned to the stadium at 5.30pm for the Israeli press conference, braced for further rancour. It began on a very pointed note, as the press officer first invited questions from the Israeli journalists \u201cas they didn\u2019t get many chances to ask questions in the Irish press conference.\u201d <\/p>\n

One Israeli questioner laid bare the residual anger at losing to Ireland last week by telling the coach that the players \u201cchoked\u201d despite the fact they were playing for \u201cour honour.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI know we disappointed the nation,\u201d the Israel manager Ran Ben Shimon said, vowing that Sunday\u2019s game would be different. <\/p>\n

The first Irish question quoted the communications director\u2019s comments of last week which called for the separation of sport and politics, and in that context asked if he condemned fans\u2019 chanting \u201cIDF\u201d during the Irish game. He replied that Israel is very proud of their armed forces and angrily rejected the premise that the IDF is a political entity. <\/p>\n

The press officer intervened, saying: \u201cI won\u2019t take your microphone away, but we will not answer your question.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Israeli FA also confirmed they had not yet contacted Uefa about the racism allegation made in the Irish press conference earlier, while the coach cited a blinkered focus on football to dodge the many contentious topics asked of him. <\/p>\n

The questions eventually wended their way to whether it might be best in the future for this simply to never happen again; that it might be time for both associations to go to Uefa and request an \u201camicable divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israel coach disagreed, citing personal experience to say that \u201cdivorce is not pleasant.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nor has been this enforced, fortnight-long union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heimir Hallgrimsson says the Irish have found the calm and quiet they need in the remote, rural surrounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[287097,42,6865,286628,43,6864,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-635768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dara-o-shea","tag-headlines","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ireland-v-israel","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}